First Blog Post

Hello,

My name is John Valentine, I'm a 4th year Museum Studies student. I transferred into the Museum Studies Program at the end of my 1st year, and have become very passionate about the field as the semesters have passed by. I'm mostly interested in Digitization efforts. mostly in how we can bring the great historical objects and information to the public in unique ways and how it can be used as both a preservation means but also a means of creative ways to educate.

I most recently had my Co-Op at the RIT Digitization Lab. I've had a job there since the beginning of my 2nd year. I mostly aided in some large scale and scope projects and scanned documents. The Co-op was an opportunity to expand my role and take on more of a macro scope for digitization efforts. I found that I loved taking on more of a managerial role and curation of digitization processes. I really enjoy teaching others how to do things, sitting in on meeting discussing with professionals best practices, and most of all digitizing. Bellow is a picture of a the digitizing set up most similar to the one that I worked with and got to know over the summer

Im really hoping that I can use this class as an opportunity to explore more of my interests as well as to explore how the rest of the field is dealing with certain issues and how technology can be used to help in these efforts. While I do not know where the future will take me, I now know that RIT has provided me with plenty of opportunities and helped me gain a better understanding of what I want to do as a career.

Thesis Topics

During my internship at the Burchfield Penney Arts Center, I had briefly spent time processing files from the Artpark Archival Collection. Obtained by the Burchfield in 2013, the collection contains 180 boxes of textual records and over 80,000 images documenting the history of Artpark and its administration. Located in Lewiston, New York, Artpark has provided residencies to diverse local and international artists throughout its history. Many of the artists represented by Artpark are present in major public and private collections. Artpark has been a major agent in supporting emerging artists while making public art accessible to the masses.   

I had wanted do a project related to local history, and I believe there is a lot of untapped potential in the Artpark Archival Collection. The collection is currently only partly processed, making historical research using the documents challenging. However, using the information we already know and the resources available (such as old catalogues), there is likely opportunity for a project that can better make sense of the cultural, administrative and social history surrounding the park and its emerging artists. Potential topics of interest include where these participating artists came from and how artists may have been connected (and how this may have influenced who would in turn be selected for residencies in subsequent years). Although I do not have a specific research question or project proposal yet, I do envision the project itself would be accessible, potentially as a micro digital humanities project. I had contacted the project archivist for this collection and hopefully it will become clearer over the next few weeks how I can best foster greater understanding of this massive collection.