Sarah Dziedzic

As the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation’s Oral Historian, I produce oral history interviews for the Frankenthaler Foundation Archives, which contain papers, photographs, ephemera, and publications relating to Helen Frankenthaler’s life and career as an artist.

The interviews I conduct are part of the third series of oral history interviews the Foundation has undertaken since shortly after the artist’s death in 2011. Working with the Archives, I will help organize and prepare the full collection of oral history interviews for researchers over the coming years.

In the role of Oral History Program Manager, I conduct interviews for the New York Preservation Archive Project that document grassroots historic preservation movements in New York City. Emphasizing the goal of public engagement around place-based history, I help develop programming that features narrators, and ensure full-length interviews are available to the public in the oral history collection.

As a Teaching Artist in the Apollo Theater Education Program, I develop curriculum and teach lessons related to oral history for K-12 students. In a residency at the World Journalism Preparatory School, a public high school in Queens, NY, I guided students through the design and production of a community-based oral history project that culminated in an interview archive and public theater performance.

As Storm King’s Oral Historian, I conducted the inaugural group of oral history interviews for the Storm King Oral History Program, which features interviews with artists in their collection, including Alice Aycock, Lynda Benglis, John Knight, and Maya Lin, among others.

I designed the Oral History Program’s policies and procedures, and, working closely with Storm King’s Archivist, directed the development of the new website to share the collection. I also oversaw the creation of short videos that use archival images to illustrate interview content, which are easily viewed and shared.

In 2018, I presented on my role in the design of the Storm King Oral History Program for the annual meetings of both the Society of American Archivists and the Oral History Association.

Working as a Photo Researcher in the New Museum’s archives, I conducted a large scale project to select and organize photographs to illustrate important exhibitions and events for the publication of 40 Years New, a book on the New Museum’s 40-year history. A corresponding historical exhibition featured ephemera uncovered in this search.

In advance of its 50th anniversary, I organized an institutional history project while working as Wave Hill’s Oral Historian. The project included interviews with members of its founding family, past directors and board chairs, and its world-renowned gardener.

The Oral History Practitioner Worker-led Survey & Solidarity Project is part of a larger project to bring the field of oral history into conversation with other worker-led, emergent, and participant-driven movements in adjacent fields, such as libraries, archives, and museums.

As the Primary Strategist and Researcher, I was awarded funding to conduct this work through a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Oral History Association.

The Oral History Worker Survey, one program of the project, collected data on practitioner demographics, experiences with workplace discrimination and inclusivity, availability and quality of disability accommodations, options for caregivers and those experiencing burnout, and other measures that shed light on peer worker conditions. Survey data, analysis, and resulting recommendations for improving the landscape of oral history labor are published in the Oral History Worker Survey White Paper.

The project also curates an online library, Labor Resources for Cultural Workers, which includes publications, networks, and resources on organizing for better working conditions in the cultural work sector.

As an Educator and Co-Program Developer of Equity Budgeting, I co-teach workshops and create curriculum, resources, and publications in collaboration with peer practitioner, Jess Lamar Reece Holler.

Equity Budgeting is a praxis that centers economic justice in community-based cultural work and insists that economic justice is essential for racial justice. It is a full ecology approach for honoring the labor of community partners and cultural workers by demanding equitable pay for all who are involved.

As the Oral Historian for Village Preservation, I continue the tradition of interviewing important figures and activists living in Greenwich Village, the East Village, the West Village, and the South Village. Adding to their collection each year, I create transcripts, summaries, and short audio clips for their online collection.

As the Project Manager and Lead Interviewer for the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality Oral History Project, I led the documentation of the history of feminist research, curriculum, and activities at Columbia University. I conducted interviews with faculty and former students, organized and collected research materials, oversaw a small team of student employees, and developed a framework for sharing the project's progress and findings online.

I presented on this project at the 2015 Oral History Association annual meeting.

As a Researcher for the Jenny Holzer Studio, I reviewed and summarized government documents as the basis for new work in “The Redaction Paintings” series.

As a Project Consultant to the Estate of Félix González-Torres, I advised on the development of an oral archive of information about the artwork of Félix González-Torres (1957–1996).

In Context Journal is an independent platform for oral historical work and thoughtful explorations of what it means to listen, to speak, and to be heard. As a Co-Founding Editor, I helped developed the concept, solicit submissions, liaise with contributors, and edit content.

As the Project Coordinator for the Carnegie Corporation of New York Oral History, which was housed at the Columbia University Center for Oral History Research, I administered a large-scale project on the Carnegie Corporation’s philanthropic endeavors under the leadership of Vartan Gregorian. Areas of research included efforts to develop libraries and library resources in Africa, supporting individual scholarship on global topics, and strengthening civic education and immigrant integration in the US.

I presented on this project at the 2013 Oral History Society conference, which focused on institutional and organizational oral histories, held at the University of Sussex, Brighton UK.

Working as a Developmental Editor for Seven Stories Press, I helped finalize the content for William Noguera’s Escape Artist: Memoir of a Visionary Artist on Death Row. The memoir won awards from the American Booksellers Association and Indie Bound.

Working as a Developmental Editor and Copy Editor for author Joel Kovel, I assisted in the publication by Autonomedia Press of Lost Traveller’s Dream: A Memoir. I co-presented on the memoir at the 2017 Left Forum.

Joel Kovel (1936–2018) was an influential author of books on race, spirituality, anti-Zionism, and radical ecosocialism.