Announcing the VRA 2024 Workshop Season!
The Visual Resources Association (VRA) is pleased to announce its 2024 Workshop Season!
Our first workshop is right around the corner! Details and registration are below for our popular Events Made Easy workshop. Scroll down for the dates and topics for the next three workshops in our 2024 season!
New for this season: VRA members will receive a nearly 25% discount on all of our workshop registration fees! For online workshops, the VRA member rate is $50 and the non-member rate is $65.
Information about all workshops will be available here: https://www.vraweb.org/workshops
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Events Made Easy (ONLINE)
Tess Colwell and Alexandra O’Keefe
Thursday and Friday, July 11th and 12th (TWO-PART WORKSHOP) // 3:00-5:00 PM EST both days
Registration capped at 40
Register now through this form!
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.
Register for this workshop here!
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SAVE THE DATES for our upcoming workshops! Full details and registration for these workshops will be announced soon!
The Future is Looking Up!: How to Sustainably Utilize Drones for Research and the Classroom (and anything else) (ONLINE)
Instructor: Chris Strasbaugh
Friday, September 27th // 12:00-4:30 PM EST
Registration capped at 40
Learning to Look and Looking to Learn: A Workshop on Visual Literacy (ONLINE)
Instructors: Jessica Sack and Rachel Thompson
Friday, October 25th // 3:00-7:00 PM EST
Registration capped at 40
We are very pleased to announce our return to in-person programming with a full-day, immersive workshop held at Pitts Theology Library, Emory University in Atlanta, GA!
From Project to Product: Effective Project Management and Strategic Planning
Pitts Theology Library, Emory University (IN PERSON)
Atlanta, GA
Instructor: Cristela Garcia-Spitz
Friday, November 15th
Registration capped at 30
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If you have any questions, please send an email to the Regional Workshop Implementation Team at workshops@vraweb.org.
Workshop Coordinator: Michelle Schierburg
Senior Workshop Liaison: Eva Soos
Junior Workshop Liaison: Caroline Philippone
Workshop Consultants : Beth Haas and Janice Shapiro Hussain