What does it mean to truly look closely? This year’s VRA annual conference, Zooming In, invites visual resources professionals to shift from the wide view and settle into the details, the workflows, tools, discoveries, and community conversations that define our day-to-day practice.
Delivered fully online, VRA 2026 brings together a rich program drawn from 40+ proposals spanning panels, lightning talks, virtual tours, and more. Whether you’re navigating new roles in your institution, exploring how AI is reshaping cataloging and metadata work, grappling with collection development decisions, or finding new ways to activate and engage communities through visual collections, there’s a session built for where you are right now.
This year’s program reflects both the breadth and the depth of our field: from digitizing ancient scrolls to first-time service management, from reparative description to classroom pedagogy, and interactive digital maps. It’s a conference for asking: what happens when we look more carefully?
Join us to learn, connect, and zoom in.
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The Promise and Peril of AI for Visual Resources: Experiments, Tools, and Impacts New technological developments employing artificial intelligence show great promise for streamlining image processing and generating descriptive metadata. This 60-minute panel explores current AI developments, experiments, and experiences to inform the practice of visual resources. Most agree that AI is a double-edged sword — let's explore both its promise and peril together.
Panelists: Thomas Gailis, Corcoran Art History Program Nancy Harm, Luna Imaging, Inc. Andreas Knab, vrcHost LLC Jason Przybylski (he/him), JSTOR Digital Stewardship Services
