The good news arrived on Monday, December 7. But we couldn't tell anyone right away...

"So, this is not public info until after Friday. I was informed this evening that I am the recipient of the highly prestigious ARLIS/ NA Internship Award. This is by far the greatest professional and academic accomplishment of my life.

"I could not have done this without Tom and all of you. It is absolutely groundbreaking for ARLIS/ NA to recognize my work with our archive and at the Kinsey at the highest level. It locates our mission and our area of preservation in the academic arena that it deserves to be. This award is applied to by all kinds of librarians and curators with focuses that range from architecture to Renaissance. For the first time, it is being granted in the name of 'erotic art'."

— Allison Schulte

Here's the official release:

ARLIS/NA 2009-2010 Internship Award Recipient Selected
The Art Libraries Society of North America is pleased to announce Allison Schulte as the recipient of its 2009-2010 Internship Award. This prestigious award grants $2,500 to support a period of internship for a student preparing for a career in art librarianship or visual resources curatorship. In addition to the $2,500 stipend, Ms. Schulte will receive a one-year complimentary membership in ARLIS/NA.

Allison Schulte is presently a student in the Master’s in Library and Information Science degree program at San Jose State University, specializing in archives and special collections. She holds a BA in Studio Art from California State University, Northridge, and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). In ARLIS/NA, Ms. Schulte revived the ARLIS LGBTQ SIG and is co-coordinating the group, and was appointed ARLIS/NA-SAA Liaison. Her current position is Library Director & International Liaison for the Tom of Finland Foundation.

Ms. Schulte’s experience to date is in special collections of erotic art focusing on collection management, exhibitions, and digitization of archival material. She has applied her specialist training in contemporary art to curating and teaching, as well as networking with artists and publishers in the fields of erotica and pornography. Her career plans are to continue her investigations into collections of erotic art, a subject that is less represented within universities and art libraries, in order to facilitate discovery of these collections for researchers and advance scholarly discourse on themes in erotic art.

As has been the case in recent years, the Subcommittee read many stellar applications and is pleased to note that twenty different graduate programs from Canada and the United States were represented. While only one ARLIS/NA Internship Award is granted each year, ARLIS/NA does maintain a list of paid and unpaid internship opportunities; interested students and potential hosts are encouraged to visit the Internship Roster website for more information.

Congratulations to Allison Schulte and many thanks to all the applicants who took the time to prepare an application!

The members of the ARLIS/NA Internship Award Sub-Committee

Rina Vecchiola (chair)
Greta Bahnemann
Robert Gore
Amy Ballmer
Eumie Imm Stroukoff

— Rina Vecchiola
Art and Architecture Librarian
Kenneth and Nancy Kranzberg Art and Architecture Library
Washington University in St. Louis