OKLAHOMA CITY- In a south Oklahoma City office park, what might appear as just another business in a large maze of commercial proprieties actually contains a unique repository of items link to America’s musical tradition. This building is the location of the national headquarters of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and home to the ACDA Archives - a collection of a variety of media all focused on the ACDA and on Choral Music as a whole.
According to the ACDA website, the ACDA started in 1959 with the primary goal of promoting excellence in Choral Music and also promoting choral music’s presence in American culture. The ACDA has membership in the thousands and has seven regional and 50 state chapters.
When the Archive started over 30 years ago, it mainly consisted of several cardboard boxes. The situation was pretty dire - according to one report, “Anyone searching for materials was forced to dig through boxes until she happened upon the desired item. It was the proverbially case of ‘searching for a needle in a haystack.’” Last year the ACDA Archives received a grant from the National Archives Administration and Records Administration . This grant allowed the ACDA to hire two interns and a preservation specialist to help shape the archives into some order by sorting the Archive into 18 separate collections. This task started in 2009 and finished by summer 2010. The next goal for the ACDA Archives is to create records for all the artifacts using the MARC system, as well as creating an electronic finding aid so items can easily be accessed through computers.
The main goal of the Archive is to preserve items related to Choral music as a whole; however, the archive also chronicles the progress of the ACDA, including information on their officers as well as annual conventions. The Archive contains varieties of papers and photographs detailing the ACDA since their beginning in 1957. Archive items include newsletters, membership histories, conference reports as well as photographs of Chapter members and ACDA events. The archive also contains choral sheet music as well as recordings of Choral Music performances over the years.
The ACDA Archives has also made some of its collection available through the ACDA website including the ACDA Pictorial Archive and also documents detailing the organizational history of the ACDA. The ACDA site also features the ACDA radio which has 5 separate stations that plays a variety of choral music.
While the collection is closed to the general public, access is available to researchers who make appointments ahead of time with ACDA Archivist, Christina Prucha. It is free to research the archives but the cost of duplications of materials range from 15 cents for photocopies to 20 dollars for CD copies.
The Archives are open Monday through Friday 8am-5pm For more information contact Christina Prucha at 405-232-8161 or visit ACDA.org.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
ACDA Picture of the Day :
ACDA Founders: Kansas City, 1950.
Photgraphed by Walter Emig
From left toright are J. Clark Rhodes, Elwood Keister,Curtis Hansen, Harry Robert Wilson,R. Wayne Hugoboom, and Archie Jones.Warner Imig was the photographer.
Photgraphed by Walter Emig
From left toright are J. Clark Rhodes, Elwood Keister,Curtis Hansen, Harry Robert Wilson,R. Wayne Hugoboom, and Archie Jones.Warner Imig was the photographer.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
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