Thinking Outside of the (Acid-Free) Box:

The article uses the Terry and Jo Harvey Allen Collection housed at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University as a case study to explore the complexities of mixed-media archival collections containing hybrid artworks. It identifies the need to reframe how archivists, artists, and researchers approach artist collections and calls for greater collaboration between artists and archivists. It examines the challenges of working with these collections and assesses the methodologies and strategies employed by archivists at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at three phases of the archival process: appraisal and acquisition, the development of processing plans and creation of finding aids, and the use of outreach and engagement to address possible limitations of descriptive practices. This article also touches on the complexity of creative partnerships and the added challenges of documenting collaboration within artist records. [This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the 52nd annual ARLIS/NA conference held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in April 2024 as part of the session “Artworld Networks: Perspectives on Artist and Gallery Records.”]