[Leonardo/ISAST Network] Leonardo, Educators and Students - a letter from Darlene Tong

[Leonardo/ISAST]

November 5, 2004

Dear Leonardo community member,

Leonardo publications are recognized internationally as essential scholarly
resources for faculty, students and researchers. When Leonardo began in
1968, it was supported by a small, dedicated community of artists,
scientists and technologists. Nearly four decades later, Leonardo is the
pre-eminent journal covering the intersection of the arts, sciences and
technology. Over the years, universities and art schools have come to
realize the increased importance of offering interdisciplinary programs
featuring the topics that lie at the heart of Leonardo. Our journals, book
series and web sites have long been considered unparalleled resources to
educators in the field. 

While Leonardo and its non-profit umbrella organization, the International
Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST), recognize the growing
need for scholarship in the field of art, science and technology, we find
this need is in serious conflict with the budget cuts facing university
departments today. To address this problem, over the past year Leonardo has
expanded its commitment to educators through new programs.

Leonardo Educators and Students Program -- features a number of critical
projects. In partnership with the College Art Association (CAA), the largest
professional community of artists and art historians in the United States,
Leonardo will host several sessions at the 2005 CAA Conference, including
the panel session "Hybridity: Arts, Sciences and Cultural Effects" and a
student mentoring session focused on art-and-science curricula. In
conjunction with Pomona College, California, Leonardo has also instituted
the Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS), a database of thesis abstracts in the
arts (visual, sound, performing, textual), the sciences, computer sciences
and technology investigating philosophical, historical, critical or
technical applications. Plans are currently underway at Leonardo for an
educators' panel session at the next ACM SIGGRAPH Conference, as well as
educators' sessions at the ISEA 2006 conference, with documentation
available in print and online. The Leonardo Educators and Student Program
will result in a growing body of material to assist art/science/technology
curricula and departments.
 
Leonardo Art History Project -- is an ongoing project that documents
artists' works and ideas that are considered seminal to the development of
art involving science and technology. In 2005 the project will feature the
First International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and
Technology at the Banff New Media Institute in Canada. Recognizing the
increasing significance of media art in contemporary culture, this
conference will discuss for the first time the interdisciplinary and
intercultural contexts of media art within the histories of art. Leonardo
will make documentation of this ground-breaking event and the resulting
papers available in print and online to the educational community.

As a Leonardo/ISAST Board member, I know the important contribution Leonardo
makes to the documentation of emerging art forms. As a librarian at San
Francisco State University, I am also aware of the realities of shrinking
university collections budgets, which have adversely affected an important
source of income for Leonardo at a time when the need for documenting work
in emerging media is increasing exponentially. Leonardo plans to continue
its activities with the artistic and educational communities and to keep our
programs operating at their fullest potential, but in order to do this we
need the help of our individual community members. Your support is critical
and I urge you to step forward and make an individual donation to
Leonardo/ISAST in support of its myriad efforts to foster artistic practice
and to provide documentation that will support future research of these
activities. 
 
Each year Leonardo's commitment continues to grow to meet the needs of the
community. As we look toward the future, we foresee many opportunities for
collaboration with artists and educators abounding in the arena of art,
science and technology. I urge you to show your support of Leonardo and its
programs by making an individual donation online today at
http://leonardo.info/isast/donations.html or by mailing a donation to the
editorial office: Leonardo, 211 Sutter Street, Suite 800, San Francisco, CA
94108, U.S.A. Please join me in supporting Leonardo and its commitment to
educators.

Best regards,

Darlene Tong
Head of Information, Research and Instructional Services
San Francisco State University
Leonardo/ISAST Governing Board Member

p.s. Donations are integral to Leonardo and its programs -- subscriptions
cover only a portion of our costs. All donations are tax deductible in the
U.S. as provided by law. Your donation will ensure the future of these
Leonardo programs -- please give generously.