The Smithsonian Institute Smithsonian American Art Museum registration internship

This detailed report of a registration internship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum includes an organizational profile of the Smithsonian Institute, the Smithsonian Institute Affiliate Program, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a description of the activities performed during the internship, an analysis of a volunteer management challenge, a proposed resolution to the volunteer management challenge, and a discussion of the short and long term effects of the internship. The duties and expectations of volunteers, the staff preparation for volunteers, and the empowerment of volunteers are important aspects of the analysis and resolution of the volunteer management challenge

A proper anxiety: practice-based PhDs and academic unease

Like any other PhD, practice-based PhDs are also the focus of much anxiety but, significantly, those anxieties reach beyond personal doubt and are shared by supervisors, examiners and senior academic management. Here, I suggest that the anxiety concerning practice-based PhDs should not be lightly dismissed because it is a product of the institutional relations practice-based doctorates put into place. At least in the short-term anxiety is structured into the qualification and the aim of this paper is to examine why. I argue that the demarcation of disciplinary boundaries is important for judgements concerning academic and artistic expertise. To become an expert you have to have a specialised field, which can only be only mastered if it is clearly defined. Practice-based research crosses many of these borderlines thereby creating anxiety about criteria of competence, assessment and authority. Significantly, however, the practice-based PhD has involved a shift in the institutional arbitration of competence. In the past art that crossed disciplinary boundaries was nevertheless evaluated within art colleges and in relation to their traditions and practices, whereas in this instance art is being judged within an academic context and with a different set of expectations in mind. Unlike other previously contentious forms of art practice, this is not a change in medium or subject matter that nevertheless remains within the parameters of the art college, but is a shift in the way that the art object is legitimated as such. The paper goes on to examine the practical and conceptual consequences of art practice being acknowledged as academically valid, exploring in particular the advantages and liabilities of anxiety for all concerned

Cell-based therapies for stroke : promising solution or dead end?

The introduction of recanalization procedures has revolutionized acute stroke management, although the narrow time window, strict eligibility criteria and logistical limitations still exclude the majority of patients from treatment. In addition, residual deficits are present in many patients who undergo therapy, preventing their return to premorbid status. Hence, there is a strong need for novel, and ideally complementary, approaches to stroke management. In preclinical experiments, cell-based treatments have demonstrated beneficial effects in the subacute and chronic stages following stroke [1; 2; 3] and therefore are considered a promising option to supplement current clinical practice. At the same time, great progress has been made in developing clinically feasible delivery and monitoring protocols [4]. However, efficacy results initially reported in clinical studies fell short of expectations [5] raising concerns that cell treatment might eventually share the ‘dead end fate’ of many previous experimental stroke therapies. This Research Topic reviews some of the latest and most innovative studies to summarize the state of the art in translational cell treatments for stroke

Ekologinen kestävyys Suomen nykytaidekentällä : Arviointi Helsinki Biennaali 2021 ympäristötoimista

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Ekologinen kestävyys ja ympäristövastuullinen johtaminen ovat nousseet puheenaiheiksi Suomen nykytaidekentän keskuudessa. Nykytaidetapahtuma Helsinki Biennaali nosti ekologisen kestävyyden yhdeksi kulmakiveksi tapahtuma tuotannossaan. Tutkimuksen aineisto on kerätty autoetnografisin sekä laadullisen sisällön analyysin kautta. Tässä Pro Gradu työssä arvioin Helsinki Biennaalin ympäristöjohtamisen onnistumista sekä sitä, miten Helsinki Biennaalin tekemät ympäristötoimet näyttäytyvät suhteessa Suomen nykytaidekenttään laajemmin. Tutkimukseni pyrkii vastaamaan kolmeen kysymykseen: 1. Mitä ympäristötoimia Helsinki Biennaali teki ja miten kyseiset toimet valittiin? 2. Miten tehdyt toimet vertautuvat Suomen nykytaidekentän odotuksiin sekä 3. Mitä odotuksia ja huolia Helsinki Biennaali sekä muut asiantuntijat tunnistavat suhteessa ekologisen kestävyyden tuomiseksi osaksi nykytaidekenttää entistä vahvemmin? Tulokseni osittavat, että Helsinki Biennaali ympäristötoimet vastaavat hyvin nykytaidekentän odotuksia. Yleisemmin kentällä on paljon potentiaalia kestävyys-siirtymän toteutumiseen, tätä potentiaalia voitaisiin vapauttaa esimerkiksi uudenlaisten rahoitussäädösten, matkustussääntöjen avulla sekä lisäämällä työntekijöiden tietoa ja aikaresursseja ympäristötyöhön. Tämä tutkimus selvitti myös nykytaidekentän näkemyksiä tulevaisuuden tavoitteista ja näkemyksistä ympäristötoimien suhteen.Environmental sustainability and environmentally responsible management have found their way as discussion topics in the Finnish contemporary art field. The contemporary art event Helsinki Biennial chose to make environmental sustainability as one of their corner stones of producing the event (Taskinen et al 2021). In this master’s thesis I assess the environmental responsibility of Helsinki Biennial and how its environmental actions reflect on the expectations of the contemporary art field in Finland from a managerial perspective. The research was conducted through autoethnographic and content analysis methods. This research will try to answer three questions 1. What environmental actions were taken and how were they selected? (R1) 2. How do the environmental action taken compare to the current expectations of environmentally responsible management in the Finnish contemporary art field? (R2) I am also interested in finding out 3. What types of hopes and concerns about future work are identified by Helsinki Biennial organizers and other experts in the Finnish contemporary art field? (R3) The results show that Helsinki Biennial compared well on the expectations of the field. Based on the answers of the interviewees, there is a lot of potential and moti-vation within the field which waits to be unleashed, for example through new financ-ing and travel policies and by increasing the knowledge and time resource of em-ployees. This study also found out about the future visions regarding environmental matters within the contemporary art field

Mind the (Training) Gap: A Case Study in Assessing Metadata Competences by Transforming Records for a Multi-System Migration

This chapter discusses a multi-department collaborative project to reprocess digitized university art exhibition catalogs in an academic library at an R1 research university. It examines the challenges to legacy metadata remediation, the implications of a lack of training with migrations, and how to manage the expectations of internal repository stakeholders. Furthermore, it prioritizes the importance of organization-wide training in repository management, and positions a culture of continuous learning as a prerequisite for fulfilling the library’s mission

Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome Current Considerations and Expectations

In the recent era, no congenital heart defect has undergone a more dramatic change in diagnostic approach, management, and outcomes than hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). During this time, survival to the age of 5 years (including Fontan) has ranged from 50% to 69%, but current expectations are that 70% of newborns born today with HLHS may reach adulthood. Although the 3-stage treatment approach to HLHS is now well founded, there is significant variation among centers. In this white paper, we present the current state of the art in our understanding and treatment of HLHS during the stages of care: 1) pre-Stage I: fetal and neonatal assessment and management; 2) Stage I: perioperative care, interstage monitoring, and management strategies; 3) Stage II: surgeries; 4) Stage III: Fontan surgery; and 5) long-term follow-up. Issues surrounding the genetics of HLHS, developmental outcomes, and quality of life are addressed in addition to the many other considerations for caring for this group of complex patients

Blended Learning in Middle School Art: A Qualitative Case Study

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative case study was to explore the actions of one middle school art teacher implementing blended learning methods in an eighth grade art class to understand what effect the art teacher perceives blended learning has on eighth grade middle school art students’ engagement in the subject matter. Mezirow’s Transformational Theory was the framework that guided the study. The study was conducted in a rural middle school located in the Midwest region of the United States over a nine-week period focusing on one middle school art teacher and an eighth grade art class using blended learning strategies. Data was collected through observations, interviews, and document analysis and then coded based on themes relating to the three research questions. The first research question considered art classroom norms, routines, and classroom expectations and whether they were used to support the implementation of blended learning strategies. The second question focused on the NCAS connecting to the blended learning instructional material. The final research question examined student-centered instructional strategies implemented to engage students individually in a blended learning environment. The data was triangulated to assure accuracy in the results, which found that blended learning was perceived by the art teacher in the study to support student engagement in the subject matter. The art teacher perceived increased student interaction with the blended learning resources provided in the Schoology learning management system (LMS). Further possible research could include a study regarding art teachers’ perceptions in middle school art classes using blended learning to compare the results from a larger sample size

Transition to omni-channel approach: the case of Italian retailers

Addressing consumers’ needs and expectations is one of the main retailers’ concerns. More and more of these expectations have been driven by consumers’ constant use of their mobile devices for almost any aspect of their lives. Therefore, we build on the argument that digitalization is affecting how retailers are operating and how they re-organize their channels so as to meet those expectations. Many argue that the common approach retailers embrace is adopting omni-channel strategy. In their endeavor to fully integrate the channels into an omnichannel model, retailers need to pass several milestones, such as successful customer engagement, effective logistics management, and integrated analytics systems. This paper is concerned with current state of channel integration and further development of channel integration towards omni-channel approach. We collected data by surveying and interviewing thirteen Italian retailers operating in three sectors: fashion, bookstores and media, and consumer electronics. Moreover, we also analyzed results of panel discussion at which nine retailers participated. The results of this explorative study show current state of retail industry in Italy and their activities towards channel integration. We highlight state of the art research and use a thematic bottom-up approach to draw propositions for future research areas