Instructors : Tess Colwell and Alex O’Keefe

Date and Time: Thursday March 26th and Friday March 27th / 2:00pm - 5:00pm ET

ONLINE

Workshop fee : $50 VRA members/ $65 non-VRA members 

Registration capped at 40

Registration opens in 2026

Course Description:

Please note: Participation in Events Made Easy 1 is NOT required to participate in this workshop.

Hosting events is a key part of outreach to library and special collections patrons, but promoting and improving visibility for those events can be overwhelming. In this workshop, participants will learn step-by-step how to develop promotional materials for events, as well as the basics of designing a larger strategy. These steps will streamline marketing outreach practices for a manageable and sustainable approach. Ultimately, participants will have skills necessary to promote an individual event and tools to embark on standardizing an outreach plan based on their institution’s procedures.

The instructors are from different art library backgrounds (one large academic and one art and design school) with event-planning and promotion expertise that is demonstrated in their joint research and work outcomes. They will introduce a customizable toolkit they designed using freely available tools which can be used in any collection’s context. Additionally, freely available writing and graphic design tools will be reviewed. Ideally, participants will bring one event they’d like to promote to the workshop (but will be given a sample event for the exercises if not). 

During the workshop, the instructors will walk participants through a series of hands-on, solo and collaborative activities to create promotional materials and a big-picture plan for event marketing while integrating GLAM best practices from scholarship. The process will include: identifying the best outreach channels based on audience, prioritizing marketing efforts based on the event, writing effective event descriptions, reviewing basic graphic design concepts, and combining this into a sustainable workflow for event promotion. Participants will leave the workshop with one complete event promotion plan, skills in writing and design, a community of peers for future support, and a variety of resources to enact a sustainable marketing plan at their institutions beyond this event. 

This is the second in a two-part workshop series focused on events. Methods and tools discussed can be applied to any realm of the information profession including libraries, archives, and special collections. Attending the first workshop in the series (Events Made Easy 1) is not required to participate. 

Learning Objectives

Participants will…

• Assess their context, audience, and landscape to identify ideal marketing channels (such as social media, printed matter, emails, and external event copy)

• Write effective event descriptions for an event – considering their audience, reviewing each channel, and using freely available tools in the process

• Review basic graphic design considerations for promotional materials, including accessibility, readability, voice, brand, and channel

• Create a customized template for marketing their events that includes timelines, outreach channels, scaffolded methods, and documentation

Instructors:

Tess Colwell

(She/Her) is the Arts Librarian for Research Services at Yale University’s Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library where she serves as the library liaison to the schools of art and architecture, and the history of art department. In this role, she has developed and collaborated on a variety of events and outreach programs including a Photobook Club series, Library Pop-up events, annual Wikipedia edit-a-thons, and a popular Reading Week program. She has contributed to a range of journals and scholarly publications including Art Documentation, Journal of Outreach and Engagement, and ACRL. Her research interests include digital humanities, library outreach, design research methodologies, and visual literacy instruction. 

Alex O’Keefe

(She/Her) is the Research & Instruction Librarian at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s John M. Flaxman Library. As part of this role she focuses on outreach and programming, specifically collaborating with other staff members and student groups to plan events for SAIC’s diverse creative community. Her work focuses on fostering community in the library through collaborations, weaving critical librarianship into initiatives, fighting mis/disinformation, and all things library outreach.