By invitation only.
By invitaton only.
By invitation only.
This walking tour will present a few of the most significant buildings and public sculptures at the heart of Providence from the 18th to the 21st Century. We will discuss the Providence Renaissance with its creation of Waterplace Park and the re-opening of the rivers and see splendid examples of historic preservation and rehabilitation.
All guided tours are free of charge. Unless specified, tours do not require registration and will gather in the lobby of the Providence Biltmore. Tour times reflect a maximum duration and include walking to/from the beginning and end of the tour from the hotel.
Andrew Martinez, Archivist, will tour the Fleet Library at Rhode Island School of Design and detail the history of the building from its origin as a bank to an acclaimed case of adaptive reuse as RISD’s library. Each tour limited to 15 people, meet at 15 Westminster St. SIGN-UP REQUIRED.
—> Sign up for the library guided tour: http://www.doodle.com/64bt8zma58bps5f8
Walking directions from the Providence Biltmore: http://goo.gl/maps/Ku3Kn
PRESENTER: Mark Braunstein, Connecticut College
FEE: $75 / Limited to 30 attendees / Register here.
How to enhance images of artworks (& buildings & plans), even those poorly photographed. Previous experience with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements is required, as this 3 hour workshop is not an introduction to Photoshop. While this is an eyes-on workshop, participants may bring their own laptop computers to work on their own images.
An updated Photoshop CS6 instructional handout will be provided, so participants need not take notes, but instead just sit back and watch the magic of Photoshop.
Download the 12 page 01 - Photoshop CS3 for Artworks here.
ORGANIZERS:
FREE / Limited to 50 participants / Register here.
Do you have a passion for an idea or a topic that you would like to discuss, a concern or a problem that you would like to get solved, or a favorite technology tool that you wish to share? Are you reluctant to present or ask questions in a traditional conference setting? If the answer is "yes" to any of these questions, then come join your fellow campers for VRACamp. VRACamp, based on the unconference model, is an informal, no-pressure, participant-driven free event that seeks to both build community among curators, librarians, archivists, technologists, vendors, art historians, students, and scholars as well as provide a forum for spontaneous conversation, the launching of new ideas, and the sowing of seeds for future collaborations. The overarching theme of VRACamp is image management. A call for discussion topics, tools, and project demos will be made a few weeks before Camp. Potential topics include metadata; digital curation; technology-based instruction; digital humanities; intellectual property; visual literacy; cross-disciplinary skill sets; or the future of the profession. Those with the most participant-generated interest will prevail, although time will be built in for the unexpected. VRACamp needs you, your creative ideas, and your participation, so be a camper and own a bit of VRA!
Fleet Library Special Collections Librarian Laurie Whitehill Chong will present samples from the noteworthy Artists’ Book Collection of 1400 multiples, hand-made book objects, and limited edition books. Tour limited to 20 people, meet at 15 Westminster St. SIGN-UP REQUIRED.
—> Sign up for the library guided tour: http://www.doodle.com/64bt8zma58bps5f8
Walking directions from the Providence Biltmore: http://goo.gl/maps/Ku3Kn
Co-Chairs:
Johanna Bauman, Pratt Institute
Sheryl Frisch, California Polytechnic State University
The Data Standards Committee (DSC) was established in 1993 to meet the visual resources community's growing need to manage complex visual collections in the networked environment. Our charge from the Visual Resources Association is "To develop, advocate and promote standard descriptive practices in visual resources collections that will facilitate the management, organization, and exchange of information."
More specifically our goals are:
Co-Chairs:
Barbara Brenny, North Carolina State University
Mary Alexander, University of Alabama
The Development Committee’s charge is to recommend to the Executive Board fund-raising ventures and the means to implement them; to coordinate all fund-raising activities for the Visual Resources Association authorized by the Executive Board.
ORGANIZER: Marlene Gordon, University of Michigan-Dearborn
MODERATOR: John Trendler, Scripps College
Open-format special interest group moderated by the Public Relations & Communications officer, whose role it is to oversee all VRA publications. Open to all interested members, the SIG will allow for discussion of publishing, the VRA's publication program, how and why to publish, and the value of publishing for career advancement. Attendees are asked to bring other topics for discussion or to email them to the moderator prior to the conference.
The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch. Meet at tables reserved in the McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant accessible via the hotel lobby. Attendees will be responsible for their own food/beverage costs. Limited space available. Registration required.
Endorsed and organized by the Education Committee.
Contact Marlene Gordon (U of Michigan-Dearborn) with any questions regarding the Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches.
The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch. Meet at tables reserved in the McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant accessible via the hotel lobby. Attendees will be responsible for their own food/beverage costs. Limited space available. Registration required.
Endorsed and organized by the Education Committee.
Contact Marlene Gordon (U of Michigan-Dearborn) with any questions regarding the Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches.
ORGANIZERS/MODERATORS:
PRESENTERS:
"Assisi and Padua: Worlds Apart (Virtually)"
"Bringing the Past Into the Practice: Incorporating Primary Source Materials into Digital Media Education"
"Augmenting Education: The Collision of Real and Virtual Worlds"
"Traveling Light: Gathering Information and Cataloging Photographs with Mobile Devices"
Endorsed by the Education Committee
As educational and cultural institutions continue to develop online image collections to support the teaching of visual culture in the expanded classroom, new technologies allow movement beyond the still image to investigate and disseminate visual information from different vantage points: social, economic, political, visual. The power of digital technologies as a means to synthesize, present, and communicate large amounts of information challenges the instructor and researcher to incorporate different ways to interrogate works of art, archaeology, and architecture or develop new visual support tools. This session seeks to explore components and examples of successful collisions between past models and present possibilities for teaching and research.
ORGANIZER/MODERATOR: Helen Lessick, Web Resources for Art in Public
PRESENTERS:
Visual resources are key to collections within and outside of the museum and academic worlds. Public art, art in public places, civic art and design, and artist-initiated projects all contribute to a growing national collection.
This session will present the diverse approaches to organizing and presenting public art collections online and discuss the challenges of working with municipal and for-profit clients in the field based on policy, innovation, collaboration and context.
This session will present challenges and opportunities for VRA members to engage the public art field locally and nationally, and build networks for catalogers and public art collection professionals across the nation.
ORGANIZER: Meghan Musolff, University of Michigan
MODERATOR: Betha Whitlow, Washington University in St. Louis
PRESENTERS:
Endorsed by the Education Committee
While the seemingly exponential array of new technologies offers the potential to enhance the services we provide, simply keeping up with what is available (or on the horizon) is a daunting process. This fast-paced session will demonstrate a rich variety of new technologies, emphasizing concrete examples that show engagement in professional contexts. Utilizing the expertise of energetic, tech-savvy presenters, this session will introduce new tools as well as creative uses of more established technologies, demystifying them to empower session attendees to further investigate on their own. Emphasis will be given to technologies that can be readily utilized in teaching, learning, and research environments.
ORGANIZER / MODERATOR : Elisa Lanzi, Smith College
PRESENTERS:
Are you hearing the terms “DAM, Digital Preservation, and Media Repositories” more and more at your institution? As our organizations increasingly depend on digital content for all areas of business, the need for enterprise-wide digital asset management is being expressed loud and clear. While cultural institutions are just beginning to implement systems for managing and preserving assets, other media communities (broadcasting, advertising, publishing, etc.) have broad experience in this area. This session brings together panelists for a multi-point perspective on DAM and its impact on the Visual Resources community. Topics include: Digital Asset Management systems demystified; Metadata, taxonomy and DAM; and Digital Preservation. In addition, an open dialogue on VR and organizational change with DAM will be moderated by Lanzi.
Introduction:
Linda Reynolds, Williams College,
Visual Resources Association Foundation Board of Directors
Abstract:
Even after four decades of writing on the subject of visuality, even in the wake of the large literature on the visual nature of late capitalism, and even in light of the many claims that our culture is inundated by images, there is still no satisfactory introductory textbook on the subject. Currently there are three kinds of literature that are used in freshman surveys of the visual world: art appreciation texts, surveys of visual culture or world art history, and texts on visuality like John Berger's or W. J. T. Mitchell's. The first is often formal and apolitical; the second has to to with fine art or popular imagery; the third is very general and excludes science.
In this presentation I'll report on three different projects that bear on the possibility of producing a genuinely interesting, comprehensive, useful book and course for freshman, introducing them to the visual world including art. First is the Oxford University Press's project to create a better "art appreciation" text; second are the two books "Visual Practices Across the University" and "Visual Literacy" (both produced for an event in Ireland); third is my own attempt to co-author a book on vision and visuality across all the fields that theorize it: philosophy, neurobiology, affect theory, phenomenology, sociology, art history, feminisms, anthropology, criminology, archaeology, medicine, meteorology, and surveillance.
It is not impossible, I think, to theorize visual competence and literacy in such a course, producing a generation of students who understand how they interact with their visual world.
___________________________________________________
James Elkins grew up in Ithaca, New York, separated from Cornell University by a quarter-mile of woods once owned by the naturalist Laurence Palmer.
He stayed on in Ithaca long enough to get the BA degree (in English and Art History), with summer hitchhiking trips to Alaska, Mexico, Guatemala, the Caribbean, and Columbia. For the last twenty-five years he has lived in Chicago; he got a graduate degree in painting, and then switched to Art History, got another graduate degree, and went on to do the PhD in Art History, which he finished in 1989. (All from the University of Chicago.) Since then he has been teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently E.C. Chadbourne Chair in the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism.
His writing focuses on the history and theory of images in art, science, and nature. Some of his books are exclusively on fine art (What Painting Is, Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles?). Others include scientific and non-art images, writing systems, and archaeology (The Domain of Images, On Pictures and the Words That Fail Them), and some are about natural history (How to Use Your Eyes). His most recent book is Art Critiques: A Guide.
Current projects include an edited book series called the Stone Art Theory Institutes, and an edited book series called Theories of Modernism and Postmodernism in the Visual Art. His most recent book is What Photography Is, written against Roland Barthes's Camera Lucida.
He married Margaret MacNamidhe in 1994 on Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands, off the West coast of Ireland. Margaret is also an art historian, with specialties in Delacroix and Picasso. Jim’s interests include microscopy (with a Zeiss Nomarski differential interference microscope and Anoptral phase contrast), stereo photography (with a Realist camera), playing piano (contemporary "classical" music), and (whenever possible) winter ocean diving.
Catch up with old friends and meet new colleagues at the Providence Biltmore Hotel. Join us for light food and a fun mixer event with prizes. The reception starts at 6:00pm, and the mixer event will take place from 7:00 to 7:30pm -- special mixer buttons will be distributed at the reception.
By invitation only
The Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources & Image Management, a joint project of the VRA Foundation and ARLIS/NA, has provided educational summer workshops on image management since 2004. The VRA Foundation wishes to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the program by inviting any SEI attendee, instructor, or organizer to a reception at the VRA conference. Anyone planning to participate in SEI 2013 or host a future institute is also welcome to attend.
In addition, the VRA Foundation would like to thank and acknowledge its financial supporters by inviting them to the reception. Anyone who has supported the VRAF at any donor level is encouraged to share in the celebration of SEI’s success and longevity with cake and champagne.
Endorsed by the Education Committee and Membership Committee
Annual breakfast event for new VRA members and those attending their first VRA conference. Let breakfast be on us while you mix and mingle with both new and longtime members of the Association. The event is also an opportunity to meet VRA leaders. Attending the breakfast is a great way to meet others in our organization in a friendly and social environment. Be sure to bring your mentor or mentee. You definitely do not want to miss out on the fun!
By invitation only.
This tour will visit the Brown University campus and a number of individual buildings of one of America's oldest colleges, dating from the 18th to the 21st Century, including works by McKim Mead and White, Philip Johnson and Diller & Scofidio. We will also see one of Richard Upjohn's late Gothic Revival Churches, St.Stevens of 1862. Please note: this tour will involve scaling and descending the considerable elevation of College Hill.
All guided tours are free of charge. Unless specified, tours do not require registration and will gather in the lobby of the Providence Biltmore. Tour times reflect a maximum duration and include walking to/from the beginning and end of the tour from the hotel.
MODERATOR: Jacqueline Spafford, University of California, Santa Barbara
This discussion will focus on issues related to the management and growth of collections in architecture programs and collections with large architecture components. The discussion will be driven by topics of interest to audience members. Topics addressed might include cataloguing issues, challenges and solutions to building digital content, ways to share content, SAHARA, etc. Attendees are encouraged to bring topics, ideas and examples to the meeting for lively discussion.
The charge to the Awards Committee is to encourage worthy nominations from the VRA membership and evaluate them using the established criteria for the Distinguished Service Award (DSA) and the Nancy DeLaurier Award (NDA). To then recommend to the Executive Board one potential recipient for the DSA award and one or more recipients for the NDA Award, to notify the recipients, to prepare the award presentation speech from the supportive materials, and make arrangements for the award presentation at the annual conference.
The Committee Charge:
To maintain the Travel Award program that has been established to encourage participation and attendance by VRA members at the Association’s annual conference; to administer the awards by formulating criteria for application guidelines and the selection of the award recipients upon approval by the Executive Board; and to arrange for the presentation of the awards.
MODERATOR: Allison J. Cywin, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
PRESENTERS:
“The Art of Life: Data Mining and Crowdsourcing the Identification and Description of Natural History Illustrations from the Biodiversity Heritage Library”
“From Archive to Digital, from Lone VRC to Collaborative Effort: The case of the Lewis & Clark College Senior Art Collection Online Project”
“Discovery Beyond Books: Integration of Library and Visual Resource Materials”
In the past several years, visual resource centers across the nation have undergone major transformations from traditional slide libraries to new digital image and multimedia centers. This transition has brought new audience development strategies and professional opportunities in the form of collaborative partnerships, cooperative ventures and institutional alliances.
This session will highlight four institutions that have expanded the mission of the visual resource center by broadening audience development and outreach through cross-disciplinary partnerships, system integrations, collaborative enterprises and collection building. The presenters will offer practical experiences describing the successes and challenges of working within a collaborative environment and will provide working models and strategies for audience development.
ORGANIZERS:
MODERATOR: Jon Cartledge, Smith College
PRESENTERS:
“Evaluating the Information Commons Model for Repurposing the Imaging Center”
“Re-imaging the Imaging Center”
“Transparencies to Pixels: VRC to VRC”
“Rebirth of Analog: How the Materials Collection Saved the Visual Resource Center”
“Refreshing the VR at MassArt on a Shoestring”
“Transforming the Design Library for the 21st Century”
Endorsed by the Education Committee
Transforming visual resource libraries into modern, digital-savvy VR centers can be an exciting but complicated process. New spaces can become collaborative learning spaces for faculty and students and be on the forefront of new technologies. Speakers will present their planned or recent upgrades and remodels to show how they have utilized resources available to create new spaces with new uses, discussing topics that take the audience from space design theory to planning and practice.
ORGANIZER / MODERATOR: Beth Wodnick, Princeton University
PRESENTERS:
Endorsed by the Education Committee
Everyone wants a digital image! Researchers expect to have a plethora of information at their fingertips and from anywhere with internet access. The need for digital imaging in collections has risen exponentially and we, as visual resource professionals, need to embrace the idea that imaging is no longer limited to slide scanning and copy stand photography. Many researchers now expect to have digital images of rare books, special collections, historic photographs and graphic materials, to mention a few, available to them quickly and easily. VR professionals are well versed in the ways of digitizing slide collections, but handling and photographing sometimes challenging original material may be a new frontier.
This session will discuss best practices for photographing original material and creating archival images. Presenters will also provide examples of established workflows for gathering, photographing, cataloging and archiving these materials.
Tom Rieger , Director of Imaging Services at the Northeast Document Conservation Center, in Andover, Massachusetts, will provide an overview of the best practices for the care and handling of original materials and the best practices for digital imaging, as defined in the FADGI guidelines. The FADGI guidelines were developed with major imaging centers in mind, but they can be interpreted for use in smaller imaging centers and local initiatives. This discussion will address these differences. The range of medias included in the discussion will include all forms of visual media, from rare books through modern photographic media. An overview of the workflow and digital imaging process at NEDCC will also be presented.
David Dwiggins, Systems Librarian/Archivist at Historic New England, will discuss the evolution of the organization's digitization strategy. As part of its Collections Access Project, the Historic New England has placed images of more than 50,000 items from its collection online since 2010. Although original plans called for outsourcing almost all digitization, investments in equipment and training allowed the organization to produce archival quality, high-resolution images to supply its website, publication programs, and external users. The new direction has made the organization less dependent on grant funding for maintaining digitization activities, and has allowed it to develop internal expertise that reduces costs and increases efficiency. Dwiggins will discuss the challenges and opportunities the organization encountered as it built up its digital imaging capabilities from scratch.
Chris Edwards, Digital Studio Production Manager at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, will discuss his team’s efforts to meet the high demand for digital surrogates of materials for research, web display and publication purposes. The Beinecke Collection is generally too fragile to stand the wear and tear of most traditional mass digitization efforts, and often too valuable to leave the premises for third party digitization so a creative solution was found to meet these high demand needs while still caring for the materials in house. Chris will discuss the implementation of a Rapid Imaging Program creating medium resolution discovery images at the Beinecke Library and how that fits into the workflow while also creating high-resolution, archival images.
ORGANIZER: Jenni Rodda, Institute of Fine Arts/NYU
MODERATOR: Trudy Jacoby, Princeton University
PRESENTERS:
"Archaeology Archives and Projects at the Institute of Fine Arts"
"Surveying the Survey: Archival Processing, Buildings Archaeology, and Online Outreach"
"Issues of collection and dissemination of digital data from the Brown University Abydos Project"
"The Digital Dig Continued: ArchaeoCore and the Preservation of Site Metadata"
This session, the second in a series, will bring to light important archives associated with archaeological excavations traditionally sponsored by academic institutions. These archives, largely hidden to all but a handful of scholars and usually known primarily by word of mouth, are now being made visible through the use of new technologies and creative collaborations among and within the sponsoring institutions. Speakers will present case studies detailing those collaborations among library, technical services, and digital media staffs that bring these important records to a wider scholarly audience.
Co-Chairs:
Cara Hirsch, ARTstor
Allan Kohl, Minneapolis College of Art & Design
The committee charge is to study and monitor intellectual property and copyright issues; and to develop and promote the Association's position on intellectual property rights issues and educate the membership on these issues.
Chair: Vicky Brown, University of Oxford, UK
The VRA International Task Force has been charged with exploring the possibilities of collaboration and a free exchange of information amongst visual resources professionals and institutions outside of North America as well as trying to determine better ways to support international participation in the activities of the Association and increase VRA's international membership.
Chair: Jeanne Keefe, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Charge: To nominate a slate of candidates to run for offices of the Association; to prepare the candidates’ statements and a ballot for submission to the membership with approval by the Executive Board; appoint tellers to monitor the balloting; and to notify the candidates and the President of the results.
Co-Chairs:
Johanna Bauman, Pratt Institute
Trish Rose-Sandler, Missouri Botanical Garden
Charge: To develop and maintain the VRA Core and to support and promote its use in a variety of communities.
ORGANIZER:
John Trendler, Scripps College
Current Charge:
to investigate the migration of the VRA website, including various website migration techniques, platforms, costs and time required, including less expensive alternatives to each of the major components of the project. Assess current content on the site and recommend its reorganization to function as a communications and marketing tool, allowing for multiple editors, which would relieve much of the burden currently placed on the Web Editor, and implementing a more visually appealing and dynamic look. The group will build from the 2009 Strategic Plan and the 2011 Publishing Advisory Group’s VRA Website Report’s recommendations and will report findings and progress to the board.
The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch. Meet at tables reserved in the McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant accessible via the hotel lobby. Attendees will be responsible for their own food/beverage costs. Limited space available. Registration required.
Endorsed and organized by the Education Committee.
Contact Marlene Gordon (U of Michigan-Dearborn) with any questions regarding the Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches.
The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch. Meet at tables reserved in the McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant accessible via the hotel lobby. Attendees will be responsible for their own food/beverage costs. Limited space available. Registration required.
Endorsed and organized by the Education Committee.
Contact Marlene Gordon (U of Michigan-Dearborn) with any questions regarding the Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches.
ORGANIZER/PRESENTER: Jesse Henderson, Colgate University
Yearly meeting for members of the IRIS collaborative and those who are not members, yet interested to find out more. IRIS (Image Resource Information System) is a relational database created in FileMaker Pro for the cataloging of art images by Visual Resource professionals. IRIS is a cataloging tool that uses VRA Core and CCO standards and includes extensive authority files which can be edited easily and exported into presentations tools, such as MDID and ARTstor. IRIS is an informal non-profit cooperative project to which all members volunteer their time and expertise.
The purpose of the SEI is to provide information professionals with valuable training and education in the area of visual resources and image management. Under the direction of the Executive Boards of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and the Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF), the Implementation Team (IT) is charged as the management group for the Summer Educational Institute (SEI) providing or coordinating administration, local arrangements, registration, scheduling, fundraising, publicity, curriculum, instruction and teaching materials.
ORGANIZER: Karen Kessel, Sonoma State University
MODERATOR: Carole Pawloski, Eastern Michigan University
PRESENTERS:
Endorsed by the Education Committee
Over 100 years ago, artists like Picasso and Gauguin found novel inspiration for their art in the creative works of art from exotic places like Africa and the South Pacific. Digital technology has created the ability to more widely share the resources that we manage yet our vocabulary in describing them is limited. Most Western cultures still view traditional arts of the African continent with a Western aesthetic. People are more interested in how the work is formally viewed than its original function or how and why it was created and how it is displayed. There is often much lacking with record descriptions, cataloging and display that would both enhance the work and give viewers a more accurate understanding of each object. More complete records would enhance the usefulness of object records for multiple disciplines. The influence of African art on the work of Western artists could be documented in the object records. This session will strive to provide these missing elements and further cultural understanding by presenting some of the concerns about the documentation of objects being addressed by current scholars in African art history and related fields. It will touch on the evolving standards and codification of traditional African art, the multiplicity of functionality within objects, and how to better convey meaning through the documentation and contextual display of objects. At the same time, we need to be aware that these cultures may express a need to limit the sharing of information about works that have special significance to their own cultural communities or ethnic groups.
ORGANIZER / MODERATOR: Maureen Burns, IMAGinED Consulting
PRESENTERS:
With a long history of archiving and providing access to educational images in a variety of media, visual resources specialists have always been attuned to the responsible and meaningful use of images. Our facilities are often key learning spaces for educators and students seeking assistance with associated technical, legal, and aesthetic matters. With twenty-first century teaching placing such importance on visual literacy, information professionals have added instructional activities on this topic to the repertoire of services being provided. To nurture this expanded range of skills and information literacies, visual resources curators partner with instructors and librarians in classroom training activities, offer workshops in how to create meaningful content with new technological tools, and take advantage of other face-time opportunities to promote visual literacy through consultations. Better understanding the expanding base of innovative research and current visual literacy competency standards assists with the identification of functional roles and enhances the effectiveness of such instruction.
What sort of content do we teach? What initial questions do we encourage students to ask? What specific research should become the primary focus? What tools might educators employ for instructing students toward adequate assessments of both preexisting and future cross-cultural visual communication? These questions will be explored starting with background information on cultural definitions, moving to pedagogical theory and the tools of evaluation, then using classroom content and projects to demonstrate how the constructs of graphic design and visual communication are shifting due to the infinite global spectrum. Various examples of how visual media are being used across the liberal arts curriculum will be explored and methods for partnering with faculty to build visual competencies discussed. Concrete ways to use image resources to deepen the integration of information literacy skills and concepts into interdisciplinary instructional situations, especially student orientations, will be demonstrated. Visual literacy standards will be examined with an emphasis on how they specifically apply to the profession and practices of visual resources. In the end, incorporating visual resources into teaching enriches learning by enlivening the classroom and deepening the understanding of core concepts through reflection.
ORGANIZER/MODERATOR : Joan E. Beaudoin, Wayne State University
PRESENTERS:
Endorsed by the Education Committee
Data visualization, a graphical means of communicating information by providing insights into underlying phenomena of a data set, is a powerful technique of analysis that has historically been limited to scientific domains. From pointing to network linkages to identifying trends and outliers, current data visualization tools can also offer unique ways to examine information recorded about cultural materials. As VRA members create and manage rich data sets for cultural heritage materials, they have at their disposal the fundamental building blocks needed to create visualizations of networks and/or reveal patterns that are present but hidden in their aggregated data.
This session will provide several presentations on data visualization. The first presentation will include an overview of the processes and techniques used to create the graphical displays of data. Additional presentations will highlight current projects which utilize these tools and methods to work with cultural heritage data, and offer examples of how patterns and networks can be revealed. As the exploitation of data through visualizations is becoming a prevalent technique of analysis in research and industry, attendees would benefit by becoming better informed about these methods. Additionally, as advocates for the cultural heritage sector, VRA members could use these data visualization methods to bring attention to their work and materials.
ORGANIZER/MODERATOR: Sarah Christensen, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
PRESENTERS:
Endorsed by the Education Committee
The digital humanities are shaping the way that scholars teach and perform research, providing them with tools to answer existing research questions or to pioneer new approaches in their respective fields. This session seeks to explore opportunities in which visual resources professionals can contribute to or initiate digital humanities projects, utilizing specialized knowledge in visual media to form new partnerships with interdisciplinary collaborators.
John Taormina from Duke University will speak about his experience as part of a discussion group called “Digital Technologies and the Visual Arts: Reconfiguring Knowledge in the Digital Age,” which addressed new media technologies in art history research and teaching with a focus on digital literacy, pedagogy, and scholarly viability. The group met for two years and gained interest from faculty and staff from across campus, and resulted in a week long workshop that has now been offered both at Duke and at Venice International University.
Sarah Christensen from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will discuss “Explore CU,” an Omeka based mobile app developed by researchers at Cleveland State University. The mobile app and accompanying Omeka site aims to curate the art, culture, and history of Champaign-Urbana through community contributed content.
Massimo Riva, Director of the Virtual Humanities Lab at Brown University, will present the Garibaldi Panorama Project. This project is a “digital archive that seeks to provide a comprehensive resource for the interdisciplinary study and teaching of the life and deeds of one of the protagonists of the Italian unification process (1807-1882), against the historical backdrop of 19th-century Europe, reconstructed with the help of materials from special collections at the Brown University libraries. The project will devote particular attention to the way Garibaldi’s figure, his actions and the Italian Risorgimento as a whole were portrayed in contemporary media.”
One of the main events of VRA 31, the Sponsors Event consists of exhibits, mini-raffles, and a social reception with wine, cheese, and other refreshments, interspersed with short informal spotlight summaries of products/services by VRA sponsors, commercial or non-profit partners, friends, donors, etc. All of VRA’s commercial and non-profit partners are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to showcase their products and services and interact directly with conference attendees.
A highlight of the Conference, the Members & Awards Dinner brings us together in an elegant setting as we announce the recipients of the Association’s major honors and awards. Join with your colleagues in celebrating and applauding this year’s Distinguished Service Award and Nancy DeLaurier Award honorees. At this time, we will also recognize the recipients of the 2012 Travel Awards, along with the generous donors who have made these awards available.
*PLEASE NOTE: The cost of this event is included in your conference registration fee. However, prior registration for this event is required for purposes of room scheduling and catering arrangements.
The VRA Annual Business Meeting is the official forum for conducting Association business. The agenda includes the President's State of the Association message; the Treasurer's report; updates on current and future Association projects and activities; the recognition of outgoing officers, committee chairs, and appointees; the induction of incoming officers, committee chairs, and appointees; and the presentation on the 2014 conference host city. There will be an opportunity for questions and announcements from the membership. Breakfast will be provided. Seating in
Grand Ballroom, buffet set-up in L'Apogee 17.
The Executive Board cordially invites all Visual Resources Association members to attend and participate.
ORGANIZER/MODERATOR: Mark Pompelia, Rhode Island School of Design
PRESENTERS:
"Constructing Meaning: Integrating Text, Images, and Critical Questioning"
"Visual Literacy for Visual Learners: Relating Research Skills to Haptic Skills"
"Image Seeking and Use by Graduate History Students: Avenues to Incorporating Visual Literacy"
"Visualizing the Article: An Exploratory Study of Undergraduates' Educational Reactions to Images in Scholarly Articles"
Following the popular Visual Literacy Case Studies session that premiered at the 2012 annual conference, this session follows that same purpose while expanding the definition of what it can mean while meeting in Providence, Rhode Island—the Creative Capital, a city that serves as a factory for and of non-traditional learners. As background: A term first coined in 1969, visual literacy, according to the Association of College and Research Libraries “Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education,” “is a set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media. Visual literacy skills equip a learner to understand and analyze the contextual, cultural, ethical, aesthetic, intellectual, and technical components involved in the production and use of visual materials. A visually literate individual is both a critical consumer of visual media and a competent contributor to a body of shared knowledge and culture.”
ORGANIZER/MODERATOR: Elizabeth Berenz, ARTstor
PRESENTERS:
ARTstor is a non-profit digital library that provides more than one million images of cultural objects and architectural works covering a wide range of historical, political, social, economic, and cultural documentation from prehistory to the present. ARTstor collections enable a wide range of users -- curators, scholars, educators, librarians, and students -- to teach and study with images in an online environment optimized for exploring visual content in new and exciting ways. This meeting will highlight ARTstor collections and platform features, and will also highlight new developments and features in Shared Shelf.
Shared Shelf is a web-based image management software service developed by ARTstor that provides support for managing and actively using images — cataloging, editing, storing, and sharing them. Shared Shelf also enables seamless integration of image collections with the ARTstor Digital Library for local use as well as the ability to publish to open access environments including Shared Shelf Commons and Omeka.
This tour highlights the 135-year history of RISD as it relates to the historic and significant buildings on the RISD campus.
All guided tours are free of charge. Unless specified, tours do not require registration and will gather in the lobby of the Providence Biltmore. Tour times reflect a maximum duration and include walking to/from the beginning and end of the tour from the hotel.
The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch. Meet at tables reserved in the McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant accessible via the hotel lobby. Attendees will be responsible for their own food/beverage costs. Limited space available. Registration required.
Endorsed and organized by the Education Committee.
Contact Marlene Gordon (U of Michigan-Dearborn) with any questions regarding the Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches.
The Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches provide conference attendees with an opportunity to socialize, network and casually discuss focused topics of interest over lunch. Meet at tables reserved in the McCormick & Schmick’s restaurant accessible via the hotel lobby. Attendees will be responsible for their own food/beverage costs. Limited space available. Registration required.
Endorsed and organized by the Education Committee.
Contact Marlene Gordon (U of Michigan-Dearborn) with any questions regarding the Birds of a Feather Networking Lunches.
ORGANIZER: Marlene Gordon, University of Michigan-Dearborn
PRESENTER: Robb Detlefs, Gallery Systems
EmbARK is a suite of software tools designed to catalog and manage collections. Cataloguer enables the user to input metadata; manage image, movie, sound, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and PDF files; and provides import/export tools to easily migrate data (and it is compatible with the VRA Panel Export-Import Tool). Records can be grouped into portfolios for managing thematic topics or internal projects. Comprehensive searching options are available. There will be time for discussion of the latest versions of EmbARK and Web Kiosk. Questions can be submitted in advance to the session moderator.
ORGANIZER/MODERATOR: Grace Barth, James Madison University
In this session the MDID Development Team will share new features and updates to MDID3. The MDID team will be prepared to discuss software and hardware requirements, installation issues, best practices, system integration, custom application development, and other topics. In addition to demonstrating core features and the Media Viewer classroom presentation tool, the presenters will showcase several innovative applications that have been developed and implemented at James Madison University in collaboration with instructional technologists, librarians, visual resources specialists, and teaching faculty.
This informative session is open to anyone using or interested in MDID. Adequate time for a question and answer period will follow the presentation.
Continuing the tradition of a freely shared educational resource, MDID is distributed free of charge under an open source license and is used at many institutions across the United States and around the world.
ORGANIZER: Melanie Clark, Texas Tech University
MODERATORS:
Join your VREPS colleagues at this meeting to discuss the future of the group, and the educational issues, employment opportunities, and emerging trends in image management that are important to you.
ORGANIZER/MODERATOR: Elizabeth Schaub, University of Texas at Austin
PRESENTERS:
RESPONDENTS:
The Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management (SEI) will mark its tenth anniversary in 2013. A joint project of ARLIS/NA and the Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF), SEI offers a substantive educational and professional development opportunity focused on providing the information needed to stay current in the rapidly evolving field of visual resource and digital asset management. SEI participants engage in intensive learning and discussion with colleagues around a core set of subjects that include intellectual property rights issues, metadata, digitization and strategic planning. SEI also strives to address additional areas of interest, such as demonstrating value to administrators and marketing and outreach to patrons.
With over 400 alums, SEI has had a far-reaching impact, influencing decision-making at institutions where members of ARLIS/NA and the Visual Resources Association (VRA) are employed. Increasingly there is a growing contingent of participants who are neither ARLIS/NA nor VRA members, illustrating the relevance of the curriculum to professionals outside the traditional spheres SEI first served when it began in 2004.
This special interest group meeting will provide a historical context outlining SEI’s inception and evolution as a collaborative project and how it provides a model for future joint projects between ARLIS/NA and VRA, address the experience and insights of SEI alums, and describe current and future curricular goals. Ample time will be provided for an open dialog about how SEI might evolve in terms of curriculum and format in order to best meet the needs of its primary constituents.
ORGANIZERS:
MODERATOR:
PRESENTERS:
In recent years, many cultural institutions have struggled to figure out how to make their collection content more broadly accessible in light of intellectual property constraints, technological challenges, and other institutional resistances. This presentation will be twofold providing both theory and hands-on skills to help guide you through the process and address a number of common questions: How do you determine whether you have sufficient rights to make content more openly accessible? How do you secure permissions if you do not already have them, and what type of permissions should you seek? Can you rely on fair use, and if so, when do you invoke its use? How do you navigate making content more broadly accessible in the face of institutional resistance? What are the best avenues for your institution to distribute your collection content externally? Each presenter has handled these issues at their own institution and will discuss these topics in light of their own experiences during the panel session.
The panel session will be followed by an intensive workshop (FEE: $75 / Limited to 40 attendees) to take you through many of the steps and resources to open the access to your collections.
Charge: To engage in research, build accessible resources, and share information about educational and professional development opportunities for the VRA membership by remaining in contact with appropriate members of related professional organizations and educational institutions. To regularly solicit information from the VRA membership about interests and educational concerns in order to develop supportive programming at the annual conference and as other opportunities arise.
Chair: Elaine Paul, University of Colorado at Boulder
Charge: To support the Association’s membership retention and enrollment efforts in conjunction with the Membership Services Coordinator. This includes the development and maintenance of contact lists and listservs, placing advertisements where appropriate, and coordinating the regional chapters program through involvement, encouragement, and recognition. To make recommendations to the Executive Board and implement decisions of the Executive Board in accordance with the Association’s Membership.
The Committee is responsible for:
ORGANIZERS:
MODERATOR:
PRESENTERS:
FEE: $75 / Limited to 40 attendees / Register here.
In recent years, many cultural institutions have struggled to figure out how to make their collection content more broadly accessible in light of intellectual property constraints, technological challenges, and other institutional resistances. This workshop will be twofold providing both theory and hands-on skills to help guide you through the process and address a number of common questions: How do you determine whether you have sufficient rights to make content more openly accessible? How do you secure permissions if you do not already have them, and what type of permissions should you seek? Can you rely on fair use, and if so, when do you invoke its use? How do you navigate making content more broadly accessible in the face of institutional resistance? What are the best avenues for your institution to distribute your collection content externally? Each presenter has handled these issues at their own institution and will discuss these topics in light of their own experiences during the panel session.
ORGANIZER: Betha Whitlow, Washington University in Saint Louis
PRESENTERS:
Endorsed by the Education Committee
FEE: $25 / Limited to 30 participants / Register here.
From instruction sessions to conference talks, presenting is increasingly a part of our professional landscape. Effective presentations provide all of us with the opportunity to highlight our professional role, our projects, and our services. Still, it’s the rare individual for whom presenting comes naturally. Fortunately, the rest of us can develop the tools we need to significantly improve our presentations and the skill with which we deliver them. In this interactive workshop, you will learn the fundamental aspects of quality presentations and presenting, including:
• What to say and how to say it
• Tailoring your presentation to its purpose (giving a paper versus teaching an instruction session, for example) and to its audience (administrators, faculty, students, or colleagues)
• Improving delivery and connecting with an audience
• Effective use of presentation software and visuals
• Handling a question and answer session
• Reducing stage fright
Here’s a terrific opportunity to shop and socialize with your VRA colleagues during the Providence conference. This year the Tansey event will be an informal drop in gathering at risd|works, a unique shop located in the RISD Museum lobby which showcases products and works of art designed and/or made by the alumni and faculty of the Rhode Island School of Design. At risdworks shop, there is tangible proof of the significant impact artists and designers make on our world. This wonderful shop will be open exclusively to VRA members who have donated to the Tansey Fund. Attendees will receive a 20% discount on purchases made during the SHOP-Tansey Donor Appreciation Open House.
No tickets required, only a donation in any amount to the fund. Drop in on your way out to dinner and enjoy the SHOP-Tansey at the RISD Museum, just a few blocks from the conference hotel. Door prizes and light refreshments!
Donate through conference registration, membership renewal or online at vraweb.org. Cash donations will be accepted at the conference registration desk. Donations already made since September 1, 2012 are considered eligible.
By invitation only.
This invitation-only breakfast is a chance for the VRA Leadership (including Committee Chairs, Chapter Chairs, Board Appointees, VRA Past-Presidents, VRA Executive Board) to gather and discuss organization matters and interests. The VRAF President is also cordially invited to attend.
While the focus for now is on the Four Corners region, all members from the Mountain West and Plains states are welcome to join us for a discussion exploring the possibilities for a new regional chapter, and the ways it might help us build a better sense of community, support, and communication at the local level; foster better collaboration and networking with allied professional groups in our area; serve as a forum for exploring local resources such as museums, exhibitions, educational facilities, etc.; and create a new channel of communication between individual members and the VRA.
Meeting of the VRA Mid-Atlantic Regional Chapter
Joint meeting of the VRA Northern California and Southern California Regional Chapters
Joint meeting of the VRA Northern California and Southern California Regional Chapters
Meeting of the VRA Pacific Rim Regional Chapter
Join conference attendees and invited guests for a continental breakfast buffet sponsored by the New England Chapter of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA).
Pilot and photographer Alex MacLean has flown his plane over much of the United States documenting the landscape. Trained as an architect, he has portrayed the history and evolution of the land from vast agricultural patterns to city grids, recording changes brought about by human intervention and natural processes. His powerful and descriptive images provide clues to understanding the relationship between the natural and constructed environments. MacLean’s photographs have been exhibited widely in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia and are found in private, public and university collections. He has won numerous awards, including the 2009 CORINE International Book Award, the American Academy of Rome’s Prix de Rome in Landscape Architecture for 2003-2004, and grants from foundations such as the National Endowment for the Arts and Graham Foundation. MacLean is the author of eleven books including, Up on the Roof: New York's Hidden Skyline Spaces (2012), Las Vegas | Venice (2010), Chroniques Aeriennes: L'art d'Alex MacLean (2010), Alex MacLean: Given a Free Hand (2010), OVER: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point (2008), Visualizing Density (2007), The Playbook (2006), Designs on the Land: Exploring America from the Air (2003), Taking Measures Across the American Landscape (1996), Look at the Land; Aerial Reflections of America (1993) and Above and Beyond; Visualizing Change in Small Towns and Rural Areas (2002). MacLean maintains a studio and lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
ORGANIZER/MODERATOR: Greg Reser, University of California, San Diego
PRESENTERS:
Endorsed by the Embedded Metadata Working Group of the Data Standards Committee
FREE / Limit of 30 participants has been reached.
Registration for this workshop is now closed.
This 2 hour mini-workshop examines how metadata is embedded into digital image files, the tools used for reading and writing it, and how metadata can be used effectively for data acquisition, in workflow management, and to support the exchange of information through delivery of image assets complete with embedded content. Through hands-on exercises, participants will learn how to create, edit, export, and import metadata for single files and image file batches using Adobe Bridge.
The workshop will include exercises using the Visual Resources Association's custom XMP file info panel as well as the standard info panels used with Adobe Photoshop and Bridge. Workshop exercises will be put in the context of data standards such as VRA Core 4, EXIF and IPTC.
Participants will benefit most from the hands-on exercises if they bring a laptop with Adobe Photoshop/Bridge CS 4, 5, or 6 installed. Participants without laptops will be able to follow and learn from the demonstrations on the projector screen. Please note that participants wishing to perform hands-on exercises must provide their own laptop.
By invitation only.