In the mid to late 1980s the nuclear sculptor Jim Acord, moved to Richland to advance his work incorporating nuclear technologies and radioactive materials in contemporary sculpture. In the late 1990s a complex sequence events culminated in Jim losing his Richland Studio. Before the owners of the property hauled everything to the dump in advance of selling the property I packed up as much as I could of anything that seemed worth archiving. In the summer of 2014 I began the process of documentation. So far I've taken thousands of photographs and scans of Jim's sketchbooks, slides and photograph collections, and have made a preliminary inventory of five file cabinets and the contents of some two dozen boxes of Jim's personal and professional effects. While I may eventually donate everything to a university or non profit art organization I would first like to make a digital archive of as much as possible and to make this material available to anyone interested in Jim's work. There are also a few objects of art, some finished, many more unfinished, that I would like to see be part of an exhibition of Jim's work. Like many artists I am under some financial stress so I am not free to devote as much time to this project as I would like. That said, I will continue the process of working through the archive as I am able. As of this writing (August 2014) I currently have over 40 GBs of photographs and scans available. If, for whatever personal or professional reasons you would like a current copy of this material send a flash drive (or several) with enough free space to hold the data together with a self addressed stamped envelope for the drive's return. I will copy what I have onto your drive and return it to you with my best wishes.
I might add that I don't have any pictures of the work Jim made after he left Richland. I would particularly like to get copies of the reliquaries he made when he was an artist in residence in London. Anything you could share and add to the archive would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Philip E. Harding
361 Sanford Ave. Richland WA 99352
archive@hardingfineart.com (I don't check this address every day so if you don't get a responce in a timely maner you can call or text the number below and leave a message to check my email.)1 (509) 420-4644