VRA Foundation Regional Workshop: Can We Do That? Intellectual Property Rights and Visual Media
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce that Can We Do That? Intellectual Property Rights and Visual Media will be held on March 13, 2020 at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Can We Do That? Intellectual Property Rights and Visual Media is one of the four workshops being offered in the fifth year of the VRAF Regional Workshop Program. The VRA Foundation is grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for their continued support of this exciting opportunity to partner with cultural heritage and educational institutions.How do I know whether something is protected by copyright? What is fair use and how can I apply it? What copyright exceptions are available for library or archival use? How can I clear a copyright? How do I navigate and negotiate licensing agreements? If you’ve asked yourself these questions, this workshop is for you! Aimed at providing real-world applications within the academic, archival, library, gallery and museum environments, we will use relevant case studies to explore issues such as educational and scholarly usage, securing academic publication rights (including for online use), creative reuse, fair use guidelines, VARA and moral rights, licensing from vendors and rights holders, and the public domain. Participants will also be introduced to tools and resources to help them and their constituents in making decisions regarding appropriate use and dissemination of visual media. will be taught by Cara Hirsch, Deputy General Counsel at The Virtual Reality Company, a studio focused on the creation of content for virtual reality film and other experiences. At VRC, Cara oversees all intellectual property matters relating to the company's business. She is the former Associate General Counsel at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, where she supported Guggenheim’s legal affairs in a wide variety of areas including intellectual property. Prior to the Guggenheim, Cara was Deputy General Counsel for Artstor, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to use digital technology to enhance scholarship, teaching, and learning in the arts, humanities and other fields. Among her duties at Artstor, Cara collaborated in refining Artstor's intellectual property and other legal strategies for the organization. She also supervised the rights review and clearance process for media collections in the Artstor Digital Library, a digital image resource that makes available to nonprofit institutions over 1.7 million digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences. Cara also worked as an Associate at the law firms of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Andrews Kurth LLP, where she practiced in the field of intellectual property. She served as Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Rights Committee of the Visual Resources Association from 2011-2014. Cara received her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law and her B.A., with distinction, from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.Registration for Can We Do That? Intellectual Property Rights and Visual Media is open until February 28, 2020. The fee for the workshop is $125. For more information about the workshop and to register, visit here. If you have any questions about registration, please feel free to contact Beth Haas, VRAF Director, bwodnick@princeton.edu. For questions about the venue, please contact Anne Mar, Assistant College Archivist/Metadata Specialist, amar@oxy.edu.
Scholarships available for SEI 2020!
The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and the Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF), along with the SEI 2020 Implementation Team, are pleased to announce the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Scholarships for the 2020 Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management (SEI), to be held June 23-26, 2020 at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
The Samuel H. Kress Foundation is once again generously funding six scholarships for SEI 2020. This intensive workshop is designed to serve a wide range of information professionals eager to learn about best practices and new technologies and/or update job skills in the realm of digital collections management, as well as to provide significant networking and professional development opportunities. The comprehensive curriculum seeks to address the requirements of today's cultural heritage information professional, including hands-on and lecture modules presented by expert instructors. SEI provides new professionals, current library school students, and mid-career professionals from a wide range of related fields the opportunity to stay current in an ever-evolving digital landscape. Museum professionals, archivists, visual resources professionals, digital librarians, art and architecture librarians, digital project managers, current and recent graduate students, and others in related fields are all encouraged to attend.
Details:
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The six Kress Scholarship recipients will each receive $1000 towards the cost of SEI.
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Kress Scholarship applications are due by Monday, March 9, 2020.
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Recipients will be notified no later than Monday, March 30, 2020.
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Each Kress Scholarship recipient will be required to write a report detailing how they benefitted from SEI and the scholarship upon completion of SEI 2020.
Instructions:
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Submit a resume or curriculum vitae and a cover letter (no longer than two pages) describing the effect attending SEI would have on your studies and/or your career.
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All applications will be evaluated by three SEI co-chairs based on the criteria established for the award (including current or future career goals as well as financial need) and any additional directions from the Kress Foundation staff.
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Submit your application materials via e-mail in a single document (PDF preferred), using the following file naming convention: LAST NAME_FIRST NAME_KRESS2020 to SEI 2020 Senior Co-Chair Courtney Baron at courtney.baron@louisville.
edu.
Best wishes,Courtney Baron, SEI 2020 Co-Chaircourtney.baron@louisville.eduBridget Madden, SEI 2020 Co-Chairbridgetm@uchicago.edu
VRAF 2019-2020 Internship Award Winner Announced
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The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) Board of Directors announces the 2019-2020 VRAF Internship Award in visual resources and image management. This award was generously funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
Kristine Clark, of Phoenix, Arizona, is the recipient of the VRA Foundation’s seventh Internship Award. She will receive $3,000 to work a minimum of 200 hours with the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art to “bridge the gap between accessible and available” on the museum’s website. Approximately half of SMoCA’s collection of nearly 2,000 objects has been photographed and is available for online viewing. However, one can currently only browse by object type; there are no other means to search for works in the collection. Kristine’s work will focus on image tagging and composing catalog descriptions. She will establish a methodology for creating these tags, including a lexicon of controlled vocabulary terms, which others will be able to apply in the future. If time allows, she will also assist with photographing the remainder of the collection.
Carrie Tovar, SMoCA Registrar and supervisor for this project, shared that Kristine’s project will allow the online collection to reach an even greater audience, including those who are financially or physically unable to visit in person. She notes that SMoCA is the only museum in Arizona dedicated to contemporary art, architecture, and design, and that its mission embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion. Kristine will explore a culturally sensitive approach to image tagging that is aligned with these organizational values.
VRAF selected Kristine’s proposed project for a number of reasons, including her demonstrated initiative, passion, and record of high achievement; the benefits to her professional development; the opportunity to support the development of standards and best practices within the museum community; the importance of culturally competent practices in the description of museum objects; the benefits to an institution of SMoCA’s size; and the potential to reach diverse communities with diverse content.
The Foundation is pleased to support the education and practical training of emerging professionals through this internship award. This year the VRAF Internship Award Committee received excellent applications for an array of fascinating and important projects which made the selection process difficult. The Internship Award Committee (Linda Callahan, Marcia Focht, Carolyn Lucarelli, Adelaide McComb, and Elaine Paul, Chair) appreciates the careful thought that went into every proposal. We are grateful to the Kress Foundation for its assistance and for recognizing the potential of this award to foster the next generation of visual resource professionals.
The VRAF Internship Award is part of the Foundation's mission to advance awareness of important issues for effective digital information management (including intellectual property and copyright); encourage the application of professional standards, innovative technology, and metadata cataloging protocols; and to facilitate workplace training. VRAF supports a range of educational offerings to help ensure that such information reaches a diverse, global audience. For more information about the Visual Resources Association Foundation, its mission and projects, as well as giving opportunities, please visit www.vrafoundation.com, or read the latest issue of our annual report at https://vrafoundation.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/finalar20172018onlineversion.pdf.
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Fall 2019 VRAF Professional Development Grant: Call for Applications
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce that it is accepting applications for the VRAF Professional Development Grant program. This program offers two $1000 grants yearly. This grant can be used to support conference participation, enroll in a workshop, for an online education opportunity, or for research activities. For consideration, please submit your application by Friday, September 20, 2019, 11:59PM Pacific Time. If you have any questions about the VRAF Professional Development Grant or the application process, and to submit your application here: https://forms.gle/LHeYeRJFnEniJHJP9 or please contact the VRAF Board of Directors at vrafoundation@gmail.com. The recipient of the Fall 2019 VRAF Professional Development grant will be announced by Friday, October 4, 2019, and must be used before October 4, 2020.
Purpose:
The purpose of the VRAF Professional Development grant is to support professional development in the field of visual resources and cultural heritage information management. The grant can be used to participate in a professional development opportunity of the grantee’s choosing (such as a conference, symposium, workshop, online education), or to enroll in relevant research activities (such as hands-on field work or a site visit for scholarly purposes). Priority will be given to applications that include participation at a conference (giving a paper, teaching a workshop, chairing a committee, etc.); research that shows promise to lead to publication or contributes to the visual resources and cultural heritage information management community; or to applications that can demonstrate that the receiving the opportunity will have a broader benefit to an institution or region. Please note that recipients of the award are required to submit a report outlining how the award contributed to his or her professional development within 30 days following the event.
Eligibility:
- Applicants should have a professional interest in visual resources and cultural heritage information management, and may include retirees, the currently unemployed, or students seeking educational and training opportunities in support of broad access to cultural information.
- Membership in the Visual Resources Association is not required.
- Statements of financial need will be strongly considered.Acceptable Uses of Award Money:
- Transportation costs to and from the event venue
- Registration fees or tuition
- Required course materials (e.g., workbooks, DVDs)
- Lodging
- Meals – including meals in transit to and from the educational event
- Research expenses
Grant monies may not be used to cover indirect costs (For example, a percentage of the grant money/funding taken by the grantee's institution to cover perceived overhead.)
Application Criteria:
- A goals statement outlining the opportunity, how it will benefit your work, and any potential contributions this opportunity may allow you to make beyond your own professional development.
- A comprehensive budget and breakdown of your proposed travel, lodging, meal, and other expenses. When costs are estimated, please explain (e.g., “roundtrip airfare on United as determined via Expedia search”; my lodging costs reflect an estimate for a shared room). If your institution requires you to use a specific airline, or has set a corporate airfare rate, please note this in the comments section. Be as clear and complete as possible about other funding support you will receive or are applying for, such as from your home institution, or other grants and awards.
- Your resume/curriculum vitae
Application:
- Please submit an online application to be considered for a VRAF Professional Development Grant.
On Behalf of the VRAF Board of Directors
vrafoundation@gmail.com
vrafoundation.com
Apply to Host a 2019-2020 VRAF Regional Workshop
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce that it is accepting host applications for the VRAF Regional Workshop Program for 2019-20. The application deadline is Friday, August 23 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. Thanks to the continued generous support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, this program will allow the VRAF to continue to realize its mission to promote scholarship, research, education, and outreach in the fields of visual resources and image management.
For the 2019-2020 program, the VRAF will support four workshops for up to $3000 each, including an instructor stipend and travel expenses, a stipend for the local organizer, catering, and other minor expenses incurred by the host institution. The VRAF will provide significant logistical support, including locating a qualified instructor and managing registration. With the VRAF Regional Workshop Grant, host institutions will be able to offer a workshop without the burden of developing it from within, and provide valuable programming not only to their local constituents, but also to their broader region. This opportunity is open to Visual Resources Association (VRA) Chapters, VRA affiliates, related information management organizations, museums, libraries, and academic institutions. For a reasonable registration fee, the workshops will provide an immersive experience on a single topic, framed in a manner that is relevant to digital asset management professionals, users of cultural heritage information, and the larger information community.
Applications will be accepted to host one of the following workshops:
- Can We Do That?: Intellectual Property Rights and Visual Media
- Collaborating across the Institution: Creating Professional Partnerships to Support Cultural Heritage
- Learning to Look and Looking to Learn: A Workshop on Visual Literacy
- Moving Images: The Basics and Beyond
- Python for Beginners
- The International Image Interoperability Framework: What Is It, and How Can I Use It?
- Something Mappy This Way Comes: An Introduction to Digital Mapping Technologies
- From Project to Product: Effective Project Management and Strategic Planning
- Managing Digital Content
- Propose Your Own Workshop!
We will also consider applications in which the host site proposes its own workshop topic. International hosts welcome to apply. Please review the description of the VRAF Regional Workshop Programas well as the VRAF Mission Statement prior to confirm that your proposed workshop fits within both the program’s parameters and the larger goals of the VRAF.
To conform to the guidelines of our Samuel H. Kress grant, workshops must be held by June 2020. For more information about the VRAF Regional Workshop Program, visit https://vrafoundation.com/regional-workshops/. To apply, visit https://vrafoundation.com/apply/. If you have additional questions about the program, please contact the Regional Workshop Implementation Team, vraf.rwit@gmail.com. The deadline for application is Friday, August 23 at 11:59 p.m. PDT.
On behalf of the VRAF Regional Workshop Implementation Team
vrafoundation@gmail.com
vrafoundation.com
https://twitter.com/vrafoundation
https://www.facebook.com/visrafoundation/
Registration Open: Metadata and Management of Cultural Heritage Digital Media
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce registration is now live for “Metadata and Management of Cultural Heritage Digital Media: From Fundamentals to Future Trends” hosted by the Smithsonian’s Freer|Sackler Museum on April 26, 2019.
This one-day workshop will provide you with the background and tools to effectively organize, catalogue, and distribute your institution’s digital assets by introducing you to the core concepts of managing digital content. Participants will receive an overview of metadata standards, as well as how to manage, share, and publish digital content.
The workshop will be taught by Shyam Oberoi, the Chief Digital Officer for the Royal Ontario Museum, where he oversees the Museum’s digital and technology strategy. Before coming to the ROM, he was the Director of Technology and Digital Media at the Dallas Museum of Art, where he led the Museum’s digital and technical initiatives with responsibility for media creation, gallery interactives, technical services and mobile experiences. Among his successes was a multi-year project to comprehensively digitize every object in the DMA’s collection, and publish the entire collection online with extended scholarly content.
To register or read the full workshop description, visit here. The workshop fee is $125. If you have questions about registration, contact Beth Haas, VRAF Director, bwodnick@princeton.edu. For questions about the venue, contact Cory Grace, gracec@si.edu.
Please register by April 19, 2019.
The VRAF is grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for their continued support of this exciting opportunity to partner with cultural heritage and educational institutions.
2019 VRA Foundation Professional Development Grant: Call for Applications
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce that it is accepting applications for the VRAF Professional Development Grant program. This program offers two $1000 grants yearly. This grant can be used to support conference participation, enroll in a workshop, for an online education opportunity, or for research activities. For consideration, please submit your application by Friday, February 22, 2019, 11:59pm Pacific Time. If you have any questions about the VRAF Professional Development Grant or the application process, and to submit your application go here: https://goo.gl/forms/mLrZCo7VdQrup3nf2 or please contact the VRAF Board of Directors at vrafoundation@gmail.com. To obtain further details about the VRAF, the VRAF Professional Development Grant, and other VRAF programs, please visit vrafoundation.com. The recipient of the 2019 VRAF Professional Development grant will be announced by Friday, March 1, 2019, and must be used before March 1, 2020.
Purpose:
The purpose of the VRAF Professional Development grant is to support professional development in the field of visual resources and cultural heritage information management. The grant can be used to participate in a professional development opportunity of the grantee’s choosing (such as a conference, symposium, workshop, online education), or to enroll in relevant research activities (such as hands-on field work or a site visit for scholarly purposes). Priority will be given to applications that include participation at a conference (giving a paper, teaching a workshop, chairing a committee, etc.); research that shows promise to lead to publication or contributes to the visual resources and cultural heritage information management community; or to applications that can demonstrate that the receiving the opportunity will have a broader benefit to an institution or region. Please note that recipients of the award are required to submit a report outlining how the award contributed to his or her professional development within 30 days following the event.
Eligibility:
- Applicants should have a professional interest in visual resources and cultural heritage information management, and may include retirees, the currently unemployed, or students seeking educational and training opportunities in support of broad access to cultural information.
- Membership in the Visual Resources Association is not required.
- Statements of financial need will be strongly considered.
Acceptable Uses of Award Money:
- Transportation costs to and from the event venue
- Registration fees or tuition
- Required course materials (e.g., work books, DVDs)
- Lodging
- Meals – including meals in transit to and from the educational event
- Research expenses
Grant monies may not be used to cover indirect costs (a percentage of grant money taken by the grantee’s institution to cover perceived overhead)
Application Criteria:
- A goals statement outlining the opportunity, how it will benefit your work, and any potential contributions this opportunity may allow you to make beyond your own professional development.
- A comprehensive budget and breakdown of your proposed travel, lodging, meal, and other expenses. When costs are estimated, please explain (e.g., “roundtrip airfare on United as determined via Expedia search”; my lodging costs reflect an estimate for a shared room). If your institution requires you to use a specific airline, or has set a corporate airfare rate, please note this in the comments section. Be as clear and complete as possible about other funding support you will receive or are applying for, such as from your home institution, or other grants and awards.
- Your resume/curriculum vitae
Application:
Please submit an online application to be considered for a VRAF Professional Development Grant.
On behalf of the VRA Board of Directors
vrafoundation@gmail.com
vrafoundation.com
https://twitter.com/vrafoundationhttps://www.facebook.com/visrafoundation/
Scholarships available for SEI 2019
The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and the Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF), along with the SEI 2019 Implementation Team, are pleased to announce the Samuel H. Kress Foundation Scholarships for the 2019 Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources and Image Management (SEI), to be held June 4-7, 2019, at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque.
The Samuel H. Kress Foundation is once again generously funding six scholarships for SEI 2019. This intensive workshop is designed to serve a wide range of information professionals eager to learn about best practices and new technologies and/or update job skills in the realm of digital collections management, as well as to provide significant networking and professional development opportunities. The comprehensive curriculum seeks to address the requirements of today's cultural heritage information professional, including hands-on and lecture modules presented by expert instructors. SEI provides new professionals, current library school students, and mid-career professionals from a wide range of related fields the opportunity to stay current in an ever-evolving digital landscape. Museum professionals, archivists, visual resources professionals, digital librarians, art and architecture librarians, digital project managers, current and recent graduate students, and others in related fields are all encouraged to attend.
Details:
- The six Kress Scholarship recipients will each receive $833 towards the cost of SEI.
- Kress Scholarship applications are due by Friday, February 8, 2018.
- Recipients will be notified no later than Friday, March 8, 2018.
- Each Kress Scholarship recipient will be required to write a report detailing how they benefitted from SEI and the scholarship upon completion of SEI 2019.
Instructions:
- Submit a resume or curriculum vitae and a cover letter (no longer than two pages) describing the effect attending SEI would have on your studies and/or your career.
- All applications will be evaluated by three SEI co-chairs based on the criteria established for the award (including current or future career goals as well as financial need) and any additional directions from the Kress Foundation staff.
- Submit your application materials via e-mail in a single document (PDF preferred), using the following file naming convention: LAST NAME_FIRST NAME_KRESS2019 to SEI 2019 Senior Co-Chair Lesley Chapman at lchapman@colgate.edu.
SEI registration will open January 14, 2019.
Registration Open for VRAF Regional Workshop: Digital Mapping Technologies
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce registration is now live for “Something Mappy This Way Comes: An Introduction to Digital Mapping Technologies” hosted at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville on January 25, 2019.
This workshop will be a crash course in Digital Humanities mapping and related technologies. Examples of digital platforms will be given, with discussion of strengths, weaknesses, and budgets. Participants will learn about current DH mapping projects from the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab and do a deep dive into what makes them successful and cutting edge. Discussions of data workflows and best practices will set the stage for learning about digital storytelling. Lastly, you will work with primary source data sets to create a digital mapping project that allows users to explore historical information with 21st century mapping technology.
The workshop will be taught by Justin Madron, the Digital Scholarship Lab’s GIS Project Manager & Analyst at the University of Richmond (VA). He is in charge of GIS related tasks and technologies required for the production and maintenance of American Panorama, a digital atlas of American history project. He has a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from West Virginia University and a Master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Environmental Studies with a focus on Geographical Information Systems and Technologies. His graduate research was on the historical and present reforestation of red spruce in the Appalachian Mountains.
To register or read the full workshop description, visit here. The workshop fee is $125. If you have questions about registration, contact Beth Haas, VRAF Director. For questions about the venue, contact Lori Birrell, Head of Special Collections. Please register by January 18, 2019.
The VRAF is grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for their continued support of this exciting opportunity to partner with cultural heritage and educational institutions.
Registration Open for VRAF Regional Workshop: Documenting Cultural Heritage at The George Eastman Museum
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce that registration is open for Documenting Cultural Heritage: Strategies and Spaces for Digital Capture, to be held on November 30, 2018. This workshop will be hosted by the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY, and is open to cultural heritage professionals, the information, museum, and educational communities, and anyone interested in visual culture. Documenting Cultural Heritage: Strategies and Spaces for Digital Capture is the first of four workshops being offered in the 2018-2019 VRAF Regional Workshop Program. The VRAF is grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for their continued support of this exciting opportunity to partner with cultural heritage and educational institutions.
Workshop Description: “Digital capture” encompasses a broad range of technologies and processes. While the role of a digitization space has historically revolved around slide and flatbed scanners, these represent just two of many possible approaches to digital imaging. The first part of this workshop will explore traditional methods for digital capture, including scanners, DSLR cameras, copystands, lighting, and specialized imaging devices for specific uses. Part two of the day will take participants beyond the basics by focusing on emerging technologies and their impact on the capture, dissemination, and storage of cultural materials. All workshop content will be framed within the important questions you should be asking when planning the present and future directions of your digital capture project or facilities. Participants will also receive significant supplemental material, including recommended equipment, buying guides, and a variety of workflow documents from several institutions. When combined with the presented information, participants will have the tools in place to build an efficient digitization space that is as unique as their specific resources and project needs.
Documenting Cultural Heritage will be taught by Chris Strasbaugh, Digital Library Archivist and Curator at the Knowlton School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City and Regional Planning at The Ohio State University. As photographer, art historian, and now digital curator, Chris has always been driven to document and preserve cultural heritage. His work as a Digital Library Archivist and Curator is a perfect mix of his passions in preservation, photography, emerging technology, open access, and metadata management. He works with an archive of unique work, documenting the history of the various programs in the Knowlton School as well as highlighting new work that showcases the students in the programs.
Chris has recently presented on the topic of digitization at the 2+3D Photography – Practice and Prophecies – 2017 conference at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, HASTAC 2017 in Orlando, and the June 2017 Images: Digitization and Preservation of Special Collections in Libraries, Museums, and Archives, NISO Virtual Conference. In addition to conference presentations, he has also produced online learning trainings, taught local workshops, and has actively assisted special collections in designing and streamlining their digitization process.
To register for Documenting Cultural Heritage: Strategies and Spaces for Digital Capture and to learn more about the workshop, visit https://vrafoundation.com/current-regional-workshops/documenting-cultural-heritage-eastman-2/. The fee for this day-long workshop is $125. If you have questions about registration, feel free to contact Beth Haas, VRAF Director, bwodnick@princeton.edu or for questions about the program or venue, please contact Elizabeth Chiang, echiang@eastman.org.
Save these Dates: 2018-2019 VRAF Regional Workshops Schedule
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce the host sites for the 2018-2019 VRAF Regional Workshop Program. Now in its fourth year, and thanks to the continued and generous support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, this program is allowing the VRAF to realize its mission to promote scholarship, research, education, and outreach in the fields of visual resources and image management.The 2018-2019 workshops are:Documenting Cultural Heritage: Strategies and Spaces for Digital Capture at the George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, to be held on November 30, 2018Something Mappy This Way Comes: An Introduction to Digital Mapping Technologies at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, to be held on January 25, 2019.Exhibit, Instruct, Promote, Collaborate: An Introduction to Omeka for Digital Scholarship at The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, to be held on March 1, 2019.Metadata and Management of Cultural Heritage Digital Media: From Fundamentals to Future Trends at The Smithsonian’s Freer|Sackler, Washington, D.C., to be held on April 26, 2019.With the VRAF Regional Workshop Program’s funding, host institutions will be able to offer a workshop without the burden of developing it from within, and provide valuable programming not only to their local constituents, but to their broader region. For a reasonable registration fee, the workshops provide an immersive experience on a single topic, framed in a manner that is relevant to image management professionals, users of cultural heritage information, and the larger information community. The call for host sites for the 2019-2020 VRAF Regional Workshop Program will be announced in summer 2019.For more information about the VRAF Regional Workshop Program, including this year’s offerings, please visit: https://vrafoundation.com/
VRAF Announces 2018-2019 Internship Award Recipient
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) Board of Directors announces the 2018-2019 VRAF Internship Award in visual resources and image management. This award was generously funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.Adelaide McComb, of Louisville, Kentucky, is the winner of the VRA Foundation’s sixth Internship Award. She will receive $3,000 to work a minimum of 200 hours with the Lakota Dream Museum & Monument (https://www.lakotadream.org/). This is a new cultural center in Rapid City, South Dakota, and the first Indigenous-owned museum in the historic Black Hills. Its mission is to provide an accurate interpretation of The Great Plains tribes through documented resources, artifacts, and local historians with the intention to instill knowledge, a strong sense of identity, and hope into the Lakota and all Native people. In addition to a growing collection of religious and sacred objects, its programs include Lakota language revitalization, internships, workforce development, educational scholarships, small business loans, and more.Adelaide is pursuing curatorial studies and non-profit management graduate degrees at the University of Louisville. The objective of this internship is to create a database that captures the historical, visual, and culturally significant aspects of the museum’s artifacts. She will work with archeologists, anthropologists, and historians at the Lakota Dream Museum, and with semantic database experts at Semantic Arts on the software platform and ontology design. Her past experience as a software consultant has given Adelaide a comprehensive understanding of database management. This opportunity will allow her to learn the significance of cultural preservation, heritage, revitalization, and how data affect the way this information is shared. Her academic instruction in curatorial studies will provide guidance in collection exhibitions and visual resource management. Adelaide’s proposal includes a plan for Native youth to eventually receive training in visual resources and image management under the guidance of curatorial and anthropological staff, thus ensuring best practices while enabling community members to gain valuable skills and participate directly in this revitalization of their culture.Adonis Saltes, Chief Executive Officer of the Lakota Dream Museum & Monument, states “under direction from Spiritual Leaders, we elected to not hide our culture. We choose to allow visitors to view personal items which well-known leaders relied upon for strength and direction. They serve to remind us of Lakota who sought protection and direction during the challenging years of their lives…With many experts putting their minds together to help these items continue for generations to come, the historical, curatorial, and cultural context for these objects will help us preserve the culture of the Great Plains. This will be a great opportunity for Lakota Dream to move forward and prosper.”The Foundation is pleased to support the education and practical training of emerging professionals through this internship award. The VRAF Internship Award Committee received excellent applications for many fascinating and important projects this year, which made the selection process difficult. The Internship Award Committee (Linda Callahan, Beth Haas, Carolyn Lucarelli, Maria Nuccilli, and Elaine Paul, Chair) appreciates the careful thought that went into every proposal. We are grateful to the Kress Foundation for its assistance and for recognizing the potential of this award to foster the next generation of visual resource professionals.The VRAF Internship Award is part of the Foundation's mission to advance awareness of important issues for effective digital information management (including intellectual property and copyright); encourage the application of professional standards, innovative technology, and metadata cataloging protocols; and to facilitate workplace training. VRAF supports a range of educational offerings to help ensure that such information reaches a diverse, global audience. For more information about the Visual Resources Association Foundation, its mission and projects, as well as giving opportunities, please visit www.vrafoundation.com, or read the latest issue of our annual report at https://vrafoundation.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/vraf20162017ar.pdf.
VRAF Regional Workshops: Call for Host Site Applications
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce that it is accepting host applications for the VRAF Regional Workshop Program for 2018-2019. Thanks to the continued generous support from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, this program will allow the VRAF to continue to realize its mission to promote scholarship, research, education, and outreach in the fields of visual resources and image management.For the 2018-2019 program, the VRAF will support four workshops for up to $3000 each, including an instructor stipend and travel expenses, a stipend for the local organizer, catering, and other minor expenses incurred by the host institution. The VRAF will provide significant logistical support, including locating a qualified instructor and managing registration. With the VRAF Regional Workshop Grant, host institutions will be able to offer a workshop without the burden of developing it from within, and provide valuable programming not only to their local constituents, but also to their broader region. This opportunity is open to Visual Resources Association (VRA) Chapters, VRA affiliates, related information management organizations, museums, libraries, and academic institutions. For a reasonable registration fee, the workshops will provide an immersive experience on a single topic, framed in a manner that is relevant to digital asset management professionals, users of cultural heritage information, and the larger information community.Applications will be accepted to host one of the following workshops:
- Can We Do That?: Intellectual Property Rights and Visual Media
- Collaborating across the Institution: Creating Professional Partnerships to Support Cultural Heritage
- Documenting Cultural Heritage: Strategies and Spaces for Digital Capture
- Exhibit, Instruct, Promote: An Introduction to Omeka for Digital Scholarship
- Learning to Look and Looking to Learn: A Workshop on Visual Literacy
- Managing Digital Content
- Metadata and Management of Cultural Heritage Digital Media: From Fundamental to Future Trends
- Moving Images: The Basics and Beyond
- The International Image Interoperability Framework: What is it, and how can I use it?
- Something Mappy This Way Comes: An Introduction to Digital Mapping Technologies
- Python for Beginners
We will also consider applications in which the host site proposes its own workshop topic. Please review the description of the VRAF Regional Workshop Program as well as the VRAF Mission Statement prior to confirm that your proposed workshop fits within both the program’s parameters and the larger goals of the VRAF.To conform to the guidelines of our Samuel H. Kress grant, workshops must be held by June 2019. For more information about the VRAF Regional Workshop Program, visit https://vrafoundation.com/regional-workshops/. To apply, visit https://vrafoundation.com/apply/. If you have additional questions about the program, please contact VRAF Director Beth Haas, bwodnick@princeton.edu. The deadline for application is Friday, August 24th at 11:59 a.m. PDT.
Call for Applications: VRA Foundation Internship Award, 2018-2019
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to invite applications for the sixth VRAF Internship Award in visual resources and image management. This internship is generously funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.The VRAF Internship Award provides financial support for graduate students and recent graduates preparing for a career in visual resources and image management. The award grants $3,000 to support a period of internship in archives, libraries, museums, visual resources collections in academic institutions, or other appropriate contexts. It also provides $1,000 for professional development, and a one-year complimentary student membership in the Visual Resources Association.Candidates should apply after developing a project with a specific collection and prospective supervisor. Priority will be given to applicants who submit projects that support art historical or related visual cultural heritage research and scholarship. The VRAF Internship Award Committee favors opportunities in which the intern may integrate skills acquired during the course of his or her academic training to manage a project from beginning to end, with the host institution receiving needed help in making valuable but hidden cultural collections visible. Projects that would not occur without funding for an intern may be given special consideration. A complete description of the internship and application instructions are available at: https://vrafoundation.com/
VRAF Regional Workshop: IIIF in Austin, Texas, May 11, 2018
The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce its fourth workshop, the last in the series being offered during the 2017-2018 VRAF Regional Workshop Program. Registration is now live for The International Image Interoperability Framework: What Is it and How Can I Use It? workshop, to be hosted by the University of Texas at Austin and held on May 11, 2018. This day-long workshop is open to cultural heritage professionals, the information, museum, and educational communities, and anyone interested in visual culture. The VRAF is grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for its continued support of this exciting opportunity to partner with cultural heritage and educational institutions.
Access to image-based resources is fundamental to research, scholarship and the transmission of cultural knowledge. Digital images are a container for much of the information content in the web-based delivery of images, books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps, scrolls, single sheet collections and archival materials. Yet much of the Internet’s image-based resources are locked up in silos, with access restricted to bespoke, locally built applications. The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) is a set of shared application programming interface (API) specifications for interoperable functionality in digital image repositories. The IIIF is comprised of and driven by a community of libraries, museums, archives, software companies and other organizations working together to create, test, refine, implement and promote the IIIF specifications. This workshop will provide a clear and thorough understanding of what IIIF is, how it works and how it can be applied to enhance image access and resource sharing.
“The International Image Interoperability Framework: What Is It and How Can I Use It?” workshop will be taught by Ben Brumfield and Sara Carlstead Brumfield of Brumfield Labs. Ben and Sara have been working with IIIF for years, participating and presenting in IIIF groups on discovery and manuscripts, and leading workshops for museums and libraries. Their technical projects include building IIIF support into FromThePage, a manuscript transcription software and developing Pontiiif, an IIIF manifest search engine.
To learn more and register for the workshop visit https://vrafoundation.com/iiif_utaustin/.
The fee for this day-long workshop is $125.
For questions about The University of Texas at Austin venue, contact Sydney Kilgore (skilgore@austin.utexas.edu) or Elizabeth Schaub (eschaub@austin.utexas.edu).
For questions about registration or the workshop, contact Beth Haas, VRAF Director, bwodnick@princeton.edu.
VRAF Regional Workshop: Visual Literacy: Learning to Look and Looking to Learn
Visual Literacy: Learning to Look and Looking to Learn
VRAF Regional WorkshopUniversity of California BerkeleyFebruary 26th, 2016Session 1: 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Berkeley Art MuseumSession 2: 2:00 p.m.-4:45 p.m., Visual Resources Center, 308A Doe LibraryThe Visual Resources Association Foundation is pleased to announce that registration for Visual Literacy: Learning to Look and Looking to Learn is now live! This workshop will be held at University of California Berkeley on February 26th, 2016, one of two workshops being offered in the first year of the VRAF Regional Workshop Program. This workshop will be hosted by the Visual Resources Center in the History of Art Department at UC Berkeley, and is open to image management professionals, image users, and the broader information and educational community. The VRAF is grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for their generous support of this new opportunity.Part one of this workshop will focus on visual literacy skills and pedagogical approaches by exploring objects at the new Berkeley Art Museum. In part two of the workshop, participants will discuss and develop ways to implement their own visual literacy program at their institutions, and learn how staff, students and faculty can use digital archives, art objects, and other primary sources in developing visual literacy skills.InstructorVisual Literacy: Learning to Look and Looking to Learn will be taught by Jessica Sack, the Jan and Frederick Mayer Senior Associate Curator of Public Education at the Yale University Art Gallery. During her fifteen years in the field of museum education, Jessica has developed training programs in visual literacy for information professionals, teachers, faculty, and students.RegistrationThe fee for the workshop is $75 for either the morning or afternoon session, or $125 for the full day. To register or learn more about Visual Literacy: Learning to Look and Looking to Learn, visit http://vrafoundation.org.s119319.gridserver.com/index.php/projects/visual_literacy_regional_workshop/If you have questions about registration, feel free to contact Betha Whitlow, VRAF Director, bwhitlow@wustl.edu For questions about the University of California Berkeley venue, please contact Lynn Cunningham, Curator of Visual Resources, lynncunningham@berkeley.edu.
VRAF Regional Workshop: Exhibit, Instruct, Promote: An Introduction to Omeka for Digital Scholarship
Exhibit, Instruction, Promote: An Introduction to Omeka for Digital Scholarship
VRAF Regional Workshop Hunter College, City University of New YorkFebruary 19th, 2016 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.The Visual Resources Association Foundation is pleased to announce that registration for Exhibit, Instruct, Promote: An Introduction to Omeka for Digital Scholarship, is now live! This workshop will be held at Hunter College, City University of New York, on February 19th, 2016, one of two workshops being offered in the first year of the VRAF Regional Workshop Program. This workshop will be hosted by the Judith and Stanley Zabar Art Library, and is open to image management professionals, image users, and the broader information and educational community. The VRAF is grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for their generous support of this new opportunity.Omeka is a rich, open-source web publishing tool with a diverse array of functions for digital scholarship projects. For information professionals, faculty and students, Omeka can provide an easy way to publish and share digital content, as well as serve as a platform for building online exhibitions as academic and/or student projects. In this full-day workshop, participants will be provided with a comprehensive overview of both Omeka.net (hosted) and Omeka.org (installed on a server) and case studies that demonstrate the use of Omeka in a variety of contexts, ranging from providing access to digital collections to projects that engage students in the learning process. While focused on Omeka, this workshop also will touch on other similar tools used for digital scholarship (such as Scalar) and offer practical information for planning digital projects.InstructorExhibit, Instruct, Promote will be taught by Meghan Musolff, Special Projects Librarian for Library IT at the University of Michigan Library. As part of her role, Meghan coordinates the U-M Library’s implementation of Omeka for the creation and presentation of online exhibits.RegistrationThe fee for Exhibit, Instruct, Promote is $125. To register or learn more about the workshop, visit http://vrafoundation.org.s119319.gridserver.com/index.php/projects/omeka_for_digital_scholarship_regional_workshop/If you have questions about registration, feel free to contact Betha Whitlow, VRAF Director, bwhitlow@wustl.edu. For questions about the Hunter College venue, please contact Steven Kowalik, Art Librarian, Judith and Stanley Zabar Art Library, skowalik@hunter.cuny.edu