2025 Election: Candidate Statements

2025 Election: Candidate Statements

Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2025 Performing Arts 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:

One (1) Co-chair, 2024-2026

Please make sure to carefully read all the candidate biographies and statements of interest and make your selections. Ballots are managed by SAA through SurveyMonkey; you will receive a message in your inbox when the ballot is open!

Co-Chair Candidates

The following candidates are running for the position of Co-Chair:

Eleanor (Nora) Blackman, Archivist, Special Collections, Case Western Reserve University

Candidate Statement:

I am submitting my nomination for Co-chair of the Performing Arts Section Steering Committee. I am delighted to be a member of this section, engaging with colleagues who are committed to processing, preserving, and making accessible the history of the performing arts.

For 18 years, I have managed archival processing projects, accessibility, and outreach within the Special Collections of the Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve University. As Senior Archivist, I have led projects for the Cleveland Play House, Cleveland Performance Art Festival, Karamu House Archives (Theatre), and the Kathryn Karipides and Kelly Holt Personal Papers (Dance).

I hold or have held leadership positions in state, local and national professional archival organizations, including active roles in the Cleveland Archival Roundtable and the Society of Ohio Archivists, as well as participation in ArchivesSpace Member Forum planning committees and the Academy of Certified Archivists recertification review committees. Since 2018, I have served on the Steering Committee of the American Theatre Archive Project, representing the Midwest region (OH/MI/PA) and contributing to training initiatives for performing arts archivists. These experiences have allowed me to support professional development, facilitate collaboration, and advance archival standards.

I have contributed to Performance! the publication of the SAA Performing Arts Section, with the co-authored "Digitizing the Cleveland Play House Production Photographs: Using Performance Past to Inspire Future Workflows" (Summer 2020).

My research and presentations with American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) have covered reparative description, theatre archives instruction, and historical theatrical make-up, including Teaching Reparative Description (Critical Hope in Academia Working Group, November 2023), Intersecting Time Zones – Archives Instruction Modules (November 2024), and Unpacking Dorothy Paxton’s Make-up Case (Working Group on Theatrical Make-up, November 2019). Additional presentations include Ohio Digitizers Interest Group "Everything is Subject to Change: Outsourcing Digitization of the Cleveland Performance Art Festival Recordings, 1989–1999", January 2022 and at the SAA Metadata and Digital Object Section Annual Meeting I co-presented "Digitizing the Cleveland Play House Production Photographs", 2020.

I have also explored theatre history with my presentation: "When The Play House Came to Chautauqua: A 50-Year History" (Chautauqua Institution, August 2, 2019). Most recently, my article "Art in Democracy" appeared in the Cleveland Play House Playbill for What the Constitution Means to Me (October 2024).

I support the continued success of the section and in this role, I will strive to contribute to the section’s communication efforts, facilitate discussions that support the needs of performing arts archivists, and oversee programming that strengthens engagement across the community. I welcome the opportunity to collaborate on initiatives that advance accessibility, outreach, and the broader mission of the section. Thank you for your consideration.

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