Museum Archives with Amanda Acosta and Elizabeth Ajunwa

The Phillips Collection’s Living Room is a series of intimate conversations featuring artists, authors, curators, collectors, and museum professionals. These programs offer rare opportunities to engage in discussions that connect the museum’s collection with broader dialogues.

Join Amanda Acosta, Digital Archivist at The Phillips Collection, and Elizabeth Ajunwa, Director of the Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, for a conversation exploring libraries and archives and the roles they play in preserving institutional history.

About Amanda Acosta

Amanda Acosta is a DMV and web-based archivist who occasionally moonlights as a librarian. She is the first Digital Archivist at The Phillips Collection where she collaborates cross-departmentally to bring access and relevancy to digital components of the Archives. Advocating for front-facing staff, resurrecting little-known narratives, and bridging the gap between institutional knowledge and the public is central to her practice. Above all else, Amanda believes that access is power. With nearly a decade of experience across disciplines in museums, libraries, archives, and non-profits, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her interests lie primarily in conceptual art as authored by women, queer artists, and artists of color, queering archives, and keeping the world wide web weird.

About Elizabeth Ajunwa

Elizabeth Ajunwa is a DC-based art librarian and memory worker. She currently serves as the Director of the Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. As Library Director, she oversees a collection of over 25,000 books and archival resources including zines and artists’ books. Elizabeth’s journey in the library field began in public libraries, where she gained invaluable hands-on experience at the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System. She obtained a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Catholic University of America, where she focused her graduate studies on cultural heritage management and art librarianship. She was a 2019-20 ALA Spectrum Scholar in the American Library Association Spectrum Scholarship Program. Her current work includes advocating for the care and diverse representation of Black, Indigenous, and POC artists in libraries and archives.

Accessibility Service

If you would like to request an accessibility service, please email reservations@phillipscollection.org in advance of your visit. Providing two weeks’ notice is recommended, though not required. Full efforts will be made to accommodate requests. For more information, please review our visitor guidelines.