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Thank you to all of our excellent candidates for standing in the 2025 Visual Materials 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:
Ballots will be managed by SAA staff through Survey Monkey; keep an eye on your inbox for when the ballot opens!
Biography
Maggie McCready is an archivist in the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress, where she works primarily with collections of 19th and 20th century prints and original drawings. Her research relates to preservation of born digital artwork, particularly the working practices of independent digital artists, proprietary drawing software and file formats, as well as online artist communities. Maggie has worked in the library and archives field since 2015, including the National Park Service, Archives of American Art, and National Museum of American History, and acquired her MLIS from University of Maryland in 2019. While in graduate school, she served as president of the Student Archivists at Maryland, a student chapter of SAA at University of Maryland, where she coordinated and hosted two symposia on archival practice and tours of federal and state archives for graduate students. Maggie has been involved with SAA since 2018, and an active member of the Visual Materials Section’s Born Digital Records working group since 2023. She was a primary contributor and editor of the Born Digital Visual Materials Inventory resource list, later presenting the results at the July 2024 Visual Materials Section meeting.
Candidate Statement
I would be honored to serve as Chair-Elect of the Visual Materials Section, amongst so many knowledgeable and passionate people who are just as invested in contributing to the advancement of the field. I’m excited for the opportunity to coordinate and foster conversations about evolving archival practices, examining gaps in the literature, and collaboratively develop goals for action. I would love to build upon the work done by myself and my colleagues in the Born Digital Visual Materials working group to document gaps in the literature regarding the preservation of born digital materials, by facilitating discussions surrounding next steps and adding the resources we gathered to the Visual Materials Bibliography. This is just one idea, but together I’m sure we’ll come up with others, too. Let’s work together to get some stuff done!!
Biography
Adrienne Pruitt is the Arts Archivist at Haas Family Arts Library at Yale University, where she is responsible for acquisition, archival processing, and related research and teaching services for the visual arts, design, and theatre special collections. She began her career as an archivist at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, the arts educational institution, and went on to work with artwork and process materials at the Children’s Literature Research Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia. She holds a B.A. in Art History from the University of Nevada Reno, and an M.A. in History and M.S.L.I.S with a concentration in archival management from Simmons University.
Candidate Statement
The Visual Materials Section has been a happy professional home and a great resource for me throughout my career, and I am interested in helping to maintain its vitality and relevance for all those working with visual materials. I have been an active member of several archival organizations, serving as secretary and member of the nominating committee of the New England Archivists, as co-chair of the Public Library Archives / Special Collections section of SAA, and as secretary of the Delaware Valley Archivists Group. As a Member-at-Large, I would use both my subject knowledge and my administrative experience to help further the section’s goals, continuing to build a community that shares information and enthusiasm about the care and use of visual materials in archives.
Biography
Azadeh Tajpour is the University Archivist at Lesley University in Cambridge, where she manages all functions of the University Archives, including appraisal, accessioning, processing, preservation, and providing access to archival materials such as documents, photographs, memorabilia, and audiovisual content. Previously, she spent twelve years as Project Manager and Archivist for the Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran Digital Archive at Harvard University, where she oversaw the full lifecycle of archival materials—from acquisition to online publication. Her additional experience includes internships at the List Visual Arts Center at MIT, the Sorenson Center for the Arts at Babson College, and the Luckman Gallery at California State University, Los Angeles.
Azadeh holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Claremont Graduate University, an MA in Art History from California State University, Los Angeles, and a BS in Physics from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. She also holds a Digital Archives Specialist (DAS) Certificate from the Society of American Archivists.
Candidate Statement
As an archivist and multidisciplinary, research-based artist, I have been deeply engaged in projects that explore the intersections of memory, resistance, and visual culture. I am particularly interested in the impact of visual culture and the transmission of knowledge through images, and I strongly believe in the power of art and education to foster social change. My current collaborative work centers on community-based digital archives and collective storytelling. I am committed to inclusive archival practices that expand access and visibility for underrepresented voices. During my time at Lesley University, I have developed initiatives that enhance access to archival materials through digitization projects, online exhibitions, and faculty partnerships—such as organizing workshops for art classes in collaboration with the Art and Design department. As a member of the Exhibition Committee at the College of Art and Design, I also help shape curatorial strategies and review exhibition proposals.
Previously, I served as the Project Manager and Archivist for Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran, a digital archive dedicated to addressing gaps in historical scholarship and
amplifying the voices of women. This work offered access to a rich array of
materials—including photographs, objects, and artworks—which deepened my
understanding of the critical role visual materials play in education and historical
interpretation. Inspired by these resources, I developed several creative projects,
including a short documentary titled Gazing Through a Lens: Ali Khan Documents
19th-Century Iran, which explores a historical photo album from Northwest Iran and
reveals the region’s ethnographic diversity. I also co-curated a special issue of Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, titled “Gender Politics in Iran and the Last Forty Years: Eleven Stories,” featuring works by five contemporary visual artists alongside essays and creative writing focused on gender, identity, and resistance.
If elected as Member-at-Large, I will contribute to the SAA’s goals of advocating for
archives and archivists through a commitment to accessibility, diversity, and a culture of inclusion. I’m especially interested in fostering professional growth by building
community, supporting mentorship, and organizing inclusive programming and social
events within the Visual Materials Section. Thank you for considering my candidacy. I
would be honored to serve and support the important work of the Visual Materials
Section.
Biography
My name is Jacob Wolf, and I am a Special Collections Archivist at the Getty Research Institute working in Chicago, Illinois on the Johnson Publishing Company Archive. I earned my MLIS in 2023 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, however, I have been working in archives since 2017. When pursuing my B.A. in Public History at Western Michigan University, I worked for 3 years at the university archives. Some of the first collections I ever processed were photographs and negatives, notably nitrate negatives from the university’s athletics department. Since then, I have held positions and internships at various GLAM institutions, including the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, the Dresden State Art Collections, the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum, the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center, the Internet Scout Research Group, and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. In all these positions I engaged with diverse visual materials, physical and digital, covering a wide range of topical areas. These experiences prepared me to work as an archivist processing the Johnson Publishing Company Archive, which is largely composed of the photo files from what was once the largest Black-owned media company. The collection amounts to over 4 million visual materials, including photographs, negatives, contact sheets, transparencies, layouts, artwork, and more. Notably, I led the processing of the Fashion Fair Cosmetics photographs, which document the groundbreaking Black cosmetics brand. In this process, I stabilized complex, multi-format folders of transparencies, layouts, and more. This is but one of many portions of the collection that I have processed. The project is ongoing and is a collaborative initiative between the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).
Candidate Statement
I would like to pursue a Member-at-Large position with the Visual Materials Section. As an early career professional, I am interested in getting involved with the archival profession on a larger scale. The Visual Materials Section always piqued my interest, not only because I work frequently with visual materials and enjoy working with them, but also because it seems like a wonderful, tight-knit community to learn from and contribute to. I find that having a sense of community with other archivists empowers my work and passion for the field. Furthermore, visual materials are a powerful archival resource. However, making sure they are preserved and accessible can be difficult. Communities like the Visual Materials Section provide support to the archival community when working with these sometimes fragile, difficult to catalog, rights-restricted collections – to name a few of the issues addressed by archivists who work with visual materials. I hope that by contributing my time and passion, I will be able to both foster this community and provide support to archivists working with these types of collections. Also, I am excited to learn from this community, further its goals, and help create new goals. Thank you for your consideration.