First Friday offers glimpse into digital archiving

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The new year’s First Friday on Jan. 4 offers locals a chance to learn a little bit about how things work at the Slate Valley Museum.

Visitors will be able to see how collection pieces are digitized while getting a glimpse at items in the museum’s collections that are not on exhibit, officials said.

“People can see how the process works and what the end result will be,” said Amy Mincher, assistant director and collections manager. The ongoing project is being funded by matching grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and matching grants from the Shepard Broad Foundation.

Such collections as archives, photographs, ephemera, oral histories and video footage will be made accessible to the public through this initiative through the museum.

During the evening, Executive Director Kathryn Weller and Mincher will present a talk they gave during a trip to Wales last year at the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History’s International Conference on Welsh Studies.

Food for the event will be provided by the Pine Grove Diner.

At the Pember, meanwhile, several artists will be on display for the public to enjoy. Lynn Pratt, of Pawlet Vermont, will be showing her watercolor paintings.

“My Looking Up series triggers you to view objects in a totally different perspective then you would normally see them, replaced by the emotions and feelings it provokes. I want to give viewers a different perspective of the things we see in our daily lives and don’t think much of,” Pratt wrote of her work.

Oil and acrylic paintings from Ruth Frost will be shown, as wells as batik work from Carol Conklin of Fort Ann.

“This will be a fantastic kick off for the new year; it carries into more business for the community and it branches out, which is the whole idea,” said Pat Wesner, executive director of the Pember. She said January starts the third year of First Friday’s in Granville.

Schoony’s Market will provide food for First Friday, and there will be live music.