THE LIBRARY COUNCIL

The Museum of Modern Art's Library Council is a group of approximately one hundred members whose contributions benefit the historic and contemporary research collections in MoMA's Library and Museum Archives. Acknowledged as one of the world's most important scholarly resources, these collections are made available to an international community of scholars and readers in the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Center.

A central focus of the Library Council is its artist's publication program. At least every other year, the Library Council publishes a specially printed artist's book or edition that is intended to shed light on the Museum collections and to give artists an opportunity to experiment with the book as an art form. As a benefit of participation, members receive a copy of the edition published during their membership year. To date, the Council has published projects by Beatriz Milhazes, Vija Celmins and Eliot Weinberger, Gabriel Orozco, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Olafur Eliasson, Doug Aitken, Yun-Fei Ji, and Abelardo Morell with Ted Muehling. Forthcoming projects include a hand-printed book evoking the monsoon rains, by the south-Indian artist Ranjani Shettar (2012); a limited-edition boxed set of photographs and postcards representing a real/imaginary correspondence between the French artist Annette Messager and the Belgian writer-photographer Jean-Philippe Toussaint (2012–13); and a new artist's book by the American artist R.H. Quaytman (2013–14).

During the year the Council hosts several gatherings, often held in private homes and libraries, but also including walkthroughs of exhibitions held at MoMA and outside institutions.

Annual dues for the Council are $2,500. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the program in greater detail, please contact Milan Hughston, Chief of Library and Museum Archives, at milan_hughston@moma.org, or May Castleberry, Editor, Contemporary Editions at maycastleberry@gmail.com.