Visual & Media Literacy is a set of skills that enables an individual to effectively find, evaluate, use, and create images and multi-media. As 21st-century instructors, we are obligated to foster skills of observation, interpretation, and assessment of visual content to determine authenticity, decipher its real meaning, and its societal impact.
Romare Howard Bearden. The Train, 1975. Photogravure and aquatint in color on paper
Dorothea Lange. Drought Refugees from Oklahoma, Blythe, California, 1936. Silver gelatin print
Advocacy and support of visual and media literacy standards are fundamental to VML Hub's mission. Towards this goal, we offer a variety of services and resources that support visual and media literacy skills across the curriculum.
With the onset of the internet, social media, mobile devices and now “smart things”, we are bombarded with visual and media content that is designed to influence how we think, what we do, and what we believe. The Internet is "perhaps" the largest image and media distribution/propaganda machine that humans have yet created. This 24/7 saturation of visual and media makes it difficult to assess the merit or authenticity of the content. Visual and media literacy standards provide the mechanisms to combat these challenges and help communicate more effectively.
David Salle. Muscular Paper, 1985. Oil, acrylic, charcoal and fabric paint on canvas
Visual & Media Literacy Hub's digital collections are available to the UMassDartmouth campus community for the sole purpose of instruction, scholarship, and study in accordance with the Visual Resource Association Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study, and the College Art Association for Best Practice in Fair Use for the Visual Arts. All other uses are strictly prohibited and are subject to U.S. Copyright Laws.
Allison J. Cywin
508.999.8701 acywin@umassd.edu
College of Visual & Performing Arts, RM 257
Main Campus
285 Old Westport Road •
Dartmouth
MA
02747
Diana Carns
508.910.6472 dcarns@umassd.edu
College of Visual & Performing Arts, RM 257
Main Campus
285 Old Westport Road •
Dartmouth
MA
02747
Hours: M-F, 8am-5pm and some eveinings depending on the semester