HISTORY OF THE ARTIST ARCHIVE

TAA was founded in 2002 when filmmaker Robert DiMaio was commissioned by the “School Construction Authority” (NYCSCA) to document a public art installation.

This project was funded by the “Percent for Art program”. Subsequently Robert DiMaio submitted a proposal to document (in Short-film form) all the art installed in public schools. The thinking was: On the first day of every school year, students would be taken on a tour of the hallways where art was on public display. The visit with the art would be follows by a short film about the meaning of the art and the history of the artist. The impact: Each day students walks pass the art, they would be reminded of aspects of the artists lives, how creativity, imagination, inspirations overcame challenges, and possibly led to successes etc. The libraries in each school would contain a permanent archive of info about it own collection--hence The Artist Archive would initiate contact with education institutions around the world, identify art existing in the their building, produce a tiny film, provide Q&A curriculum and library support. Historians would be engaged to discuss non-living artists.

Since 2002 TAA has produced 58 short films on a diverse assortment of visual artists. We have also formed partnerships with the prestigious Juilliard School for the purpose of producing original music for each film. Vimeo reported as of November 2015 that 8, 217 people have reviewed Taa films on-line: Vimeo verification of TAA film viewers

We have proposed a series of educational projects around the screening of the films: see-attached list of projects: TAA list of projects.