Receiving the award for the Arts Commission is (l–r): Harriett Green, editor and program director for visual arts for the SC Arts Commission, with David Goble, director, SC State Library, and Ken May, acting director of the Arts Commission. For Harriett Green, assembling the “State Art Collection 1987–2006” catalog was more than a labor of love, and many times love had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Green, who is the program director for visual arts with the South Carolina Arts Commission, set forth in 2006 to catalog the collection that had been assembled over the past 20 years that includes 441 pieces by 272 South Carolina– based artists.

The process of assembling, editing, proofing, and color–correcting the 163–page book was a daunting task, even without the many twists and turns upon which editor Green and her team encountered.

“There was a series of unfortunate mishaps that made everything much, much longer than it ever should have,” Green said, including computer blowups, lost proofs, and other glitches to painful to recall.

The process of color correcting each page was also painstaking as Green would load up works of art on Sundays and travel to Sumter so she and pre–press technician Angie Yates of Sumter Printing could make sure the colors in the catalog were exactly true to the piece of art.

“The effort she put in to her work,” Green recalled of Yates. “That woman was a real artist.”

Four years later, the catalog was published and Green said she was satis- fied the publication did its job of accurately depicting the artists and the art in the state’s collection.

But it wasn’t over. Now came the accolades, something that Green said she never expected.

The South Carolina State Library on March 16 honored from hundreds of entries the 10 most notable South Carolina state government documents of 2009, and the State Art Collection catalog was among those chosen. According to a state library press release, the selection is announced annually “on or near Freedom of Information Day, the birthday of President James Madison, who was an early proponent of citizen access to government information.”

“I had no idea of the significance of the award at first,” Green said. “It is quite an honor and was very unexpected.”

Green said she is proud of the book, a comment echoed by many who have had the chance to peruse its colorful pages.

“I could go on and on about how pretty it is,” said State Library Communications Director Dr. Curtis Rogers. “It’s well–designed and has great images in it. Overall, it’s just a very attractive publication.”

Green credits the art as the key to the success of the publication.

“I think it has enough images in it to intrigue people and get them interested in the collection,” she said. “It really is a beloved collection.”