UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Carolyn Lucarelli, manager of the Center for Virtual/Material Studies (CVMS) in the College of Arts and Architecture, received the 2022 Visual Resources Association (VRA) Project Grant. She will use the $3,000 grant to create a digital inventory of the Fashion Archive in collaboration with co-principal investigator Charlene Gross, an assistant professor of costume design at the Penn State School of Drama.
The fashion archive was established by Suzanne Elder in 2012 with a grant for initiatives and innovations from the Faculty of Arts and Architecture. Containing approximately 3,000 items, the archive features a variety of clothing and other fashion ephemera, including fashion magazines, pattern books, personal photos and correspondence, and advertisements from the 1850s to the present. This hands-on collection is used by students, faculty, and staff to study historical significance, cultural heritage, and technical specifications to design and produce historically accurate costumes.
During the fall 2022 semester, with funding from the grant, a college student will assign identification numbers using the Costume Core standard while photographing and documenting each item.
“The Fashion Archive gives students access to existing garments that best exemplify the silhouette, fabric, and detail of given periods. It has been used frequently in both undergraduate and graduate classes in costume design and technology,” Gross said. “This archive has the potential to serve as a rich resource not only for the entire Penn State community, but also for interested scholars, artists, designers, and other researchers. It remains underutilized due to limited access. The collection is currently open for in-person appointments only and lacks any form of publicly accessible database.”
Lucarelli agrees that the project will allow more people to take advantage of such an underutilized resource.
“We are excited about the potential of this project to increase awareness of the Fashion Archive and provide community and academic access to this valuable hidden resource,” said Lucarelli.
A comprehensive digital inventory that follows museum standards is an important step in the plan for the Fashion Archive. In addition to inventory, the team is currently working on creating digital displays of the items. A selection of the archive’s linen garments, dating from the 1890s to the 1960s, will be part of a virtual exhibition that includes 360-degree and still photography, detailed metadata and information on the materials used in construction. of the garments. This will serve as a test for the long-term goal of creating an open access collection catalog of the entire Fashion Archive, which would also offer selected garment patterns available as downloadable PDF files for reproduction.
This project is part of a broader CVMS research initiative focusing on “Manufacturing: Virtual Approaches and Materials for Global Textiles.” In addition to Lucarelli and Gross, the project team includes Catherine Adams, CVMS Digital Support Specialist; Sarah K. Rich, CVMS director and associate professor of art history; and Cody Goddard, Multimedia Specialist, Office of Digital Learning in the College of Arts and Architecture.
“We are very pleased that Carolyn’s grant furthers the work of CVMS and its partnerships with exciting collections like the Fashion Archive,” said Rich.
To learn more about the VRA, visit their website.
Source: www.psu.edu