Register Now! VRA Regional Workshop on Visual Literacy

The Visual Resources Association (VRA) is pleased to announce registration is now live for Learning to Look and Looking to Learn: A Workshop on Visual Literacy with instructors Jessica Sack of the Yale University Art Gallery and Rachel Thompson of the Guggenheim Museum. This two-part online workshop will be held via Zoom on Fridays, September 23rd and 30th, from 5:30 pm–7:30 pm EDT.REGISTRATIONTo register, please visit the workshop webpage. The workshop fee is $50. If you have questions about registration or general questions about the workshop, email the Regional Workshop Implementation Team at vraf.rwit@gmail.com. Please register by Monday, September 19, 2022.The Regional Workshop Implementation Team is grateful to The Samuel H. Kress Foundation for their continued support of this exciting opportunity to partner with cultural heritage and educational institutions. You can read about all the workshops planned for 2022 on our website: https://vraweb.org/opportunities/regional-workshops/WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONAs we now work in hybrid settings—in person and online—there is an increasing challenge to develop visual literacy skills of both educators and students, uniquely positioning those who work with visual media to provide necessary visual literacy training and instruction.This two-part workshop will provide participants with the tools to develop and implement visual literacy instruction within their professional practice both in person and using online platforms such as Zoom. Part one of this workshop will focus on visual literacy skills and pedagogical approaches by using Zoom to engage with objects from museums, libraries, and archives. Part two will focus on ways for participants to apply these pedagogies to their own work and institutions.Participants will discuss and develop ways to implement and evaluate their own visual literacy programs as well as how digital archives, art objects, and other primary sources can be used by staff, students, and faculty. The question of what it means to teach from collections within a range of professional perspectives–including from information, museum, and education contexts—will also be addressed.ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORSJessica Sack is the Jan and Frederick Mayer Curator of Public Education at the Yale University Art Gallery. Jessica has worked in the field of museum education for more than twenty years. In that time she has been developing professional development programs in Visual Literacy for a variety of audiences including librarian, teacher, and faculty workshops, and training graduate students as museum educators. In addition, Jessica works with area teachers and faculty, helping them find ways to teach from objects and hone their own observation skills. Prior to Yale, Jessica was the Senior Museum Educator and Coordinator of Teacher Services at the Brooklyn Museum. She has contributed to journals and publications including Art Education and The International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education, The Caring Museum: New Models of Engagement with the Ageing, Interpreting the Art Museum,  “Looking to Learn, Learning to Teach” in the Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin and Picturing a Nation: Teaching with American Art and Material Culture. Jessica received her M.Phil. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography from Oxford University, England, and a M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University.Rachel Thompson is the Associate Manager of School and Teacher Programs at the Guggenheim Museum. In this role, she plans, implements, and evaluates museum-based programs for teachers; provides support for Learning Through Art, a longstanding artist residency program in NYC public schools; and serves as a mentor for teens in the GuggTeens Collaborative program. Rachel began her career in education at Southwest High School in San Antonio, Texas, where she taught English and Latin. Prior to joining the Guggenheim, she was the John Walsh Fellow in Museum Education at the Yale University Art Gallery, where she facilitated museum programs for a range of audiences, including young children, university students and faculty, and K-12 educators. Rachel has co-authored publications on topics in museum practice in Art Education and The International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Rachel holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a Master of Arts in Religion from Yale Divinity School.