Innovation of the Year nomination
College:
Title of project: Art Audio Walking Tour
Team members: Darlene Goto
GCC Art Faculty/Art Curator
x53755
Frank Gonzalez GCC
Media
Services Librarian
x53120
Mark Floor
GCC
Collection Development Lib.
x53165
Suzanne Higgins GCC
Coordinator of
Media
x53808
Relations & Community Edu.
Ron Marschall
GCC Audiovisual Technician
x53098
Randy Sasaki
GCC Graphic Designer
x53704
Description of
innovation:
In the fall of 2000, Darlene Goto
& Frank Gonzalez began to have discussions regarding the
In
addition, Darlene & Frank knew that even if the collection were
made known
to the community, there remained the problem of educating art patrons
about the
art pieces they would be viewing. In the
words of Darlene, "It is time to share with the public the art
treasures
GCC owns. We have an amazing collection that is truly a
self-instructing
treasure trove. It's quite an educational asset to this community."
Among the treasures are pieces by
Picasso, Andy Warhol,
Ansel Adams, Phillip Curtis, Paolo Soleri,
a
collection of masks from around the world, and an ancient Chinese
vessel. Although art instructors would
occasionally
bring a class to the library for a tour, docent-type tours were not a
good
solution in the library environment, where students are typically
looking for a
quiet place to study. Frank, our media
librarian, realized that an audio tour could be the perfect solution.
From
fall of 2001 to spring of 2006, a team made up of Darlene, Frank, Mark
Floor,
and Ron Marschall worked to bring the
audio tour
project to fruition. Among the
activities that occurred during this time were many attempts to raise
funds,
the writing of a script for the tour, the finding and purchasing of an
audio
production software program and audio equipment (museum-quality state
of the
art TourMate Listening Wands), the
recording of the
tour, the creation of a map identifying the location of the art within
the
library, and announcing to the community the existence of both the art
collection and the accompanying tour.
The last activity included the designing and printing of a
brochure. As we neared the completion of
the project,
Suzanne Higgins was brought on to the team for her media relations
expertise,
and Randy Sasaki for his graphic artist talents.
In
spring of 2006, the tour was completed and unveiled.
Articles in the local papers announced the
new tour, the library hosted a Grand Opening to which the community was
invited,
and the following morning Darlene & Mark were featured in a live
segment on
Good Morning Arizona. In addition, the
brochures
were distributed to many local agencies, including libraries, chambers
of
commerce, and other museums (please visit this web address to view the
brochure
-- http://www.gc.maricopa.edu/artoncampus/index.cfm?date=Art_Walking_Tour). Although we originally intended to continue
doing PR about the collection & tour, we subsequently decided to
delay
until risk management concerns regarding the art collection have been
adequately addressed.
The
art tour project continues to evolve, having almost acquired a life of
its own. Within the past few weeks, a
Spanish version
was added to the art tour listening wands (thereby supporting
diversity,
community engagement, and potential inclusion in Spanish course
curricula), and
brochures were distributed to local high school librarians to share
with the
art teachers on their campuses. Banners
to hang outside the entrances of the library will be ordered this
spring, and
another PR campaign will be initiated.
Also, the audio tour will be made available on the library
website as a
downloadable podcast.
Finally, the art curator would like to add descriptions of some
additional pieces in the collection to the tour, as time permits.
This
project really had two primary goals.
One was to alert the community to this hidden gem of an art
collection
located right in the middle of
The
second goal was to provide a learning experience for both students and
interested art patrons. This goal has
been achieved. The art tour, which
utilizes
a self-paced approach, provides descriptions of both the most important
pieces
of the collection as well as the techniques used in creating them. Surveys of those taking the tour were
administered from the beginning of availability to the end of 2006. The vast majority have been very positive
about the tour. In addition, as Darlene
notes, “The tour has been used by some of the art history staff as part
of
assignments. Students have been asked to look at, listen to, and then
answer
questions on art images in the collection taken from a paper assigned
by the
instructor. This is wonderful - the collection is a part of classroom
learning.”
A
secondary goal of the art audio tour project was to provide the public
with an
additional reason to appreciate the presence of
Executive
Summary: A
self-paced, educational
audio walking tour of the extensive GCC campus art collection, housed
in the
museum-like library media center.