The Student Interactive Imaging Program:
Developing Marketable Skills Through a Web-enabled Database Project
William
Kirby, Executive Director,
Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto
w.kirby@ccca.ca
Introduction
The teaching of new technologies in schools presents valuable opportunities
for museum / school partnerships - practical content projects with
which to enable students to develop marketable technical skills, and
cost-effective methods to assist museums in the automation and dissemination
of their collections.
The Canadian Visual Arts Information Network (CCCAnet) is an on-line
database project, profiling contemporary Canadian visual artists and
their work along with related information on the visual arts in Canada.
Much of the work involved in building the database and developing
the CCCAnet website has been carried out by high school and art college
students working through partnerships with The Centre for Contemporary
Canadian Art (CCCA).
This presentation will describe the CCCAnet project, the CCCA's
Student Interactive Imaging Program, illustrate the student-developed
web site, and discuss the economic benefits of developing partnership
with schools.
A National Electronic Visual Art Database
The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art was founded as a not-for-profit,
charitable arts organization committed to increasing public awareness
of the visual arts in Canada.
With the belief that cultural information in general could have
significant added value when it is shared and re-used rather than
being re-collected in different forms by various organizations, the
CCCA decided to establish a central, electronic source of reliable,
up-to-date visual arts information that would reduce duplication and
the need to collect and verify the same or similar information more
than once.
The CCCA set out to compile a large, up-to-date database of information
on Canadian visual artists and their work for distribution over the
world wide web. From this central source, it seeks to give the visual
arts in Canada a greater overall presence in the world by providing
electronic access to quality Canadian visual arts content to the arts
community, universities, schools and libraries, and to the general
public across Canada and abroad.
Working Directly with Artists
To ensure the quality of the information it is assembling, the CCCA
works directly with individual artists, thereby validating the information
at its source. An initial request for participation was sent to 100
senior artists across Canada, asking them for 10 slides each, plus
supporting information. Sixty artists responded to the first request.
Artists chose which slides to send in to represent their careers
and supplied the basic image information - title, date, medium, dimensions,
collection - and a description or artist statement (optional). The
artists were also asked to send in a detailed CV and any other documentation
on their work that they wished to include, such as catalogues and
clippings.
The principles of copyright were resolved from the initial contact
with the artists. The project and its objectives were outlined in
detail, including details about image resolution, size, etc., and
the artists were asked to agree to and sign 'conditions of use' forms.
In addition to working directly with artists, the CCCA is working
with other visual arts and educational institutions and organizations
to bring diverse information together into a continuously growing,
comprehensive national visual arts resource and archive. Information
from these other sources will keep its own integrity, but clearly
will be enhanced by being coordinated within a national context.
Student Interactive Imaging Program
As a charitable organization, the CCCA had extremely limited resources
with which to undertake this project. An informal conversation with
a high school principal, however, gave us a solution. The Student
Interactive Imaging Program was the name given to the collaborative
partnership that we developed between the CCCA and Confederation High
School in Nepean, Ontario. The high school's creative principal was
very active in introducing new teaching methods and opportunities
to his school, and had already developed a number of other collaborative
partnerships with area businesses. The school was well-equipped with
computers and electronic equipment and in all subject areas students
were using technology to access, process and publish information.
This setup provided an ideal environment in which to begin building
the CCCA database.
Goals
Our goals in setting up this mutually beneficial partnership were
educational as well as economic. We set out to introduce into the
school a practical content project through which students could develop
their technical skills and use the tools of technology to enhance
their capacity to learn in a specialized subject area. We also wanted
to give them practical business-related experience by working directly
with a 'client'.
Subsequent meetings were held with some teachers and students at
the school and it was decided to establish the project right in the
school itself. A working area was set up in one of the school's computer
labs, with space for the main project computer housing the database,
a slide scanner, and two other computers for students to work on the
imaging and web site projects. This allowed the students to work on
the project when not attending regular classes, encouraged other students
to stop by to have a look, and made it possible for other media classes
to observe and comment as well.
The process
In the early stages of the program, equipment and techniques were
tested and a prototype procedure was developed. While the students
were remarkably proficient in the technical and creative aspects of
imaging and editing, they needed more direct involvement in dealing
with works of art. Rather than being creative in their approach, the
challenge for them was to be as accurate as possible in matching the
resulting scanned image with the original slide.
To raise the students' awareness of contemporary art, visits to
art galleries and artists' studios were arranged. An artist expert
in imaging and photo-editing was invited to the school to instruct
the students on the 'finer points' of Photoshop and to help in deciding
on the questions of image resolutions and file sizes. Students also
browsed the web for other art sites, critiquing them and gathering
ideas for use in developing the CCCAnet web site. They also sought
out links related to contemporary Canadian visual art to be added
to the CCCAnet links directory.
Wide range of learning possibilities
The program was subsequently introduced more broadly into the school
curriculum. In addition to the students working directly on the imaging
project and in developing the CCCAnet website, it soon involved art,
media and marketing students working on class assignments such as
designing a logo for CCCAnet and presenting the project in various
public forums. A number of students were thus engaged in a wide range
of learning activities, including:
digital imaging with slide and flat-bed scanners, and photo-editing
of 35mm slides,
database concepts, and data entry of information related to the
images and the artists,
HTML programming, website design and construction,
maintenance of the CCCAnet web site,
graphic design,
marketing and communications, and
contemporary Canadian art and artists.
SchoolNet Digital Collections Program
The Student Interactive Imaging Program has been supported in
part by SchoolNet Digital Collections, an innovative program of
Industry Canada designed to give young people entrepreneurial and
technology-based job experience converting collections of cultural
material into digital form. This program is part of the Canadian
government's Youth Employment Strategy and makes funds available
to engage young people to work with business firms, libraries, museums,
archives, schools, community associations, public and non-governmental
agencies and other organizations to produce digital versions of
their holdings, and to make this material accessible on the Information
Highway via the SchoolNet Digital Collections web site.
The SchoolNet Digital Collections Program allowed the CCCA to
hire students to continue working on the imaging and web site projects
over the summer months.
SchoolNet is a federal initiative in collaboration with provincial/territorial
ministries of education to help connect all 16,500 schools (including
all 417 First Nations schools under federal jurisdiction), and 3,400
public libraries across Canada to the Information Highway. SchoolNet's
Community Access Project will provide up to 1,000 communities across
Canada with access to the information highway through schools, libraries
and other related institutions.
To date, the SchoolNet Digital Collections Program has supported
more than 100 projects concerning the fine arts, First Nations and
aboriginal peoples, geography, history, literature, the social sciences,
women, labour, business, science and technology. These projects
are all on-line, and can be visited at www.schoolnet.ca/collections.
Developing marketable skills
Hiring students to work on the development of the Canadian Visual
Arts Information Network provided a rich, multi-faceted environment
that promoted many effective learning principles, and provided practical
entry-level job experience that would assist the students in pursuing
job opportunities or furthering their education following high school.
It has been shown that students often become more effectively
engaged in learning when they participate in activities that are
authentic and which show them the relationship between what they
are studying, and what exists in the real world. Students who worked
on the design and development of the CCCAnet project not only acquired
practical technical knowledge and business-related skills, but for
the first time had a meaningful relationship with professional artists
and their work, enhancing their involvement in, and understanding
of, the visual arts.
Enhanced learning environment
The students who worked on the CCCAnet imaging project and developed
the CCCAnet web site were engaged in a variety of cooperative roles
which also enhanced learning. In the environment provided by this
project, students were at different times partners, teammates, individuals
and teachers themselves. This diversity of roles provided for greater
contextual, real-life learning, and better ensured that the learning
was integrated as real world learning should be. This expert / student
relationship, which is often difficult to establish in schools,
also contributed significantly to the development of the students'
understanding of the visual arts.
Throughout the project students were encouraged to communicate
verbally with each other and with the CCCA's project manager, and
to interact with others as their work was critiqued by other students
and observors. The school had developed several active relationships
with various high tech companies in the area, and there were often
senior company officials touring the school, observing the project,
and interacting with the students.
Public presentation
The project was also presented in various public forums, including
a high profile 'Young Entrepreneurs Showcase' where the project
team members were able to introduce and discuss their accomplishments
with business and technology professionals.
The Showcase was held during National Science and Technology Week
and took place at Nortel, a major technology firm that is active
in student placement projects. Confederation High School was one
of fifteen schools to display some of their high technology projects,
many of which involved partnerships or collaboration with firms
and organizations in the community. A marketing class from the school
made posters and handouts to present the project and various students
greeted visitors and presented their projects. The first day was
open only to Nortel employees and invited guests, and the second
day was open to the general public.
The CCCAnet World
Wide Web Site
When student work is valued beyond the walls of the school, the
students' passion to learn is increased significantly. The knowledge
that their work on this project would be 'published' on the world
wide web and contribute to the appreciation of Canadian art around
the world inspired the students to produce a quality product and
contributed further to an enhanced learning experience.
The learning environment provided by the Canadian Visual Arts
Information Network and the Student Interactive Imaging Program
has been dynamic and continually evolving, as new works were added
to the database and changes to the web site took place. It has represented
a learning opportunity that could be revisited many times.
The CCCAnet web site was launched at a press conference and public
demonstration at Confederation High School. The event was organized
and conducted by students. Members of the media and guests from
the education and business communities were invited. The students
involved with the project demonstrated the scanning process and
database, and guided guests through the website.
The CCCAnet web site is comprised of two main elements:
The Canadian Visual Arts Database and
The Canadian Visual Arts Links Directory.
The database currently presents over 2,000 images of works by
more than 75 professional Canadian visual artists, an average of
about 30 images per artist. In addition, it includes a visual arts
directory of over 2,400 entries (including more than 1,600 artists;
over 600 public galleries and artist-run centres; as well as dealers,
art consultants, and other visual art professionals and organizations)
and information on more than 200 contemporary art exhibitions and
publications. Information and images of artists' work are regularly
being added to the database as the material is received and as more
artists join the CCCAnet project.
In the coming months, more of this information will be made available
on CCCAnet - detailed biographical information on individual artists,
bibliographic references, artists' statements, exhibitions and related
visual arts events, and information about art techniques and processes.
The main objective in designing and developing the web site was
to avoid making it appear like a database, but rather to be more
like 'reading' about artists and their work, and the people and
events that influenced them. While additional browsing and searching
tools, such as browsing by image, will also be added as the site
develops, the intent will be to maintain an overall user-friendly
interface.
The other main element of the website is an extensive links directory
which provides links to more than 350 other sites related to the
visual arts in Canada, categorized by province and territory, and
under the following headings:
Artist Sites, Exhibitions and Projects,
Artist Groups, Organizations and Resources,
Artist-Run Centres and Virtual Galleries,
Public Art Galleries and Art Museums,
University Art Galleries and Art Museums,
Art Dealers,
Art Schools and Art Departments,
Art Journals, Art Magazines and E-Zines,
Cultural Organizations and Government Agencies,
Directories and Indexes, and
Copyright Sites.
It is expected that CCCAnet will provide considerable assistance
to artists who are faced with keeping many different institutions
informed about themselves with up-to-date information, and to institutions
that find it difficult to keep information about artists up-to-date
due to shrinking resources. Participating artists will need only
to keep the CCCA informed of new information for its database and
the CCCA can then provide reliable, timely information to a wide
range of interested institutions and individuals.
CCCAnet will also be of considerable value to curators, teachers
and students for teaching purposes and for research on the visual
arts in Canada. It will assist publishers in locating images to
illustrate books, the media for articles on the visual arts, and
visitors from outside Canada in locating Canadian artists and information
about them.
Conclusion
The benefits of the Student Interactive Imaging Program partnerships
have been many. It has provided students with a practical project
through which to learn marketable technological skills, a new opportunity
to experience contemporary Canadian art, and a community education-based
method to aid in the building of an important national visual art
information resource. It has also made it possible for the CCCA
to begin building an important cultural resource with modest finances
and resources.
Success stories
Working on this project not only equipped the students with new
skills, but it gave them added confidence to undertake other projects,
further their interests in information technology, and even set
to up a student business:
The student who designed the CCCAnet logo, letterhead and business
card was able to build an impressive portfolio and went on to community
college in graphic design;
One of the imaging students became editor-in-chief of the school
website and leads a team of students in designing, editing and maintaining
it;
The designer of the CCCAnet website, designed his own site and has
set up a web design business; and
Two other students gained added confidence to better represent themselves,
and subsequently were accepted for placements with area technology
firms.
Opportunities for museums
The concept of developing partnerships between schools and community
businesses and cultural organizations is flexible and economically
advantageous for all. Many schools are equipped with electronic
equipment - computers, scanners, etc. and have a pool of talented
students with a wide range of skills and who are motivated to learn.
For museums and other cultural institutions such collaborations
could provide a valuable, cost-effective method to aid in the automation
and dissemination of their collections, provide real opportunities
for students to interact intimately with museum collections, and
enhance museum and school educational objectives. Creating such
authentic learning opportunities enables students to apply their
skills while making a valuable contribution to their community,
and hopefully will encourage more young people to pursue cultural
careers.
Last modified: March 18, 1998. This file can be found below http://www.archimuse.com/mw98/
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