The Art of Innovation: Latest News and Developments from ART | library deco
ART | library deco Honored with Excellence in Digital Libraries Award at Texas Digital Libraries Conference
Austin, TX — May 22, 2025 — The Texas Digital Library (TDL) is proud to present the Excellence in Digital Libraries Award to ART | library deco, honored for its outstanding contributions to digital curation, access, and the preservation of African American cultural heritage. The award was formally announced at the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries, held May 20–22, 2025.
Founded in 2013 by Dr. kYmberly Keeton, ART | library deco (www.artlibrarydeco.space) is a visionary digital platform that curates, preserves, and uplifts African American culture through archives, art, literature, photography, and community memory.
With a focus on innovation and cultural integrity, ART | library deco leads several significant initiatives, including:
- Texas Black Artists Web Collective
- Hip Hop Lib Guide
- Canvases Digital Zine
- A growing in-house archive of Black creative and historical works
By centering the work of Black Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (BGLAM), ART | library deco is reshaping the future of digital librarianship, ensuring that Black stories are not only preserved but actively celebrated.
In addition to its digital reach, ART | library deco is currently developing a physical space in Fort Worth, Texas, supported by the Friends of ART | library deco, a Texas-based nonprofit dedicated to advancing the platform’s mission through fundraising, volunteerism, and community advocacy.
The Texas Digital Library Awards Committee congratulates ART | library deco for its visionary leadership, cultural impact, and unwavering commitment to representing African American history through digital innovation.
A world of possibilities
ART | Library Deco Joins the Spring 2025 Museums for Digital Learning Cohort as a Community Partner
Austin, Texas – [March 2025] – ART | Library Deco is thrilled to announce our acceptance into the prestigious Spring 2025 Museums for Digital Learning (MDL) Cohort. This partnership marks a significant milestone for our organization as we expand our commitment to providing innovative and accessible educational resources. As a newly minted community partner, ART | Library Deco is excited to contribute to MDL’s mission of enhancing learning experiences through engaging digital content.
MDL is dedicated to offering high-quality activities designed by museums that can be seamlessly integrated into classroom settings or home-based study programs. All content created within this collaboration aligns with national educational standards across various subjects, ensuring that it meets the diverse needs of learners. The participating organizations are committed to fostering a love of learning and creativity, embracing the power of digital technology to facilitate education.
One of the standout features of MDL is that all content is available free of charge. This open-access approach empowers educators, students, and families to utilize valuable resources without financial barriers. Additionally, the easily shareable content can be integrated into learning management systems or distributed via social media, making it an invaluable tool for promoting learning in various environments.
As ART | Library Deco embarks on this exciting partnership with MDL, we look forward to engaging our community and leveraging the unique resources from museums across the country. Together, we aspire to inspire curiosity and creativity in learners of all ages and backgrounds.
For more information about ART | Library Deco and our partnership with Museums for Digital Learning, please visit our archived and original resources at: https://museumsfordigitallearning.org/resourcekit/320.
Texas Association of Museums Conference
Chief Library Curator of ART | library deco, Keeton, wins 2nd Place in TAM 2024 Doctoral Art Academic Showcase for a poster presentation on a future virtual autoethnographic case study, Case Study Notes In Progress, A Post-Painterly Autoethnography: Parsing an African American Virtual Art Library Gallery. The utilization of information work using an autoethnographic perspective serves as a valuable tool in comprehending the essential requirements of users for an African American virtual art library, gallery, and repository. Data collection will begin in 2025, beginning with the art library user survey.
The Creative CoLab Debuts: Relational Possibilities
The Creative CoLab, kYmberly Keeton, and Dana Reijerkerk of ART | library deco are 2023 LEADING Fellow Alumni of Drexel University and Temple University Libraries. They developed “Relational Possibilities,” a digital community archive project exploring community relations and futurist realities of Indigeneity and Blackness in Philadelphia through art, writing, and public art. The project includes original datasets, AI imagery, video games, a podcast, and virtual museums. Their work has been showcased at the 2024 Bit Curator’s Forum and the University of North Texas Scholarly Research Series.
POWRR Institutes
Since its inception in 2012, the Preserving digital Objects With Restricted Resources (Digital POWRR) Project has endeavored to make digital preservation more accessible to a wider range of cultural heritage professionals.
Digital POWRR was recently awarded funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to put on five 2.5 day professional training institutes. ART | library deco has been accepted into the June 5-7, 2024 cohort at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK. The library received travel funds from the DPOE Network at Pratt University to attend the institute.
Internet Archive
ART | library deco has been awarded funding from the Internet Archive’s Vault Grant to preserve collections of digital materials. They will be using their newly established repository, VAULT, for this purpose. The art library plans to transition its OMEKA repository platform to VAULT starting in the summer of 2024.
Community Webs
ART | library deco has been selected as a 2021-2025 Community Webs Partner, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The library’s web archiving collection focuses on the Texas Black Artists Collective, helping preserve online materials that reflect on Black artists and their contributions to society.
People Change Museums Podcast
Dr. Sophie Frost from the University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies discusses the role of museums in shaping human values in the new decade with kYmberly Keeton from ART | library deco. The podcast features interviews with museum experts and explores the impact of technology on this mission.
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