VRA 2021: Film Screening of '63 Boycott
VRA 2021: Early Bird Registration Ends Soon
We’re just a month away from the start of VRA 2021!If you haven’t registered yet for the annual conference, now is the time to take advantage of Early Bird Rates, which are good through Saturday, March 6. While we will miss seeing everyone in person, the online format has two major advantages: we are able to offer lower registration fees this year and we are able to welcome attendees from around the world.Early Bird Rates available through March 6, 2021Member: $100Non-member: $200Student, Retired, Unemployed: $75Non-member Student, Retired, Unemployed: $125Members of affiliate organizations (ARLIS/NA, CAA, SAH, SECAC, CAICC) will register at the VRA Member rate.You can register through the conference website or at this direct link: https://vra.memberclicks.net/2021vra38. New members should register at the Non-member rate.In the next few weeks, we will be sharing more information about our virtual host city, Chicago, Steven D. Booth’s keynote address, and what you need to know to get the most out of our online conference. We plan to open the VRA 2021 Attendee Portal on March 15, one week early, so you have time to look around, read the FAQs, and ask your questions in advance.The VRA Board, our Membership Services Coordinator, and all of our conference content contributors and volunteers are working hard behind the scenes to prepare for VRA 2021. We hope you can join us in March.Looking forward to VRA 2021!Meghan RubensteinVRA Public Relations and Communication Officer
VRA 2021: SIGs and SUGs
Did you know that within VRA there are a number of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Special User Groups (SUGs)? Over time, these communities have formed organically, shifting focus based on the interests of their current members. Each year at the annual VRA conference, a number of these groups sponsor sessions open to all attendees. VRA 2021, virtualChicago, is no exception! If you are looking to learn more about the work of our SIGs and SUGS, or want to join up with more like-minded individuals, keep these sessions on your radar as you build your own conference program on Sched.Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and Special User Groups (SUGs) at VRA 2021: Monday, March 22
- 4:00–5:00 pm CDT VREPS Committee Meeting Roundtable [VREPS: Visual Resources Emerging Professionals and Students Group]
Tuesday, March 23
- 12:00–1:00 pm CDT Visual Resources in Archives: Information Sharing on Cultural Heritage Collections [SIG: Archives]
- 1:00–2:00 pm CDT Solo VR Professionals [SIG: Solo VR Professionals]
Wednesday, March 24
- 10:00–11:00 am CDT Artstor User Group Forum [SUG: Artstor]
- 10:00–11:00 am CDT MDID Special Interest Group Meeting [SUG: MDID]
- 2:00–3:00 pm CDT Future-Proof Your Data: Cataloging Conundrums and CCO [SIG: CCO]
Thursday, March 25
- 10:00–11:00 am CDT Materials Collections [SIG: Material and Object Collections]
Friday, March 26
- 11:00 am–12:00 pm CDT Digital Humanities/Digital Scholarship [SIG: Digital Humanities and Digital Scholarship]
- 2:00–3:00 pm CDT EAC Community Hour: Looking Back and Looking Forward [SIG: Equitable Action Committee]
VRA 2021: DEIA Events
Greetings All,The Equitable Action Committee invites you to attend the many events during VRA 2021 that are related to the VRA’s equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts.Monday, March 22
- 1:00pm - 4:00pm CST Digital Accessibility and Accessible Design Practices Workshop
Tuesday, March 23
- 10:00am - 11:00am Adaptability, Ingenuity, and Opportunity: VR Professionals During a Pandemic
- 11:00am - 12:00pm CST Cash Rules Everything Around Me
- 1:00-1:45pm CST Re-imagining Digital Collections Metadata: Improving Workflows And Supporting User Experience
Wednesday, March 24
- 11:00am - 12:30pm CST Keynote Speaker: Steven De'Juan Booth
- 1:00pm - 2:00pm CST ‘63 Boycott: How a digital audiovisual civil rights collection inspires new generations of students
Thursday, March 25
- 10:00am - 11:00am CST Oral Histories for the Uninitiated: Transcribing, Copyright, Metadata and Everything in Between
- 1:00pm - 2:00pm CST Power and Respect: Giving Back IPR Rights to Vulnerable Communities
- 2:00-3:00pm CST Critical Viewing and Collaboration and Outreach: Building Innovative Projects
Friday, March 26
- 2:00pm - 3:00pm CST EAC Community Hour: Looking Back and Looking Forward
- 1:00pm - 2:00pm CST Stories from the Start
If you are unable to attend VRA 2021 and have suggestions for EAC, you may fill out the form here (https://bit.ly/38Y8nGZ).Contributed by Equitable Action Committee Co-chairs:Lael Ensor-Bennett, Johns Hopkins UniversityKendra Werst, Williams College
VRA 2021: The Lifecycle of Visual Assets
The conference schedule is jam-packed with sessions for all types of visual asset professionals. Transcending the differences in our workplaces and position titles, we all engage with materials and people along the visual asset management lifecycle.
The Lifecycle was identified by the VRA Identity Task Force reflecting key points of practice and professional interest. The VRA 2021 virtualChicago conference can be filtered according to these lifecycle categories to create programming tracks. You can click on the links below to find events, sessions, and workshops that align with these categories.
Sched Lifecycle Category: Conceptualization
Sched Lifecycle Category: Capture
Sched Lifecycle Category: Description
Sched Lifecycle Category: Management
Sched Lifecycle Category: Access
Sched Lifecycle Category: Preservation
Submitted by Sara Schumacher, Vice President of Conference Program
VRA 2021: Workshops
Workshops have always been a popular component of the VRA conference and the move to virtual has allowed for innovation while maintaining crucial hands-on participation.
Have you downloaded and started to use OpenRefine, but need help as you apply it to your work?Jasmine Burns will be your guide through real-life examples and answer all your questions in “Let’s Play OpenRefine Reconciliation!” on Monday, March 22, 11am-1pm CST
Do you struggle with organizing your thoughts, representing your ideas, and sharing the value and importance of your work?John Trendler, Sheryl Frisch, and Rebecca Moss will empower you through active prompts to harness the power of visual communication in “Visual Communication for Knowledge Acquisition, Processing and Dissemination” on Monday, March 22, 11am-3pm CST
Are you worried that your digital collections are not accessible to all users?Tiffany Saulter and Carie Fisher, consultants and trainers from Deque, will help you sort through the tools and strategies to identify accessibility problems and solve them in “Digital Accessibility and Accessible Design Practices” on Monday, March 22, 1-4pm CST
These workshops are filling up fast, so do not hesitate to add them to your conference registration OR as a stand-alone workshop (additional $35 processing fee). Are you already registered for the conference? Contact VRA Membership Services Coordinator at join@vraweb.org for assistance.
Learn more about the week-long conference at httpS://vraweb.org/2021-chicago.Submitted by Sara Schumacher, VRA Vice President for Conference Program
VRA 2021 Early Bird Registration Open!
VRA 2021: Call for Proposals
Call for proposals for the VRA 2021 Conference! Accepting papers, workshops, discussion sessions, and SIGs! All proposals are due by July 27th. Submit here: surveymonkey.com/r/cfpvra2021Img Source: NARA, ID: 26335507
VRA 2020 Virtual Annual Business Meeting
The Visual Resources Association will be hosting their Annual Business Meeting on March 25, 2020 at 11 am Eastern Time (US and Canada). This will be a virtual meeting hosted in Zoom. Members have been provided additional details to attend.
VRA 2020 Baltimore: Night Out at the Walters Art Museum & A Note About Thursday
Hieronymus Francken II and Jan Brueghel the Elder, The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting the Collection of Pierre Roose, ca. 1621-1623, oil on panel, Walters Art Museum (Creative Commons Zero)
You might have noticed Dinner and Night out at the Walters Art Museum on the Sched---the fabulous Walters Art Museum is always free and open until 9 pm on Thursday nights! Located on historic Mt. Vernon Place with the Mt. Vernon Place United Methodist Church, the George Peabody Library, the Washington Monument, and just a few blocks from the Maryland Historical Society, the Walters is an encyclopedic collection of 36,000 objects covering more than seven millennia, from 5,000 BCE to the 21st century.
While some of you may be attending the The Walters Art Museum: Chamber of Wonders Tour at 4 pm (as of this post, there are still spots left, email join@vraweb.org to add a tour!), other conference attendees interested in spending a casual evening with other VRA’ers should meet in the hotel lobby at 5 pm or at 6 pm to find other interested parties. From there, it’s just a short $8-10 Lyft ride or free Charm City Circulator ride to Mt. Vernon. Please note that the visitor entrance to the Walters is on Centre Street. Once there, attendees may explore the museum at their own pace. Exhibitions up during our visit will include The St. Francis Missal, Excursions through the Collection, and From Mucha To Morris: Books of the Art Nouveau.
Walters Art Museum Building, Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons)
Feel free to stay at the museum until the doors close at 9 pm! But, if you’re wanting to grab dinner at one of the marvelous restaurants in Mt. Vernon with other conference attendees, sign up here for one of our Dinearounds at 7:30 or 8 pm. If you have signed up for a Dinearound, please meet at the Walters Art Museum gift shop at the noted meeting time on the signup. If you’d rather explore this culinary neighborhood on your own, we recommend:
B&O Brasserie, Brewer’s Art, Cazbar Turkish, Dukem Restaurant, the Helmand, Homeslyce, Hotel Indigo, Indigma Modern Indian Bistro, Maisy's, Mick O'Shea's Irish Pub, Minato, Mt. Vernon Marketplace, Owl Bar, Tabor Ethiopian, Topside
While the Walters is always open until 9 pm on Thursdays, this particular Thursday is also a big day for the downtown areas of Baltimore. Orioles Opening Day at 3:05 pm will draw a large number of folks to the harbor area and other areas of downtown Baltimore from early in the day through late in the evening. While you will see Yankee fans, as well, you will also see a sea of orange clad baseball fans filling many of the sidewalks and streets. The largest concentration will likely be around Pickles Pub, but expect traffic delays and larger crowds.
Contributor:Lael Ensor-BennettVRA Vice President for Conference ArrangementsJohns Hopkins University
VRA 2020 Baltimore: Announcing our Convocation Speaker Ashley Minner
The VRA Executive Board is pleased to announce that the Visual Resources Association Foundation Legacy Lecture will be given by Ashley Minner.
Ashley Minner is a community based visual artist from Baltimore, Maryland. An enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, she has been active in the Baltimore Lumbee community for many years, and regularly visits communities throughout the U.S South and Latin America as well. Ashley is a professor of the practice and folklorist in the Department of American Studies at University of Maryland Baltimore County, where she also serves as the inaugural director of the minor in Public Humanities. She is a doctoral candidate in the Department of American Studies at University of Maryland College Park, where she is completing her dissertation on the changing relationship between Baltimore’s Lumbee community and the neighborhood where they first settled.
Learn more about Ashley Minner here, http://ashleyminnerart.com/ and take her walking tour of the Lumbee neighborhood.
Join us Wednesday, March 25th from 4-6pm for the VRA Convocation.The Convocation begins with recognition of the Association’s honors and awards recipients, along with the generous donors who have made these awards available, followed by Ashley Minner's lecture titled “Repatriating the Archives: An Urban Reservation Reunion.”
The Board hopes that Ashley Minner’s insights, in conjunction with other conference content, will prompt dialogue and new forms of inquiry into questions of representation and inclusion we encounter in our institutions. Following the presentation, join Minner and conference attendees for the Convocation Reception to forge new connections.
Want to know more about the VRA 2020 Baltimore Annual Conference? Visit the Schedule here https://vra2020.sched.com/ and feel free to contact me!
VRA LA 2019: Conference Photos
View and Upload Conference Photos at the VRA Events Group in Flickr
Conference attendees are invited to upload their photographs from VRA LA 2019 to the Visual Resources Association Events group in Flickr. Visit https://www.flickr.com/groups/vra_events/ to join the group, upload your photos, and browse some amazing shots that just might include you!
Please assist the VRA in documenting our past, current, and future conferences, meetings, and other events. Add your favorite photos and let them go down in history!
VRA LA 2019: Community Partnership Event: Collaborate and Win
Join us for the Community Partnership Event on Wednesday, March 27 from 2:15-4:00 pm. Refreshments will be served and VRA members will have the chance to meet with VRA’s commercial partners as well as leaders of the Association. This one hour and 45 minute event will provide plenty of opportunities for conversations about products, projects, and information about how to become more involved in the work of the VRA.
How do I learn more? Want to publish in the newly open source VRA Bulletin? The editors can help you get started on an article. Want to learn about the work of the VRA Foundation? Talk to representatives about grants for interns, projects, and professional development. Have you been thinking about joining a VRA committee? Come talk to the people already involved. Maybe you are wondering about the Summer Educational Institute (SEI)... Representatives of the Implementation Team will be in attendance. Looking for a new tool or platform to catalogue and deliver content, equipment to capture collections, or libraries of stunning images? Our commercial partners will happily share their offerings.
What about those prizes? Talk to the representatives at the various tables to collect stamps and be eligible for the drawing at the end of the event. The prizes include exciting offerings from our commercial partners and items specially selected by the Local Committee to enhance your stay in Los Angeles.
And just who are these sponsors? Check out their websites linked below and come prepared with your questions.
We look forward to seeing you soon!
PLATINUM
SILVER
BRONZE
Contributors:
Amy McKenna
Public Relations and Communications Officer, VRA Executive Board
Chris Strasbaugh
Chair, VRA Development Committee