Thank you for participating in the 2017 Annual SIG Chairs Elections. Join me in congratulating each one of our SIG Chairs.
Eric Longo, Executive Director
- Chair: Susan Wamsley, Digital Asset Manager, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
I have worked for over ten years in the field of digital asset management setting up DAM systems from analog photography libraries for global companies. In my current role, I work closely with all museum departments to facilitate digital media asset submissions into the museum DAM system. Following the museum’s archival and metadata standards, I ensure the integrity and reliability of the information in the system and provide support to all users. I also research and provide recommendations on best practices for software, asset preservation and digital rights management. I have encountered and solved many implementation, workflow and user adoption issues over the years and am excited to share my knowledge.
- Co-Chair: Jennifer Sellar, Senior Digital Image Archivist, The Museum of Modern Art
Jennifer Sellar began her archiving career at Ole Miss working with a large collection of Southern photography and home movies. At the Museum of Modern Art, she was hired to organize the Imaging Studio’s archive and create an archival workflow for the department’s photographers. When she arrived the archive was still stored on CDs and searchable only through an enormous Excel spreadsheet. Since the launch of MoMA’s DAM in 2008, she has overseen day to day front end operations and works across various departments throughout the museum to create metadata/taxonomy structures and create guidelines for the museum’s quickly expanding digital trove of images, video, audio, and related materials.
- Chair: Dan Dennehy, Senior Photographer and Head of Visual Resources, Minneapolis Institute of Art
As Senior Photographer and Head of Visual Resources at Minneapolis Institute of Art, I lead a department responsible for collection imaging, digital asset management and image rights issues. As a member of Mia’s Media and Technology Division, I have the pleasure of working with a creative team of makers and developers dedicated to finding the most innovative ways of bringing our collections and communities together. It has never been a more exciting time to be involved with art and imaging, as new computational techniques revolutionize our practice. I would be honored to help lead the efforts of MCN’s Digital Media SIG in facilitating dialogue around our current and future challenges.
- Co-Chair: Kurt Heumiller, Studio Production Manager, The Museum of Modern Art
As studio production manager for the department of Imaging and Visual Resources at the Museum of Modern Art, Kurt Heumiller is responsible for ensuring the highest image quality, developing workflow improvements, and evaluating new and emerging technologies and methods. Having spent nearly a decade in the museum imaging world, he feels blessed to work in a field with such talented and dedicated members and wishes to help MCN provide a resource for this community.
- Chair: Brad Dunn, Web and Digital Communications Director, The Field Museum
Brad is the Web and Digital Communications Director for The Field Museum in Chicago, overseeing web and mobile experiences, and storytelling in social media and science filmmaking. His experience blends his time in interactive, games, social media and experiential design, stage directing, filmmaking and advertising. He has crafted user- and story-driven multichannel engagements across digital devices and real world spaces for exuberant live audiences, smartphone wielding consumers, smiling children, intoxicated cruise ship passengers, and upper eastside arts funders. The common thread is his desire to tell stories and create experiences that inspire and encourage human connection and personal discovery.
- Co-Chair: Mark McKay, Director of Digital, Art Gallery of Ontario
Mark leads a 10 person division made up of 3 departments. Responsible for developing and executing an action plan in support of the AGO’s Technology Strategy. Google Analytics and Adwords certified content marketer. 12 years experience creating branded content and more than 7 years leading corporate digital and social media strategy. Trained in Project Management and Business Analysis. Eleven years of experience in the entertainment industry. Hands on advanced production knowledge of web development, design, video, and animation set me apart from my peers.
Educational & Interpretive Media
- Chair: Jennifer Foley, Director of Education and Community Engagement, Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Jennifer Foley is the Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY. In this role she oversees all of the museum’s educational programs, as well as the development of educational and interpretive media content, including audio tours, exhibition media, and the museum’s artist interview series, Outspoken. Prior to coming the A-K she was the Director of Interpretation at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where she worked on numerous media projects, including content development for the museum’s collection app, ArtLens. She has been attending MCN since 2011, and signed on for a two year term as one of the program co-chairs for MCN2016 in New Orleans and MCN2017 in Pittsburgh.
- Co-Chair: Kristin Bayans, Manager of Interpretive Media, Portland Art Museum
As Manager of Interpretive Media at the Portland Art Museum Kristin is a connector, producer, and storyteller. She works to diversify the museum narrative by interrupting the single authoritative voice with the voices and perspectives of Portland’s many communities. She accomplishes this by crafting inquiry based in-gallery and online participatory experiences linking visitors to each other, the museum’s permanent collection, and special exhibitions. At PAM, Kristin also drives initiatives grounding the museum to its city through intimate, personal community based story work with the Object Stories storytelling project and exhibition series. Ms. Bayans has served on NEH and IMLS grant review committees, spoken at national conferences, lead workshops, and published on the subjects of digital storytelling, developing participatory spaces for dialogue and reflection, and the visitor empowerment model among others. Immediately prior to PAM, she served as Senior Educator for the Vernier Technology and Design Lab at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and as an Assistant Educator for the Smithsonian’s Mobile Learning Institute. She holds an M.A. in Museum Studies from The George Washington University and an M.A. in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Kristin is passionate about the unique role museums can play as social justice advocates for their cities communities.
- Chair: Janice Craddock, Director of Information Technology, Amon Carter Museum of American Art
As Director of Information Technology, Janice heads a department of three to provide technical support for about 120 staff. In her thirty years at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, she has seen firsthand how technology has changed, evolving into an increasingly vital role supporting the institutional mission—a change she has also witnessed during her twenty years involved with MCN. As IT SIG chair, Janice’s aim is to support new IT professionals and engage those with more experience in ongoing conversations about the fundamentals of IT operations and emerging technologies.
- Co-Chair: Brian Dawson, Chief Digital Officer, Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation
Brian is the Chief Digital Officer at the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation, which also operates the Canada Aviation and Space Museum and the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum. As CDO, Brian drives the development and implementation of the strategy for digital platforms, content, distribution and engagement throughout the organization, leading a team of information technology, digital media and exhibition specialists. Prior to joining the museum, Brian worked at Nortel Networks in telephony software development and process improvement. Brian holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from the Dalhousie University (Technical University of Nova Scotia) and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Cape Breton. Brian is keen to help keep connections alive and conversations going through the year, with a regular rhythm of topic discussions, leverage tools such as the Basecamp platform more fully, and sounding out the SIG on additional ideas.
- Chair: Melissa Gold Fournier, Manager Imaging services and IP, Yale Center for British Art
At the Yale Center for British Art, Melissa oversees digital imaging, manages the Center’s intellectual property and rights-related collection information, and serves as the lead for the Center’s participation in Yale’s shared digital asset management system. Melissa served as the convener of Yale University’s Open Access Implementation Working Group and oversees the online release of the Center’s open images. A museum collection professional since 1998, Melissa was grateful to find in MCN a superb resource for discussion and education around digitization and intellectual property. She has volunteered for MCN in various capacities since attending her first conference in Boston in 2005. Working with the IP SIG, Melissa wishes to help MCN continue to provide these opportunities to others.
- Co-Chair: John ffrench, Director of Visual Resources, Yale University Art Gallery
John oversees workflow, design, color management and long-term archiving of images and image data and supervises the creation, quality control, asset management, distribution of and rights related to images of works of art for publication, study, documentation, educational programs, promotion and other uses. He has been actively involved in the development of the YUAG/Yale Campus DAM and the creation of Yale University’s Open Access policy. He also oversees the rights and reproductions staff responsible for clearing rights for internal publications and publicity campaigns at YUAG. On campus he founded and leads the Digital Coffee Group, a campus-wide organization established to create core standards, develop resources and provide guidance and support for digital imaging related technology, projects and professionals on campus. I am interested in working with the IP-SIG as I feel I have a sense of how these issues touch all of our work in museums.
- Chair: Mandy Kritzeck, Digital Media Producer & Project Manager, The Corning Museum of Glass
Mandy Kritzeck is the Digital Media Producer and Project Manager at The Corning Museum of Glass. Working with an in-house digital media production team, she produces over 150 videos a year for both internal and external audiences including artist profiles, live-streamed demonstrations, lectures, conservation case studies, marketing videos, and docent trainings. Mandy manages the museum’s popular YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/corningmuseumofglass, which shares a mix of informational glass how-to demos and interviews with artists who work in glass. She has contributed to many digital media projects at the Corning Museum including the GlassApp web app, GlassLab web app and Pyrex Potluck website. She received an M.A. in History Museum Studies from The Cooperstown Graduate Program and a B.A. in American History, Museum Studies and Documentary Journalism from the University of Minnesota. Her prior experience includes the Minnesota Historical Society and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. Find her on Twitter at @mkritzeck.
- Co-Chair: Christophe Buffet, Creative Technologist and Digital Content Producer
Christophe has been producing digital content since 2004 for a variety of museums and institutions such as MASP (São Paulo Museum of Art), The São Paulo Art Biennial, the Louvre, Centre Pompidou, Monumenta, Bozar, The National Gallery or the British Museum. He helps cultural organizations define their digital strategy and content production methodology, select and set-up mobile interpretation and accessibility solutions.
- Chair: Elena Villaespesa, Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute
Elena Villaespesa works as an Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute. Her research and teaching areas include: digital strategy, digital analytics, and user experience methods applied to the cultural and museum sector. Her professional career encompasses an international experience in some of the most prestigious museums in the world, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Tate in the United Kingdom and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Spain, where she has served in leading digital producer and data analyst roles.
Elena holds a M.A. in Arts Management and a Ph.D. in Digital Heritage from the School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester. Her dissertation defines a performance measurement framework that may serve as a tool for museums to evaluate the success of their activities on social media. As part of her PhD research she worked in the action research project led by Culture 24 Let’s get real. Tate is the main case study for this research and as part of this collaboration she became a Tate Honorary Research Fellow 2015-17.
Elena will be looking to appoint a volunteer to join her as SIG co-chair during 2018.
- Chair: Alexis Light, Senior Manager of Media Relations and Marketing, The Frick Collection
Alexis Light is currently the Senior Manager of Media Relations and Marketing at The Frick Collection, where she has worked since 2007. Throughout her tenure at the museum, she has been deeply involved in the role social media has played in shaping the voice of the institution and how it is used to communicate to its various audiences. As Social Media SIG chair, she hopes to strengthen our community of members, continue an open dialogue between colleagues, and evaluate strategies for ongoing cross-institutional collaboration through social. She received an M.A. in Modern Art, Connoisseurship and the History of the Art Market from Christie’s, New York, and a B.A. from Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri. She has been actively participating in MCN since 2015.
Alexis will be looking to appoint a volunteer to join her as SIG co-chair during 2018.
In addition, the board of MCN has approved the creation of a new SIG called “Human-Centered Design SIG“, which will aim to foster conversations in the MCN community and beyond about who we serve, how to understand their needs, and the role that museums can and should play in the broader human community.
- Chair: Elissa Frankle Olinsky, Senior User Experience Researcher, Ad Hoc LLC
Elissa Frankle Olinsky is a DC-based Senior User Experience Researcher at Ad Hoc LLC, where she works with the US Digital Service at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to help build websites with Veterans’ needs in mind. Prior to joining Ad Hoc, Elissa spent nine years at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she worked on social media, ethical leadership training, public programs with Holocaust survivors, citizen history, and the online and in-person visitor experience — sometimes all at the same time. When not working with Veterans, she can be found advocating for paid internships and better signage in museums. Elissa holds an AB in German from Princeton University and a Master of Arts in Teaching in Museum Education from The George Washington University.
- Co-Chair: Seema Rao, Principal, Brilliant Idea Studio
Seema Rao runs the consulting firm, Brilliant Idea Studio, LLC, based in Cleveland, Ohio, working with museums, libraries, and non-profits to improve experiences at their sites. Seema has nearly 20 years of museum experience including leading large teams of educators, developing ground breaking interpretation, and implementing successful technology projects. She holds an MLIS/MS in Information Science and User Experience Design from Kent State University as well as a MA in Art History from Case Western Reserve University.
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