Paul Rogers Harris Gallery Mailings Collection

Collection

Identifier: SC-019

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This is a collection of postcards and flyers sent by galleries to announce or promote exhibitions or events. The gallery cards were collected by Harris from 1960s-2010s, with the bulk from the 1980s and 1990s. The mailings are from Dallas, the Metropplex, Texas, and College and University Galleries. The collection does not include mailings from museums or galleries outside of Texas. The collection also includes gallery mailings sent to Pamela and Bill Nelson which Harris acquired after Pamela Nelson installed an exhibition of them.

Dates

1960s-2010s

Conditions Governing Access

The a small portion of the Dallas gallery mailings and the college and university gallery mailings have been processed are open for public research. Contact the archives (archives@dma.org) for information on processed mailings. Researchers must make an appointment to view this collection.

Contact the archives (archives@dma.org) about access to unprocessed series in the collection.

Biographical / Historical

Paul Rogers Harris was born in Dallas, Texas in 1933. He graduated from the North Texas State College (now University of North Texas) in Denton, Texas in 1954 with major in art and minor in education. He went on to teach at the elementary and high school levels from 1954-1960. From 1960-1965 Harris was the art director of the Dallas Independent School District’s educational television program on KERA-TV, the Dallas PBS affiliate. During this time Harris also established and supervised the Children’s House at the Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, an experimental program for teaching art to children ages 5-12.

In 1965 Harris moved to New York City to undertake graduate work at New York University. While in New York, he also worked in the education department of the Museum of Modern Art as a Lecturer (1966-1968) and Coordinator of Educational Services (1968-1970). While at MoMA, Harris also coordinated Claes Oldenburg’s Documents of the Ray Gun Theater in conjunction with Oldenburg’s solo exhibition at MoMA in 1969.

Harris returned to Dallas in 1970 to be the Head of the Department of Art Education at Southern Methodist University, a position he would hold until 1974. Harris became the director of The Art Center in Waco, Texas. He went on to curate 95 exhibitions in his 12-year tenure. He also began his career as an independent curator at this time, curating the inaugural exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art’s new education space called Gateway Gallery in 1984. Harris left Waco in 1986 to become the Director of the Craft Guild of Dallas, a position he held until 1988.

Harris transitioned to an independent curator, establishing Paul Rogers Harris Exhibitions in 1988. He curated numerous exhibitions at Dallas-area galleries, highlights include The Texas Printmakers, 1940-1965 at the Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University in 1990; and Breaking into the Mainstream: Texas African American Artists at the Irving Art Center in 1996. Harris was also a consignment dealer and executor of the estates of two Dallas-area artists, Barbara Maples and Coreen Spellman.

Paul Rogers Harris is also an artist himself, designing two holiday cards for MoMA in 1968 and 1971, and exhibiting work in competition exhibitions and other local galleries.

Harris died in 2019.

Extent

15.00 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This is a collection of postcards and flyers sent by galleries to announce or promote exhibitions or events. The gallery cards were collected by Harris from 1960s-2010s, with the bulk from the 1980s and 1990s. Mailings are arranged in four series based primarily on location, Dallas, Metroplex, and Texas, with a separate series for college and universitly-based galleries

Arrangement

Mailings are arranged in four series based primarily on location, Dallas, Metroplex, and Texas, with a separate series for college and universitly-based galleries. Within each series, cards are organized by gallery, whcih are arranged alphabetically. If there are mulitple envelopes for a gallery, cards are arranged by date (if determinable), gallery address, or unsorted if no usable arrangement can be discerned.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Paul Rogers Harris. Gallery mailings were retrieved by Hillary Bober and Leigh Arnold from Harris's garage on 2 May 2012.

The collection was acquired by the DMA Archives as part of the DallasSITES (history of contemporary art in Dallas, 1963-present) research project (2011-2013).

Appraisal

Phase I sorting - During intiial review, Archivist decided that mailings from outside of Texas would be discarded (primarily from New York and Santa Fe); mailings from museums were also discarded during the sorting of mailings into three location-based series (Dallas, Metroplex, Texas).

Processing Information

A small portion of mailings were processed in 2012-2013 per planned arrangement as described. Many mailings were used for a collage/boards in the DallasSITES exhibition in summer 2013.

Additional description/notes were added for DACS compliance and ArchivesSpace local usage guidelines in 2021.