The Visual Resources Association Foundation (VRAF) is pleased to announce that registration is now live for Documenting Cultural Heritage: Strategies and Spaces for Digital Capture, to be held on March 16, 2018. This workshop will be hosted by the Knowlton School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City and Regional Planning, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 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 one of four workshops being offered in the 2017-2018 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.

“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 equipment recommendations, buying guides, and workflow documents. 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 digital curator, Chris has always been driven to document and preserve cultural heritage. His professional background is a perfect mix of his passions in preservation, photography, emerging technology, open access, and metadata management. He works with an archive of unique items, documenting the history of the various programs in the Knowlton School as well as highlighting new work that showcases each programs’ students. Chris has also served as the staff photographer of the Greek-American Excavations at Kenchreai through Harvard University since 2015 which provides a test case for location photography of unique and varied materials.

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 training sessions, 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/documenting-cultural-heritage/.  The fee for this day-long workshop is $125. If you have questions about registration, feel free to contact Steven Kowalik, VRAF Director, skowalik@hunter.cuny.edu or for questions about the program or venue, please contact Chris Strasbaugh strasbaugh.2@osu.edu.