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VRA Members at EVA Conference in Florence, Italy

Three VRA members, Marcia Focht from SUNY Binghamton, Maureen Burns of Archivision, and Andreas Knab of vrcHost, had papers accepted for the Electronic Visualization in the Arts (EVA) Florence conference in May 2018. Marcia introduced this international audience to some of the work of the VRA’s Data Standards Committee in a presentation entitled, “Maximizing Metadata: Embedded Metadata Tools.” Although Andreas was unable to attend in person, he partnered with Maureen on the following presentation, “Instant Architecture: Hosted Access to the Archivision Research Library with Built-In Image Management and Presentation Tools.” All of the EVA presenters’ papers were published through the Firenze University Press and are available for purchase in hard copy or through an open access downloadable PDF.The EVA Florence conference brought together about 100 speakers and participants to exchange ideas, spotlight initiatives, and share experiences on current trends in international arts computing and cultural heritage sector developments. Sponsored by an impressive array of Italian government, industry, foundation, and university entities--from the Associazione Beni Italiani Patrimonio Mondiale Unesco to Fratelli Alinari Idea to the Universita di Firenze--scholars and professionals came from as far afield as Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Turkey, the UK, and USA, with strong representation from the various regions of Italy. There was quite a mixture of material presented from art historical research to museum trends to commercial products.  Following the conference, Marcia and Maureen connected with Visual Resources Association International Chapter members who also attended EVA--Lavinia Ciuffa from the American Academy in Rome and Spyros Koulouris of I Tatti in Florence--to visit the extensive and historic archives, libraries, and grounds of Bernard Berenson's Tuscan villa (now a Harvard Research Center) and Palazzo Grifoni, housing the Photothek des Kunsthistorischen Instituts in Florenz--Max Planck Institut (over 600,000 photographs). Dr. Ute Dercks provided an in-depth tour of the Photothek and it was fun to see that shelf order still matters for the analog collections. Their online exhibits and digital database are also impressive. It might be hard to find a more beautiful and peaceful corner of the world than Villa I Tatti. Spyros was a gracious host, both in Florence, where we had a traditional Tuscan meal at an osteria together after the conference, and up in the surrounding hills, generously sharing his time and expertise to provide us with an informative tour of the library and photo archive as well as a picture-postcard lunch with a view.

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