Archiving Service

Creating tailored organization & preservation solutions for professional artists.

Bella Soenen offers professional archival organization to artists in their mid to late careers, ensuring their work is easy to access and protected for the future.

Why Archiving?

Often, the level of accessibility to an artist’s records determines the bandwidth of their legacy. Andrew Wyeth is a modern example. We would not have the knowledge of or access to his work if it was not for one person–someone who had the passion, skill, and time for the task of organizing his career. This person was his wife, Betsy Wyeth. It was Betsy who catalyzed Wyeth’s legacy into renown, past being just an illustrator’s kid. The same is true of Irish poet, W.B. Yeats: he had a loved one in his life who preserved the poetry millions of people read today. If materials are not preserved, they decay. If papers are not ordered, they become lost. Archiving is vital because preservation is vital.

Your Art Deserves the Best

Great art deserves great care. Great care requires:

Passion. Your work deserves to be handled by an artist and an art lover who has a thorough understanding of the inner workings of the professional, ever-evolving art world.

Skill. Your work deserves to be organized by someone with exceptional organizational abilities and knowledge of the highest-quality physical and digital storage solutions.

Time. Your work deserves time. Your career reflects years of studio hours, research, travel, gallery experience, teaching, and more. The quality of your archives should reflect the quality of such a legacy. Archives are not built overnight. They demand days of preparation, planning, and multiple rounds of sorting, filing, labeling and storage that is both protective and easy to access. Your career deserves dedicated and careful decisions if it is going to be available to others in the present and future.

The Legacy

The gift of archiving is it gives a clear look into an artist’s life and work, and ultimately, their legacy. Archives enable artists to be confident that their career is in order and that the greater narrative in their artistic journey has had a chance to emerge and be preserved for the future.

The Necessity

There is a demand for archival skills within the art community–not just in museums and galleries, but on an individual level. The artists of today may be considered the masters of the future, but the reality is most professional artists have not had the time nor the ability to simultaneously create their work as well as organize and protect it. Fame does not determine significance. However, an artist has a lesser chance of being remembered well because their legacy is left dusty, untitled, shoved away in studio corners or in disjointed computer files. Especially in the now-digital world, the dilemma for artists today is centered around how to ensure their work will be remembered. 

The Solution

Bella Soenen started Vita Archives to help artists who need their career to be organized once and for all. She provides a freelance, personalized service that guarantees professional results. Her archiving service is all about the artist–you–because she believes your work is valuable and worthy of investment. Preserve your story and ensure your legacy is remembered.  

Testimonials

Charles Schmidt

Emeritus Professor of Painting | Tyler School of Art | Temple University

“The Special Collections Library of Temple University has asked me for my ‘papers.’ This includes a large diverse body of material and contains photos of my paintings and drawings. Isabella Christian took on the job to organize it for presentation to the library. She did a thoroughly professional job. She approached the work with organizational skill, intelligence, and was quick to understand new ideas. She worked steadily and wasted no time. She was pleasant to work with and efficient. Isabella is clearly an accomplished archivist and I highly recommend her.”

Thirty-Year Philadelphia Gallery Artist

”As an artist working consistently for over forty years, the business aspect of the art life can become a monolithic process, the sheer volume of work amassed can be staggering.

Seeing the results of Isabella bringing order to the chaos has confirmed the wisdom of our decision to engage her in this endeavor. The logical and often elegantly beautiful pathways she has developed for archiving my practice cannot be overestimated.”

Dale Roberts

Bruce Herman

Gallery Director | Gordon College | Art Department Founder

“Bella Christian [former] worked as a studio apprentice and archivist for me in addition to being my teaching assistant at college. In all settings she was highly motivated and equally organized—in fact her skill was essential in organizing and cataloguing my fifty-year art career with all its piles of paper, exhibition notices, publication, essays, etc. She was a life-saver!”

Artist Spotlight:

Roger Anliker, 1924 - 2013

Roger William Anliker was a master creator and beloved professor. A professor at Carnegie Mellon for over ten years and then in Tyler’s Painting and Graphic Art Department for over thirty years, his work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris. However, beyond his professional achievement, his paintings continue to deeply inspire his family and students. Bella proactively sought out pathways by which to celebrate this artist, and created a website about his legacy. Click below to learn more about Roger’s life and paintings.

Falling Through gouache on arches paper. 21.5 x 29.5”, 1969-1981.

FAQs

  1. Can you organize my physical artwork?

    No. I can organize digital and physical photographs of your artwork, but not your artwork itself. I don’t offer physical artwork preservation/storage solutions nor restoration. I also do not offer photography of your artwork.

    What I can organize are: your physical paperwork (gallery records, awards, exhibition records, financial records, letters, mail, catalogues, etc.) and any digital records of your career and digital records of your artwork.

  2. Can you archive an artist’s career post mortem?

    Yes. I take these projects as a great honor.

  3. How will the price of my archiving package be determined?

    Factors that will make up your package include any time-sensitive deadlines, how large the archiving project is (projected hours), location/travel/lodging, supplies (agreed upon and purchased on your behalf, such as boxes, file folders, dividers, thumbdrives, digital organizer), and any special requests such as your artist website building/editing.

  4. If I hired you, where would you work?

    If it’s physical archiving, I would need a space where I can spread out with multiple piles (especially in the beginning).

    If it’s digital archiving, I can work anywhere and may not necessarily need to travel. We would need to be in more consistent communication in the beginning of the project so that I can receive some of your information to set up your digital database for you.

  5. What are the steps to working together?

    Step 1: Fill out a form on my website (see “Purchase” page or have an initial conversation in person if applicable. You can share your needs, goals, deadlines.

    Step 2: I will determine an estimate of your archiving package and send it to you. We can walk through it via phone if you would like. If you accept it, I will send you a contract and a proposed detailed timeline breakdown of my work. The contract will specify that 50% of your total package will be paid for up-front. Payments can be made via Venmo or check.

    Step 3: Archiving underway.

    Step 4: Your archives are yours, professionally and safely organized, labeled, and preserved to your preferences. If there are digital files, I will transfer all instructions and passwords to you, as well as your remaining invoice.