Julie Rudder, Roman Stansberry, and the Visual Media Collection Join NUL

Julie Rudder and Roman Stansberry joined NUL’s staff on September 1, when the Visual Media Collection (VMC), formerly of the art history department, became part of the University Library.

This merger is a first step in a broader initiative, jointly developed by the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the Library and supported by central administration, to create a digital image library serving faculty across the university. The VMC has already digitized 35,000 of the 300,000 slides in its collection, and has been working closely with art history faculty to support their transition to an all-digital presentation environment. Julie and Roman will continue to work in their current offices in the Visual Media Collection space on the third floor of Kresge Hall (3-345).

Julie graduated in June with an MFA from the Department of Art Theory and Practice here at Northwestern, and much of her art practice takes the form of video and sound. Her undergraduate degree was in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This summer and fall she has been co-organizing a series of art exhibitions in the garage and basement of her house, called Vega Estates. At each opening she makes a new flavor of homemade ice cream and she thinks her favorite was the blueberry cheesecake with bits of
graham cracker crust. She also has a slight obsession with food blogs--especially the ones that specialize in baked goods. She can be reached at x1-8023 or j-rudder@northwestern.edu.

Roman started in the Visual Media Collection (then called the Slide Library) as Assistant Curator in September, 1997, and recently celebrated his 10th anniversary here at Northwestern. Before that, he worked as a temp, as a Data Enterer at University Services, and as a medical aide in the campus infirmary during the spring and summer of 2006.

He received his BA in Commercial Art at Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan in 1993. As part of the liberal arts curriculum, he enjoyed many art classes including painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and photography. Since graduation, he has continued to produce art, and has a freelance photography business documenting the artwork of others His pastimes include photography, road trips, beach volleyball, video games, and creating tasty sangria recipes. You can reach him at x1-8022 or r-stansberry@northwestern.edu.

(Photos by Mary Bradley)