Welcome to your fall update for all things Shambhala Archives!
Since we last wrote to you, we’re happy to report we’ve been busy little archivist bees.
All Requests for Trungpa Rinpoche’s Shrine Fabric Relics Have Been Mailed!
We received hundreds of requests for Trungpa Rinpoche’s shrine fabric relic. We were so moved by the massive response that we received. Jeanne Cain, one of our incredibly dedicated and generous volunteers, headed up the project and signed the greeting notes and sent out all of the relics. Thank you, Jeanne, for your invaluable help and effort! If you have requested a fabric relic but have not received it yet please let us know and we’ll make sure you get one.
Jeanne Cain, Shambhala Archives Volunteer
NEW! Access Library!
We are currently in the process of moving into an improved location in the Halifax Shambhala Center to create an Access Library. This new Library will be open to all of you and will house all of Trungpa Rinpoche’s recorded teachings, books, and all of the sangha related publications that Archives holds. We can’t wait to share pictures of our new workspace/library and welcome you in person very soon!
Tillie Perks and Wendy Friedman Won’t Stop Getting Skills!
Recently, Tillie attended a hands-on disaster recovery workshop at the Council of Nova Scotia Archives Conference with conservationist Julia Landry. There she learned how to rescue precious paper records from disasters like mold or water damage. Here’s a picture of her looking like a mad scientist with a photograph that she rescued from a sticky pile of dirty water (provided by the CNSA):
Tillie and her teammates, from all over Nova Scotia’s archival world, rescue wet catalogs and pictures from certain ruin!
Wendy recently returned from the Treasure Caretaker’s Training held at the Rubin Museum in New York under the supervision of Ann Shaftel. The training included sessions on risk assessment, a lecture and tour of the Rubin’s off-site storage with their Director of Curation and Collections, and hands-on practice documenting artifacts.
The Rubin Museum is a Himalayan Art & Culture museum with an renowned collection – Wendy took a couple of photos of inspiring pieces to share with all of you (see below)
Floating Horses at the Rubin Museum
Neon Mahakala at the entrance of the Rubin Museum
Bruce Wauchope continues his project backing up our digital library on two brand new RAID hard drives for the longevity and accessibility of our catalog.
Bruce Wauchope, volunteer extraordinaire
Rosie Pittas, volunteer, is an advisory board member and former technical director of the Archives. She is diligently helping with everything! She’s been helping to organize all of Trungpa Rinpoche’s teachings so that they may be available to you. She has also been digitizing and cataloging all of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s teachings. And this fall, she will liaise with Marpa Foundation on behalf of the Archives to make sure Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche’s archives are up to date.
Rosie Pittas, Archives Advisory Board Member and Volunteer.
Clarification
We want to provide some clarification regarding the Shambhala Board communication of June 28th that updated the community about their approach to taking “ legal steps to recover important community relics and artifacts that belong to the Shambhala organization.” We want to assure everyone with a connection to the Archives that we do not participate in such decisions, and that we are a neutral and open resource for all students and people interested in accessing our records and holdings. We are governed by the Shambhala Board & Executive Leadership Team, but our role as a neutral archival body committed to caring for the materials in our possession and making those available to all is respected by all involved.
Fundraising Update:
We’d like to update you on the results of our recent fundraising efforts. With your help, the Archives is on track to becoming self-sustaining! This is big news, and we look forward to the day when the Archives has raised enough dedicated funds and has enough ongoing monthly supporters to sustain our regular operations without financial supplements from the general Shambhala Global Services budget. We still receive valuable accounting, communications, development, IT, non-profit administration, and other support services from Shambhala Global, but we feel that coming closer to covering the direct expenses of the Shambhala Archives is a milestone worth celebrating. We want to thank you all for seeing the efforts we are making to modernize and open the Archives to the Shambhala community and public in new ways.
We are so happy to be in touch with all of you and we welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Please write to us at [email protected].
Sincerely,
The Shambhala Archives Group
Matilda Perks
Wendy Friedman
Rosie Pittas
Jeanne Riordan