Guide to the Lee Hall records, 1975-1983

Rhode Island School of Design Archives
2 College Street
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401-709-5922
Fax: 401-709-5932
email: risdarchives@risd.edu

Published in 2009

Collection Overview

Title:	Lee Hall records
Date range:	1975-1983
Creator:	Hall, Lee
Extent:	3.75 linear feet
Abstract:	Maintained primarily as notebook logs by the President's staff, the series contains photocopies of President Lee Hall's letters, memorandums, speeches, lectures and writings. Fourteen videotaped interviews with recipients of an Honorary Degree or Athena Award have been transferred from the Library.
Language of materials:	English
Repository:	Rhode Island School of Design Archives
Collection number:	2.10

Scope & content

Maintained primarily as notebook logs by the President's staff, the series contains photocopies of President Lee Hall's letters, memorandums, speeches, lectures and writings arranged chronologically. The series contains few records received by her office. See President's General Correspondence, 02.02.1.2, for such records. The series documents Hall's communications with trustees, alumni, faculty, staff, students, visiting committees, friends, and professional organizations. Internal communications are found primarily in the Memorandum and Correspondence-Confidential subseries.

Subjects documented by the records include routine administrative matters, the faculty, unionization, and contracts, her friendships with Betty Parsons and other artists, her farm in Lyme, CT, academic and financial reforms, relations with trustees, committees, and Museum of Art Directors Stephen Ostrow and Franklin Robinson.

The collection includes fourteen VHS tapes of interviews of artists, designers, and others conducted by Hall, circa 1981. Hall conducted the interviews at the New York offices of Needham, Harper and Steers, Inc. as part of a project for the proposed non-profit RISD Athena Productions. Organized in 1981 November and dissolved in 1984, the non-profit's purpose was to design and produce film, video, and other materials related to the educational mission of RISD. Most of the interviewees were recipients of an Honorary Degree or an Athena Award, 1977-1982. Paul C. Harper, Jr., Chair of NHS, served on the RISD Board of Trustees.

Access Points

Subject Names

• Hall, Lee, 1934-2017

Subject Names

• Ostrow, Stephen E.
• Robinson, Franklin Westcott

Subject Organizations

• Rhode Island School of Design. Office of the President

Subject Topics

• Faculty--Labor unions--Organizing
• Rhode Island School of Design--Administration
• Rhode Island School of Design--History
• Rhode Island School of Design--Presidents
• Rhode Island School of Design--Presidents--Correspondence
• Neeham, Harper, and Steers Advertising
• RISD Athena Productions

Subject Topics

• Education

Document Types

• Speeches
• Memorandums
• Writings (document genre)
• Letters (correspondence)

Arrangement

The materials in this collection are arranged into five series:

• I. Correspondence, 1975-1983
• II. Correspondence-Confidential, 1975-1982
• III. Memorandums, 1975-1983
• IV. Speeches and Lectures, 1975-1983
• V. Writings, 1980-1983
• VI. Interview videotapes, circa 1981

Biographical note

Artist, teacher, and author, Lee Hall served as RISD President from 1975 to 1983. Born in Lexington, KY in 1934, she received a BFA from the University of North Carolina in 1955 and her MA (1959) and Ph.D. (1965) from New York University. Hall taught at SUNY (Potsdam, NY), 1958-1960, and served as Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Art at Keuka College (Keuka Park, NY), 1960-1962. From 1962 to 1965, she taught at Winthrop College (Rock Hill, SC) and then served as Chair of the Department of Art, Drew University (Madison, NJ), 1965-1974. She held the position of Dean of Visual Arts at SUNY (Purchase, NY) when she received the appointment to RISD. In addition, she worked for the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1972-1979, as a panelist, site visitor, and consultant.

A period of conflict and reform, Hall's tenure included a restructuring of financial administration, the introduction of computer systems for administration and planning, the attempted revision of the Faculty Manual, and the unionization of the Faculty. The Administration and the Faculty negotiated the first contract in 1979. A two-week Faculty strike in April 1982 preceded the second contract. Years of budget deficits came to an end during Hall's presidency.

Lee Hall maintained a painting studio at her farm in Lyme, CT. Her friendships with artists Betty Parsons, Elaine de Kooning, and others brought her frequently to New York, where she exhibited her paintings at the Betty Parsons Gallery (NY) beginning in 1974. She instituted the President's Fellows Awards (1978) and opened RISD:NY (1979), in part, to draw RISD closer to New York City.

Hall resigned her office effective June 30, 1983 in order to become a partner in the Betty Parsons Gallery. She joined the Academy for Educational Development (NY) in 1984 as a Senior Vice-President and Director of the Office of Arts and Communication. She wrote numerous books after 1983 including Betty Parsons: Artist, Dealer, Collector (1991) and Elaine and Bill, Portrait of a Marriage: The Lives of Willem and Elaine de Kooning (1993).

Hall moved to South Hadley, MA during the early 1990s where she continued to paint. She became an advisor and supporter of the new Bechtler Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC donating all of her works of art to assist in the development of the museum. Lee Hall died in Northampton, MA 2017 April 17.

Access & Use

Access to the collection:	The use of certain documents and collections may be restricted. Please consult the Archives staff for further details.
Use of the materials:	Permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from archival materials must be obtained in writing from the Archives. The researcher assumes full responsibility for use of material and for conformity to all applicable laws, including copyright.
Alternate form:	The VHS tapes are available as mp4 files on the Fleet Library at RISD's Digital Commons website.
Preferred citation:	Lee Hall records, Rhode Island School of Design Archives.
Contact information:	Rhode Island School of Design Archives 2 College Street Providence, RI 02912 Tel: 401-709-5922 Fax: 401-709-5932 email: risdarchives@risd.edu

Administrative Information

ABOUT THE COLLECTION
Acquisition:	Series I-V were transferred from the Woods-Gerry attic. Videotapes were transferred from the Fleet Library at RISD.
ABOUT THE FINDING AID
Author:	Finding aid prepared by Douglas Doe.
Encoding:	Finding aid encoded by Jessica Bitely 2009 April 17
Revisions:	2017 May 11 Revised by Douglas Doe 2021 September 13 Revised by Douglas Doe
Descriptive rules:	Finding aid based on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Additional Information

Location/Existence of copies:

The VHS tapes are available as mp4 files on the Fleet Library at RISD's Digital Commons website.

Inventory

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