Deirdre Donohue

Deirdre Donohue identifies as a Librarian/Artist and is Assistant Director of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs at The New York Public Library, supporting access and stewardship across the five collections that make up the Division: Print Collection, Photograph Collection, Art & Architecture Collection, Spencer Collection, and the Picture Collection. She has previously led libraries at the International Center of Photography and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Donohue holds a BA in Art History and Visual Arts from SUNY New Paltz, an MS in Information and Library Science from Pratt Institute in New York, as well as studies in Art, Museum and Costume Studies at Fashion Institute of Technology, ICP/Bard, Center for Book Arts and Parsons/New School.

From 2001-2017 she served as the Stephanie Shuman Director of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections at the International Center of Photography. She has enjoyed being Graduate Faculty at both Pratt Institute’s School of Information and ICP/Bard’s Masters Program in Advanced Photographic Studies, a founding Board Member of 10X10 Photobooks, and contributing words to books such as What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843-1999 edited by Russet Lederman and Olga Yatskevich; Angel in the House by Lanie McNulty; and Book Dummies: An Imaginary Studio, A Non-Stop Process, 1993-2015 by Victor Sira. 

Deirdre was awarded a ICP Spotlights Award in 2015, where she enjoyed green room conversation with Carrie Mae Weems, and served a term and Vice-Chair/Chair/Past Chair of the New York Chapter of the Art Librarians Society of North America.

She was proud to be asked to serve as the Guest Editor of Aperture’s Photobook Review 014, serves on the Advisory Board of Penumbra Foundation for Photography and a member of the Grolier Club, a haven for bibliophiles.

Deirdre’s art work has been exhibited at Queens Art Center, New York Public Library’s Art Wall on Third, ICP’s Rita K. Hillman Gallery, and many Metropolitan Museum Art Staff Exhibitions.