Janna Singer-Baefsky

+1 626-272-6078| jannasimonesb@gmail.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsingerb/

 

 

Education

CUNY Hunter College, New York, NY, 2019-2023 | M.A. Art History | Magna Cum Laude

Thesis: Death Becomes Her: Rejecting the Muse and Reclaiming the Female Body in Leonor Fini’s Skeleton Women 

Pratt Institute, New York, NY, 2018-2020 | M.S. Library Information Sciences, with Distinction 

MoMA Art Library Fellow, 2019-2020

Graduate Assistant, Digital Preservation and Curation, 2019-2020 

Smith College, Northampton, MA, 2011-2015 | B.A. Art History and Museum Studies | Latin Honors Commended Scholar

Thesis Exhibition: Now You See Me: The Relationship Between the Printed and Painted Portrait

Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Oxford University, UK, Spring 2014 | Art Historical Studies

 

Skills

Language: French

Technical skills: Photoshop (basic); Bridge; Lightroom; Camtasia software; Springshare LibGuides platform; DACS; AACR2; RDA; MARC21; OAIS workflows; Cataloger’s Desktop; Classweb

Systems: OrangeLogic; OCLC Connexion; Sierra; Archivespace; Collective Access; PastPerfect; Mimsy XG; ArtLogic; TMS; Dublin Core; ArtBinder; Egnyte; NetX; WeTransfer; Vimeo

Work Experience

Marquee Brands, Manhattan, NY | Digital Archivist | Jul. 2022-Present

  • Assess corporate digital asset management strategy; advise on DAM selection and implementation; develop onboarding roadmap across eleven retail brands and departments
  • Work with migration partners at Cyangate to review metadata exports and asset transfers for BCBG, Ben Sherman, Bruno Magli, Motherhood Maternity, and Destination Maternity from Cloudinary into OrangeLogic; Dakine and BodyGlove from Dropbox and Box into OrangeLogic; Martha Stewart Living and Emeril Lagasse from Artesia, Dropbox, and NAS server into OrangeLogic
  • Develop new asset ingest policies including file naming and folder organization structures, metadata templates, and tag trees for Martha Stewart Living print and digital archive
  • Configure user permissions in DAM; train staff and provide product support for internal users and their external partners
  • Attend conferences to learn current DAM strategies and product launches; liaise with similar companies to advise on DAM administration and product selection

David Zwirner Gallery, Manhattan, NY | Image Archivist | Apr. 2021 – Jul. 2022

  • Saved and organized all photo assets on Egnyte global server to be accessed by all staff; distribute images onto database and ArtBinder; renamed files to meet current data standards
  • Liaised with Rights and Reproductions, Books, Sales, and Marketing teams to find and share photography and appropriate photographer credits with third-party institutions
  • Created metadata templates to standardize file naming, keywords, and metadata in new files; clean metadata and file names in legacy imagery to ensure consistency on the server
  • Trained new staff in server structure including searching, access, and integration with Mac system

David Zwirner Gallery, Manhattan, NY | Digital Assistant | Mar. 2020 – Apr. 2021, promoted to Image Archivist

  • Data management: merged duplicate contacts and inventory records in the database; added artist records; updated accounting documents including VAT information, wiring instructions, and exhibition codes
  • Updated artwork holdings through biweekly Excel uploads in ArtBinder software
  • Tested new database features and train employees; wrote training manuals for using database, ArtBinder upload process, and onboarding
  • Migrated files from external software to internal server
  • Filed expense reports on Expensify

Brooklyn Historical Society, Brooklyn, NY | Collections Assistant | Jul 2018 – Feb 2020

  • Cataloged ~5000 mixed media objects by creating new records and updating existing records with object information, cross-referencing Library of Congress linked data service for subject headings, people, and search terms; researched archival records and accession files for description fields
  • Recommended updates to search terms for the database to reflect collection holdings related to Jewish, Puerto-Rican, Asian, LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities; inclusive and representative suggestions included corrected spellings and community-preferred identification terms (“Black Americans” with a capital ‘B’)
  • Photographed ~15,000 objects and processed their images in Photoshop creating preservation, access, and thumbnail image files; attach to records in PastPerfect
  • Built custom mounts to rehouse artifacts; palletize boxes for offsite storage

MoMA, Queens, NY | Art Library Fellow | Sept 2019-May 2020

  • Cataloged posters from Political Art Documentation and Distribution movement into OCLC using RDA and MARC21, assign Library of Congress call number from subject headings; catalog and edit records in Sierra
  • Wrote cataloging training manual
  • Assigned call numbers, trim Mylar, and rehouse in storage

Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New York, NY | Collections & Digital Archives Intern | Jun 2019-Aug 2019

  • Cataloged 103 Orchard Street oral history collection (96 testimonies and related media) into PastPerfect database; attached related media; updated subject headings and search terms
  • Created master finding aid for cataloged collection; proposed next steps for making collection accessible including transcripts, translators, and pushing testimonies online
  • Assessed and adjusted database entries for 97 Orchard Street oral history collection


Presentations and Publications 

  • Guest speaker, Hunter College, Spring 2023, Graduate course “Artist Institute Archive, Curatorial Assistantship”
  • Guest speaker, SUNY Syracuse, Spring 2021, Undergraduate course “Paper Bodies: The Archive from an Anthropological Perspective”
  • Art Documentation, Fall 2021, Article: “Why Have There Been No Great Art Libraries: The Role of Radical Cataloging in the Reassessment of Art History”
  • New Voices in the Profession, ARLIS/NA Spring 2020 and 2021 Conference presenter, Why Have There Been No Great Art Libraries: The Role of Radical Cataloging in the Reassessment of Art History; 2020 Celine Palatsky Travel Award recipient
  • Union Club Library Bulletin, Spring 2020, Article: “Biography of a Bookplate”
  • Pratt Info Show, Spring 2019