2023 Elections Candidate Statements

Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2023 Performing Arts Section election. Please take some time to review their candidate statements and get to know them so you can make an informed choice. 

You will be voting for two Co-chairs, each for a two-year term.

The ballot is now open through August 13, 2023, and every PAS member's vote counts!  The ballot is available under your SAA user profile or via this link. 

Elizabeth K. Batiuk

elizabeth.k.batiuk@vanderbilt.edu

Elizabeth K. Batiuk is the Curator for Performing Arts Collections at Vanderbilt University. She has a doctoral degree in ethnomusicology and a master’s degree in information, both from the University of Michigan. Her interests include reparative description, preservation of radio collections, non-custodial and community archiving, and documenting performance as part of everyday life. Elizabeth has served on the PAS committee over the past year and produced a membership survey to better understand the interests of the membership at large. She is interested in working on programming that addresses the interests of the Performing Arts Section membership and in creating a space to inspire and support members in their work and careers. Elizabeth looks forward to creating opportunities for networking, supporting students, and sharing ideas about current trends and best practices for archivists working with Performing Arts collections.

Helice Koffler

helicekoffler@nypl.org

Helice Koffler has had extensive experience with preserving and providing access to performing arts archives and special collections. She is currently responsible for cataloging rare materials for the New York Public Library. Prior to the pandemic, she was the Processing Archivist for the Shubert Archive and editor of its annual publication, The Passing Show. Other recent employment includes stints with the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she worked as a cataloger for the National Endowment for the Humanities grant project “Research and Outreach: Increasing representation of Indigenous American, Hispanic American, Asian American and Pacific Islander artists in The Met’s Thomas J. Watson Library.”

Helice received a B.A. with a double major in Art History and English, as well as an M.A. in English from Hunter College, City University of New York. She earned her M.L.I.S. at the Palmer School of Library & Information Science, Long Island University. She is a Certified Archivist and has worked as a freelance archival consultant.

Statement of Interest

While I have worked directly with performing arts archives only intermittently, I have continued to support my passion for preserving and providing access to these materials through my activity with professional organizations like SAA, the Theatre Library Association, and SIBMAS. Within SAA, I am concluding a term as a Member-at-Large with the Design Records Section and also recently served on the Steering Committee of the Description Section. I am no stranger to the Performing Arts Section, having served previously as Co-Chair and Newsletter Editor. I would be delighted to return in this leadership capacity and help foster strong connections with other SAA sections, allied organizations, and scholars in the field.

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