"Frequently we are asked where the Fonds Suzan Daniel is housed, and if it is in one of the so-called ‘rainbow houses’. This question requires a complicated and rather time-consuming answer, and sometimes it’s a little bit difficult to explain."
The Fonds Suzan Daniel is a non-profit archive and documentation centre in Belgium. It was named after Suzan Daniel who in 1953 was the first person to start a gay/lesbian group in Belgium. As a neutral, independent and pluralist organization they have been cooperating with mainstream organizations. In his paper, Bart Hellinck reflects upon the challenges of the archive and points out the advantages and disadvantages of their partnerships.
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| Suzan Daniel |
Do you also think it is important for an LGBTI archive to remain independent and stay out of umbrella organizations?What are your ideas about the challenges the organization faces, for instance, in regard to reflecting the diversity of the "LGBT-community"?
But from
the beginning raising the awareness wasn’t enough for the six initiators:
organizations needed to be told how best to take care of their archives, and –
more important – eventually something should be done with this material, including
professional storage and arranging its accessibility.
Since the
movement had (and has) many other things to do, and thus didn’t have the time
(nor the expertise or the means) for long-term archives administration, the six
initiators quickly concluded that another solution had to be found.
Our little
group of six consisted of three historians (one being a PhD, while another would
subsequently start his training as an archivist), two philosophers and one
librarian. All of us were either
professionally linked with centres of cultural heritage or were familiar with
these institutions as researchers.
We were therefore reasonably well aware of the complexity of running an
archives and documentation centre.
We were not naïve, were not seized by the whim to do something in a
hurry, but took the time to look for a long-term formula. This led to the official founding of
the Fonds Suzan Daniel in May 1996, and its presentation to the public in
December of that year.
In
1995-1996 the situation was simple: we had no money, and consequently no staff
nor accommodation of our own. More
than 15 years later we still run on a very tight budget, we still don’t own or
rent any premises, and we still depend entirely on a limited number of
volunteers. But we really don’t
consider this a major problem: our main focus is to manage our collection that
in the meantime takes up more than 400 running metres of shelves.
This has
always been the principal objective of the six founders: saving as much as
possible of the LGBTQ heritage, and making sure that is it kept in
reliable conditions. Another
important element of our musing back during our first meetings: ensuring the
continuation of our project, because the LGBTQ archives were (and are) too
important for them to depend solely upon the mood or the possibly short-term
commitment of a couple of persons.
Partnership
Although
‘amateurs’ with no money, it was our firm conviction that the Fonds Suzan
Daniel should work as professional as possible. And it was clear for us right from the start that we
couldn’t guarantee this on our own.
So we got in touch with a couple of professional (private) archival
institutions, which resulted in a partnership agreement. And in a win-win situation for everyone
involved: our partners were interested in the LGBTQ archives but lacked
connections in this field, while we found some repositories (with the required
archival storage conditions, with acid-free archives boxes etc.) to store our
future collection. And this for
free! Besides it allows us to
benefit from our partners’ expertise.
The
partnership agreement is however only a framework. Every single transfer of an entity of records and/or
documentation to one of our partners is being regulated by a contract. This material is then being stored in
the depots of one of our partners – chosen on the basis of some criteria – and
can be consulted in its reading room during working hours. But we are (very deliberately) actively
involved in this process: the Fonds Suzan Daniel remains the owner (or at least
manager) of its collection and we manage it very closely. Our volunteers for instance make most
of the inventories of archival records and catalogue the books, magazines,
gadgets… And in case the creator
of the archives doesn’t have specific (and more strict) requirements, it is the
Fonds Suzan Daniel that has the final say with regard to privacy protection, i.e.
in the matter of which documents can or can’t be consulted for a specific aim
(research, exhibition…).
Some
disadvantages
This
formula however is not without some disadvantages. The first being the fragmentation of our collection: it is
not stored in one single place, but (at present) parts can be found in Louvain,
Brussels and (two institutions in) Ghent (1). In fact the six initiators of the Fonds
Suzan Daniel certainly didn’t prefer this fragmentation, but it resulted
automatically from the choices that were being made by our partners.
But we
don’t feel strongly about this disadvantage. Before the Fonds Suzan Daniel was created, source material
with regard to the LGBTQ past and present was in fact already scattered: for
instance judicial and police files in the State and City Archives, certain
documents in University Archives or Libraries, and so on. There are probably anyhow very few
subjects for which a researcher can find all source material in one single
cultural heritage institution. And
since the Fonds Suzan Daniel manages its collection very closely, we can always
assist a researcher by pointing out what we have that might be interesting to
him/her and where it can be found.
(And when they want to consult archival records they in any case have to
obtain our written permission beforehand.)
Anyway,
working together with a couple of institutions – all with their own specialty –
enables us in the meantime to anticipate the record creators’ preferences.
The
disadvantage that we have to cope with the most, is the absence – for an
outsider – of a (as such identifiable) building of our own. Frequently we are asked where the Fonds
Suzan Daniel is housed, and if it is in one of the so-called ‘rainbow
houses’. This question requires a
complicated and rather time-consuming answer, and sometimes it’s a little bit
difficult to explain.
Best
possible choice in our context
But we
remain convinced that the many advantages outweigh these disadvantages. Without this formula we wouldn’t have
been able to achieve what we now have.
A lot of archival institutions with own housing seem to be confined to
their premises and hardly ever break out of it (trying) to reach the public in
another city or region. With
respect to this the Fonds Suzan Daniel has a bit more freedom (although our
limited budget doesn’t allow us to do all that we would like to do.) Furthermore our partnership enables us to
focus upon the essence (the LGBTQ cultural heritage), instead of busying
ourselves a considerable part of the time with making that possible
(fundraising for accommodation, lobbying for subsidies, etc.).
And by the
way, since the Fonds Suzan Daniel is the owner (or in some cases the manager)
of its collection, there always is the option – when one day we would have
enough money and some long-term guarantees, and if we would consider it
beneficial – that we go our own way.
But that will not be the case in the foreseeable future.
On the
contrary, the choice that we have made, has been copied by others. Shortly after the foundation of the
Fonds Suzan Daniel we were invited by the organization of professional
archivists and librarians in Flanders to explain our pioneering scheme, which
was considered an interesting novelty.
Since then similar initiatives have been set up regarding, for example,
musical and architectural archives.
After 17
years we remain more than convinced that we’ve made the best possible choice,
given the Belgian context at the time and in the present:
a couple of
professional archives that were willing to extend their horizon;
a little
group of motivated volunteers (with no budget), some of whom were working in
the field of cultural heritage; with the
Fonds Suzan Daniel that is able to create a distinct profile; that is present
at for instance Pride events and has become a familiar presence there; that
manages its collection very closely; that operates as a trustworthy intermediary
between the record creators, researchers… on the one hand and the professional
archives where its collection is being kept at the other.
Some other
important decisions
That very first
meeting in October 1995 was not only important because of the partnership
idea. At the same time a couple of
other important decisions were made concerning the future position of our
initiative.
Firstly we certainly
didn’t want to limit us to the LGBTQ movement, but are potentially interested
in every material (that is somehow relevant to the Belgian situation) with
regard to homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, transgender, AIDS/HIV.
Secondly we
want to remain independent, neutral and pluralistic. In the past there have been a lot of disputes and even rifts
within the movement (radicals vs. moderates, men vs. women, etc.), while the
relationship between the movement and the commercial venues hasn’t always been
very good.
Furthermore a lot of
individual lesbians, gay men etc. don’t (want to) have anything to do with the
movement. As an archives that
wants to save as much as possible of our heritage, the Fonds Suzan Daniel wants
to be as acceptable as possible to as many archive creators as possible. That means that we, as an organization,
will never express any opinion.
And that we will never join a Belgian LGBTQ umbrella organization. (Because if we would become a member of
one such umbrella organization, we would have to join every such initiative,
now and in the future.) But this doesn’t
exclude us from trying to establish the best of relations with any group.
At the same
time our responsibility regarding privacy protection was stressed. And Suzan Daniel (= the pseudonym of
the woman who in 1953 founded the first Belgian lesbigay emancipation group,
but had been totally forgotten afterwards) was already suggested as a suitable
name for our initiative.
A couple of
months later, while preparing the official foundation of the Fonds Suzan
Daniel, it was decided in the articles of association that our executive board should
always have an equal number of male and female numbers.
Some
additional information
Since the
Fonds Suzan Daniel runs on a very tight budget, we’re not able to buy books,
magazines etc. but have to rely upon donations. (A couple of interesting personal libraries have been
promised to us, but normally we won’t be receiving them very soon. In any case we wish everyone a long,
healthy and prosperous life.) This
automatically means that we usually can’t offer the most current
information. We have learned to
live with this deficiency as well, although it would be a lot more pleasant now
and then to possess recent (non-fiction) publications. On the other hand there are other
institutions (the LGBTQ movement, university libraries etc. as well as IHLIA that is
very easily accessible from Belgium) that all can play their part.
To conclude
I would like to mention three of our challenges for the (near) future:
- acquiring
the know-how with regard to the still fairly problematic archiving of digital
documents (websites, e-mails etc.)
- increasing
our efforts in the hope that we succeed in raising the awareness about the
importance of nightlife’s archives
- becoming
ever more vigilant, in order that our collection reflects as much as possible
the diversity of the LGBTQ ‘community’
Any advice
on this (and many other topics) will of course be enthusiastically welcomed!
[1] Approximatively 80% of our
collection is none the less stored at one of our partner institutions.
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