Panopticon

If you find yourself in New York in the next few months you might want to check out this exhibit at the Proteus Gowanus gallery.

The theme of the installation is “Mend” – they had a previous show called “Library” – and it explores many aspects of mending: mending objects, mending the planet, mending the body, etc. There’s obviously a preservation/conservation connection to be made here. Also, they have a reading room with tons of interesting material.

They don’t seem to have posted this on the website yet but I got an email about the following events – in case you happen to be in Brooklyn…

Sunday, November 23, 3:30–5 p.m., $8 per person
Mending Books and Broken Hearts
Artists Chris Piazza and Joy Doyle will mend broken hearts through poetry. Dressed in period clothing, they will also read love letters written during the Great Depression and WWII.

James Walsh will demonstrate his unique technique for repairing broken book spines and covers. Walsh mends books for his personal use not to restore them but to make them usable again in a way that is structurally sound and aesthetically pleasing.

Sunday, December 7, 3–5 p.m., $25 per person (materials included)
Spinning Workshop
Pam Peterson, spinner and knitter extraordinaire, will teach how to make a spindle from a CD and how to use it to spin yarn.

We recently went on two field trips to open studios in Boston. Here are a few more good opportunities to get some art in your life on a budget.

1. Museums: we can get into the MFA & the Gardner for free with our student id cards. Why don’t I do this all the time? The Gardner, for example, is a great place to read.
1b. Plus the Gardner has parties and the MFA is free Wednesday nights, so you can go with friends who don’t have student id cards.
1c. PLUS you can get free passes to the MFA (and many more) at the BPL.

2. Don’t forget the ICA! Which is free on Thursday nights.

3. Rush tickets at the Boston Ballet are $20. This is not exactly cheap, but it is reasonable compared to their normal rates. You show up 2 hours before the show, shell over $20 cash, and then have 2 hours (dinner in Chinatown?) to kill before the show. An excellent excuse to wear that thrift-store fur stole.

4. The A.R.T. over in Cambridge also offers student rush tickets and sometimes offers student tickets in advance; prices range from $15-$25.

5. A one-time fee of $25 buys a student card that gets you into many Boston Symphony Orchestra performances for free throughout the season (Tickets – special offerings – BSO College Card).

6. What else? Let us know what your know about – great galleries, cheap but wonderful performances, etc. We’ll post it here and credit you. Email panopticon@simmons.edu.

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The GSLIS Technology Lab and Panopticon present:
an autumn art show
or, your colleagues’ work on the walls of the Technology and Cataloging Labs

Opening Reception this Thursday, September 18 at 6:30pm
art in the Labs, snacks & drinks in the Lounge
EVERYONE WELCOME

Refreshments provided by the GSLIS Technology Lab and ARLIS/NE

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Hi Panopticon,
Here’s a draft of our new constitution. When we meet for the first time this fall (5:30 GSLIS Lounge Wednesday September 10) I’d like to vote on it. It’s one step toward becoming an official student group, which means LISSA funding. Please give feedback either here on the blog or to me at burke9@simmons.edu. Sarah

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Panopticon is a Simmons GSLIS organization for students interested in art librarianship and visual resources. It intends to advance the cause of art librarianship and to promote the development, good management, and enlightened use of art libraries and visual resources collections. Its goals are:

(a) To promote the continuing education of its members by sponsoring and coordinating meetings, trips, lectures, workshops, and other exchanges of information and materials concerning all aspects of art librarianship and visual resources curatorship;

(b) To foster excellence in art librarianship and the visual arts by promoting improvements in the academic education of art librarians and visual resources curators at Simmons, and, when necessary, to make up for a lack of classroom education with extracurricular activities such as those listed above;

(c) To increase awareness of the arts at Simmons by means of occasional curated shows of art made by GSLIS students and other affiliates;

(d) To encourage awareness of the variety of artistic resources in the Boston area, by means of promotion of events and shows over the organization’s list-serv and blog;

(e) To create a community of members who are aware of the variety of definitions of visual resources librarianship and who have a variety of opportunities to learn from one another.

Panopticon is affiliated with the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS) as well as with its regional chapter, ARLIS/NE. We also maintain a relationship with the Visual Resources Association (VRA) of New England.

There’s a fascinating entry on the ArLiSNAP bog that discusses the vocabulary we use when describing images. In many cases we only get a few words to describe a complex image, and furthermore we need to operate within a controlled vocabulary. The entry links to ANOTHER discussion about labeling from the Jane Addams Hull House Museum, which is interesting in part because the museum is asking interested parties to comment on a selection of different labels for one painting – an interesting democratic approach to labeling. (Check out the details here.)

There is going to be a conference in New York this October 23-26, co-sponsored by ARLIS/NA and ARLIS/NY (details here). Registration isn’t cheap but the talks look pretty amazing, with titles like “Historical Materials and Methods in Contemporary Artists Books” and “Bound to Please: The Influence of Institutional Collecting on Artists’ Books Production.”

Also of interest – and free! – is the NY Art Book Fair, held on the same weekend (details here).

Mark your calendars…

On January 31st, 2008 we held our first meeting of the Spring Semester. We had a good turn out and got to discuss some upcoming activities.

First of all, we are planning a tour of the MassArt Library for Wednesday, Feb 27th at 5:30pm. We will meet at Simmons before that and walk over together. We will send a reminder and details to the Panopticon list.

We are also in the midst of figuring out the logistics of changing the art in the GSLIS tech lab. Our hope is to be able to hang student art instead of the READ posters that are currently on the walls. We are working with facilities to figure out the best hanging options and will keep you posted once we are at the point where we can consider collecting some student art and getting it up on the walls. So start thinking about some hang-able art that you’ve made! Again, we’ll send out details to the listserv.

Our big plan for sometime at the end of the semester is to put together a skill share related to Art Librarianship and Visual Resources. We will be sending out a survey soon to help us understand what topics folks would like to see covered at the Skill Share.

We want to establish Panopticon as an official student group and we’re looking into what we need to do to make that happen. We are also on the lookout for some people to step up and take the reigns for next semester since both of the current co-chairs, Ashley and Beth, will be graduating in May.

We have a lot up our sleeves and we’re looking forward to a busy, fun and productive semester. Keep your eyes peeled for posts to the list, and as always, feel free to contact us with any questions, comments or ideas.

This year’s Annual ARLIS conference will be held on May 1-5, 2008 in Denver Colorado. There is still time to apply for the travel awards. There are three that are specific to students. You can get all of the details here: http://www.arlisna.org/about/awards/awards_index.html

There is also a mentor program that is highlighted on the ARLISNAP blog here: http://abcs.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/arlisna-denver-conference-mentor-program/
If you are attending the conference for the first time, you can sign up to get a mentor who will help show you the ropes of the conference. It sounds like a good plan for new attendees.

There is also a special first time attendees program and lots of opportunities to mingle and network with other students interested in Art Librarianship!