ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-Three first-year graduate students at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College-Anna Gray, Mariangela Mendez, and Montserrat Albores-are seeking local artists to include in the exhibition they are curating, This is not an archive. The exhibition will open on Sunday, February 6, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., and remain on view through Sunday, February 20, at the Center for Curatorial Studies. Admission is free; the museum is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Any artist (one who lives in, works in, or otherwise frequents the Hudson Valley) and who would like to be included in the exhibition should submit a self-representation of himself or herself as an artist in the form of a letter-size (8 ½ x 11") file. The file may consist of (but is not limited to) documents that the artist considers important to have available to others: a portfolio, a single large file from which many smaller files can be extracted, a compressed file, an original work or reproduction, publications, videotapes, DVDs, etc. The deadline for submissions is February 1, 2005. Please contact the curators at thisisnotanarchive@yahoo.com to receive the participation agreement and guidelines.

This is not an archive is in the form of an archive, but only as a departure point in order to construct an exhibition space as a site for cultural exchange. The curators consider the artistic field to consist not only of works of art, but also of dialogue, self-representation, attitude, and decision in and around the making and distribution of artistic ideas. The exhibition is intended to make an active space for dialogue and interaction between artists, curators, and the audience.

The curators note that the idea for this exhibition evolved from a meeting in the fall, when they reflected on the extensive list of names, and the growing pile of artist files, that were the results of a survey that their class began on artists who live, work, and come and go in the Hudson Valley area. The three of them discussed implications of learning about someone's work through such a format, and considered the absence of originals and the value of reproductions, the position of the artist in relation to his/her file, the file as a body of records representing the continuing cultural contributions of an individual, the file as information compressed for efficient storage, the file as correspondence between artists and curators, and so on. Through sustained discussion, the plan for their first-year exhibition began.

The collected artist files of This is not an archive will be installed in the gallery space of the CCS Museum according to a scheme derived from the participants' geographical locations. Equipment to display material in the files will be provided (slide projector, DVD and VHS players, a computer with Internet access, sound equipment, etc). During the exhibition hours, at least one of the project curators will be available to review the collected material and speak with viewers, artists, and other guest curators.

For further information about the exhibition and guidelines for submissions, e-mail thisisnotanarchive@yahoo.com. For information about the Center for Curatorial Studies, call 845-758-7598, e-mail ccs@bard.edu, or visit www.bard.edu/ccs.