Events Made Easy (ONLINE)
Tess Colwell and Alexandra O’Keefe
Thursday and Friday, November 21 & 22 (TWO-PART WORKSHOP) // 3:00-5:00 PM EST both days
$65 for non-members / $50 for members
Registration capped at 40
Hosting events for libraries and special collections is a key part of outreach to patrons but can be overwhelming and challenging depending on resources such as staff time, funding, and partnerships. In this workshop, participants will learn step-by-step how to use a simple framework to maximize limited resources, serve their community through events, and generate positive attention from stakeholders. This process includes developing a holistic strategy tailored to their specific community, creating a standardized outreach plan based on their institution’s procedures, and ultimately streamlining their programming efforts.
The instructors are from different art library backgrounds (one large academic and one art and design school) with event-planning expertise that is demonstrated in their joint research and work outcomes. They will introduce a customizable toolkit they designed using freely available tools which can be used in any collection’s context. Ideally, participants will bring one event idea to the workshop (but will have time between sessions one and two to create one if needed).
During the workshop, the instructors will walk participants through a series of hands-on, solo and collaborative activities to plan an event step-by-step using the framework while integrating GLAM scholarship about best practices in the field. The workflow participants will walk through includes audience identification, creative practitioner consideration, budget application, promotional material creation, action item generation, day-of-event execution, post-event evaluation, and thorough documentation to share with administration. Participants will leave the workshop with one complete event plan for their library or collection, a community of event-planning peers for future support, and a variety of resources to enact a sustainable events program at their institutions beyond this event.
Learning Objectives
Evaluate their community’s needs in order to generate outreach plan with individual events
Compose marketing materials such as emails, flyers, and event copy for a target audience
Utilize an existing, sustainable event management framework and apply it to their institution
Create a customized template for individual events that includes event planning logistics, marketing checklists, resource evaluation, post-event assessment, and overall documentation.
About the Instructors
Tess Colwell (She/Her) is the Arts Librarian for Research Services at Yale University’s Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library where she serves as the library liaison to the schools of art and architecture, and History of Art department. Prior to coming to Yale, Tess worked in a variety of libraries and museums in NYC and was formerly a professional photographer and worked as a photojournalist for the Gazette newspapers, a small community paper affiliated with the Washington Post. Tess holds a BS in Visual Communication from Ohio University, MA in Humanities with a focus in art history from Hood College (MD), and an MLIS degree from St. John’s University. She has contributed to a range of journals and scholarly publications including Art Documentation, Journal of Outreach and Engagement, and ACRL. Her research interests include digital humanities, library outreach, design research methodologies, and visual literacy instruction.
Alex O’Keefe (She/Her) is the Research & Instruction Librarian at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s John M. Flaxman Library. As part of this role she focuses on outreach and programming, specifically collaborating with other staff members and student groups to plan events for SAIC’s diverse creative community. She previously worked at the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library as the 2018-2019 Kress Fellow in Art Librarianship and later the Arts Digital Projects Librarian, where she designed events focused on community engagement for the Ensemble@Yale project. Alex holds a BFA in Studio Arts, BA in Humanities, and an MSLS. She is an active participant in the professional community, and her full list of professional work can be viewed here. Her work focuses on fostering community in the library through collaborations, weaving critical librarianship into initiatives, fighting mis/disinformation, and all things library outreach.