The American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA) Slide Distribution Collection produced color slides of Southern Asian art and architecture for teaching art history. The ACSAA Color Distribution Project created and distributed 166 sets of original and duplicate 35 mm slides between 1974 and 2006. The VRC holds copies of approximately 148 of these complete sets. The sets contain about 100 slides each, with a total of more than 14,800 slides. The sets highlight various types of art, including Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Mughal, Himalayan, Baroque, Sri Lankan, and Southeast Asian. ACSAA and the University of Michigan partnered with ArtStor and approximately 12,000 images are now available online. Additional images are available through the VRC, as well.
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The American Council for Southern Asian Art was founded in 1967. Based off the idea of then president, Dr. Walter Spink, the American Council for Southern Asian Art Color Slide Distribution Project was created in 1974. As a non-profit project, the original idea was to share slides between ACSAA members. However, the project evolved into a professional slide production and distribution project, which lasted between 1974 and 2006. The collection was originally housed at the University of Michigan. The goal of the project was to provide high quality color slides of art and architecture of India and greater South Asia, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and the Himalayan region to subscribing institutions and individuals. The slides depict art and architecture in situ in countries such as Nepal, Tibet, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. The project was funded by a JDR III grant and subsequently funded by additional grants.
