Institutions Outreach Projects (original) (raw)

Traditional Fine Arts Organization

2015-2023 Institutions Outreach Projects

2015

Traditional Fine Arts Organization (TFAO) offers online the most thorough body of knowledge concerningAmerican representational art through its publication Resource Library, pluscatalogues including:

Topics in American Art, covering topics in American representational art

America's Distinguished Artists, containing thousands of biographies of historic artists

Videos Online, with links to videos streamed free to viewers

Videos in DVD and VHS format

Online Exhibition Brochures, Catalogues, Gallery Guides and Related Materials

Geographic Tour of American Representational Art History, a survey of articles and essays that describe the evolution of American art from the inception of the United States to WWII

Audio Online, with links to streaming audio recordings

plus other catalogues

Over the years, the submissions guidelines for our Resource Library have tightened considerably. As a result, fewer museums are invited to submitmaterials for publication consideration than in earlier years. Museums not contacted for many years may lose touch with the content of our website. Also, as is the case for all organizations, there is substantial year-over-year turnover in museums' staff. Because of these factors, and having completed the 2014-2015 Content Enrichment Project for the_Topics in American Art_ catalog and updated the Videos Online and Audio Online catalogs, we initiated a multi-phase project to contact museums to help them become better aware of TFAO's many resources.

Since the content of Resource Library and our catalogues are also of value to art history faculty and students, and our online projects, reports, and studies are of value to museum studies faculty and students, outreach was also provided to colleges and universities.

Since our publishing inception in 1996, all content has been presented to the public free of charge - and will continue on that basis. We are 100% non-commercial.

American art museum outreach: phases one, two and three

The Art Museum, Gallery and Art Center index is the source of museum names for all three phases. These institutions are the main sources of articles and essays published in our Resource Library.

In phase one, letters were sent to staff of museums listed in Audited past exhibition pages of websites containing extensive information on at least one past exhibit. Phase one was completed July, 2015.

Phase two covered staff members listed in Audited past exhibition pages of websites containing a moderate level of information on past exhibits. The greatest number of museums were reached in this phase. Phase two was completed September, 2015.

Phase three covered staff listed in Audited past exhibition pages of websites containing _negligible_information on past exhibits or museums no longer in existence. This set of museums was less productive than those of phases one and two. Phase three was completed September, 2015.

Phase one outreach progress was recorded here, phase two progress here and phase three progresshere. Outreach letters, sent to 631 institutions in phases one, two and three combined, reached over 1,500 individual email addressees.

Texts for outreach letters are here. The procedure is here.

College and university art history faculty outreach: phase four

College and university faculty and students are historically the largest users of our content. In phase four, our volunteers reviewed websites of art history departments of colleges and universities to identify faculty teaching classes inclusive of American representational art. The contact letter is here, the procedure is here and outreach progress was recorded here. Phase four was completed November, 2015. we sent over 400 outreach letters to colleges and universities, reaching over 600 individual email addressees.

College and university art history faculty outreach: phase five

Outreach to college museology and museum studies instructors was the fifth phase, completed December, 2015. Please click herefor names of the colleges and universities, herefor the outreach procedure and here for the outreach letter. We sent 83 outreach letters to colleges and universities, reaching over 150 individual email addressees.

In 2015 over 2,200 individuals were reached through phases one through five of the Institution Outreach Project

Museum outreach: phase six

After completing museum outreach phases one through three, college art history faculty phase four and college museum studies faculty phase five, in phase six we will send follow up letters to museums contacted in phases one through three, plus letters to art centers and museums not previously contacted. The contact letter is here, the procedure is here and outreach progress is being recorded here. The purpose of phase six is to provide information of special interest to curatorial and educatonal staff. Phase six was completed December, 2015.

2022

The Non-profit Art Venues' Online Exhibits Research and Advocacy Project consists of volunteer personal letters encouraging museums to add enriched contentto their online information for exhibits.

Another project details an UpWork contract for freelancers to prepare and send letters.

The projects aim to have more museums post and archive details of future, current and past exhibitions in that section of their websites, with enhanced materials which may include images, recordings of curator interviews and lectures, artist and curator biographies, virtual tours, teacher guides, press releases, media coverage, wall texts, enhanced object labels, illustrated checklists, online brochures and catalogues or gallery guides in flip book format - all freely available to the public and permanently archived.

2023

The Letter to Museum Curators project consists of an UpWork freelancer engagement providing letters that notify curators about our information useful to them.

A second 2023 project, named American Art History Deep Dive Project, Part Two, generates data leading to letters to museum executive directors.

Who should volunteer?

Artists, authors, students, seniors and other art-loving individuals may volunteer for the Institution Outreach Project. Persons seeking to share knowledge about American art, hone skills in project organization and execution, plus those interested in museology, museum studies, art history studies and library science, will find the project useful.

Satisfaction will be found in helping educators and leaders of institutions better serve their publics by becoming further aware of our in-depth and unique services.

Acknowledgment of service hours will be provided to students.

Student volunteers learn:

about liberal arts colleges in states of their choice,
how to use a website with filters used by students seeking to learn about features of colleges,
how to navigate college websites to find email addresses of specific people and departments,
how to prepare, send and tally email letters to departments and people,

Equipment and software

Volunteers can use any device allowing multiple screens to be open at the same time for a browser and email program. The email letter template is available on an email screen for copying. Each outgoing email is processed in a separate screen by pasting of the letter body and subject, and entering of email addresses.

Another email contains a copy of the block of museum names being processed. The addressee codes and date are added next to each museum name after it is processed. When information for the block of twenty museums is completed, the report email is sent to us.

A browser window is used to access links to museum websites for the block of museums being processed.

For privacy protection a volunteer may wish to set up a separate email account for the project.

Volunteer time

Work can be done any time of day or night in any time zone.

Return to research projects, reports and studies

(above: Mary Stevenson Cassatt,Children in a Garden (The Nurse), 1878, oil on canvas, 25.7 x 31.8 inches, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)

Clip art courtesy of ClipartPal and Vector.me. image of computer courtesy of Apple Computer, image of Heard Museum courtesy of John Hazeltine

Links to sources of information outside of our web site are provided only as referrals for your further consideration. Please use due diligence in judging the quality of information contained in these and all other web sites. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or out of date. TFAO neither recommends or endorses these referenced organizations. Although TFAO includes links to other web sites, it takes no responsibility for the content or information contained on those other sites, nor exerts any editorial or other control over them. For more information on evaluating web pages see TFAO's General Resources section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.

*Tag for expired US copyright of object image:

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