Too far? Unexpected election effects. “unpaved the parking lot and put up a play paradise” Make way for duck Daylight savings time in a museum full of clocks Museum on the move Documentary review: Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery NYT notices Mass MoCA New African American …
Afternoon Tea with the Boston EMPs! Join the Boston EMPs (Emerging Museum Professionals) for a spot of tea on Saturday, December 6th at 2:00 PM. Hosted at Abigail’s Tea Room in the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, this friendly get to together is the …
The Visitor Studies Association (VSA) is looking ahead to its July 2016 conference in Boston and sending a special invitation to area Museum Studies students to get involved in the association. Marta Byer of the VSA (and the Museum of Science, Boston) says “We’d love to meet your students and show them how VSA can help them as a professional resource in the informal learning field even before the conference comes to town.”
Join the Visitor Studies Association!
What is VSA?
The Visitor Studies Association (VSA) is a membership organization dedicated to understanding
and enhancing learning experiences in informal settings through research, evaluation, and
dialogue.
VSA offers an array of services designed to foster evidence-based practice, including an annual
conference, professional development workshops, and the peer-reviewed journal Visitor
Studies. Through these and other activities, VSA helps researchers, practitioners, policy-
makers, organizational leaders, and funders advance the field of informal learning.
How can VSA help Museum Studies students?
By participating in VSA, you can
– Learn and share information about improving informal learning experiences
– Connect with others in the field
– Gain access to visitor studies resources
– Become aware of professional development opportunities
How can you get involved?
There are many opportunities for members and non-members alike to get involved!
Check our website for all the details: http://www.visitorstudies.org
Some examples of involvement:
– Join the association as a student for only $30 a year
– Attend the annual conference
o July 14-18, 2015 in Indianapolis
o July 2016 in Boston
– Propose a conference session, panel, poster, or workshop
o Deadline for 2015 conference sessions: December 8, 2014
o Find more info at http://visitorstudies.org/conference-overview
– Share your e-mail to sign up for a quarterly e-newsletter
– Subscribe to the VSA listserv and join in the conversation
– Read Visitor Studies or submit an article
– Follow us on Twitter @Visitor_Studies and on Facebook
How can you learn more?
Feel free to contact Marta Beyer, VSA Ambassador, for more information: mbeyer@mos.org
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, located along the waterfront just south of Boston, serves as the nation’s official memorial to John F. Kennedy. The institution boasts an incredible research collection consisting of over 8.4 million pages of paper, approximately 400,000 photographs, thousands …
he Visitor Studies Association (VSA) seeks to foster a sense of community among its members, who gather once a year to pose intriguing questions, explore diverse opinions, debate controversial issues, challenge assumptions and share their successes and their struggles—in essence, to learn from one another. …
The Massachusetts Historical Society’s latest exhibit, “Letters and Photographs from the Battle Country: Massachusetts Women in the First World War,” tells of the Great War from a lesser-known perspective: that of American women. Featuring photographs, letters, diaries, and memorabilia, this exhibit captures the experiences of Margaret Hall and Eleanor “Nora” Saltonstall, two women from Massachusetts who served in France and Belgium as volunteers for the Red Cross.
The exhibit is simple and sparse, but the poignant voices of these women shine through. Both women witnessed some of the most climactic months of the Great War and both documented their experiences in great detail. Margaret Hall’s photographs serve as powerful images of battered and war-torn Europe. Hall’s large-format photographs, which are on loan from the Cohasset Historical Society, strikingly hang on the gallery walls. She captured various subjects with her camera lens, from the crumbling ruins of Reims, France, to candid moments between Italian soldiers outside of battle.
Eleanor Saltonstall wrote many letters home to her family while she was a nurse in France. It is through her words that we get a more vivid and complete understanding of what the experience as a volunteer nurse was like during World War I. In one letter dating from 1918 that is on display, Saltonstall explains why she is serving abroad. She writes, “Don’t look upon me as headstrong and seeking excitement; I’m not, but I have been hunting for a job which is real work and which is a direct help, even if it is the tiniest drop in the bucket, to the ultimate close of war.”
Accompanying this exhibition are powerful World War I propaganda posters heralding American patriotism and service. In “Persuasive Images,” the visitor gets a more broad sense of the war effort at home.
“Letters and Photographs from the Battle Country: Massachusetts Women in the First World War” is open at the Massachusetts Historical Society until January 24th, 2015. The exhibit is free and open to the public Monday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm.