The National Gallery of Writing - Previous Revision

The National Gallery is a digital archive of compositions accessible to all through a free, searchable website—a living archive of thousands of examples of writing from across the United States.

• Writers will include with their composition information about themselves and the reasons they selected and submitted it to the Gallery.  
• All sorts of compositions will be accepted, including (but not limited to) electronic presentations, blog posts, documentary clips, poetry readings, “how to” directions, short stories, memos, audio and video clips.  

The National Gallery features three types of display spaces all curated and collected in a variety of galleries:

• The Gallery of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
• The Galleries of National Partners curated by groups as diverse as Google, the Newseum, Sesame Street’s Electric Company, and the National Science Teachers Association. 
• The Galleries of Local Partners curated by groups as diverse as a local Girl Scout troop; a town such as Augusta, Arkansas; a community college course; a bridge club; a city such as Champaign-Urbana, Illinois; a writers group, and local business.

What is a Local Gallery?
All sorts of groups may become Local Partner Galleries: clubs, businesses, classes, church groups, families, fire house crews, Girl Scout troops, libraries, Boys’ Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Condo Associations, VFW Posts, etc.

There are three reasons to organize a Local Partner Gallery: celebrate writing, have fun, and build camaraderie.

If you’d like to recruit local galleries in your area you can contact groups and invite them to organize and you can volunteer to make a presentation to those groups on why and how to set up a local gallery.

• If the groups are already formally organized groups (e.g. a Boy Scout Troop), you can contact the president or group leader to invite them to organize.
• If the groups are not formally organized (e.g., staff and customers of a local business), look for a leader to get things going. That leader would have these attributes: interested in the project, well-organized, energetic, socially committed, might have a role like newsletter editor.
• You may also want to look for helpers in organizing a local group like local librarians or teachers.
• Think about contacting Americorps, sports organizations, Key Clubs, student clubs and NCTE student affiliates, high tech companies, film Schools or media projects, screen writers guild, Best Buy, Target.

Getting Started
The first thing a prospective local gallery will want to do is hold an organizational meeting.  Some members of the local gallery will need to assume certain roles: curator/writing assistant, October 20th event planner, publicity, fun and camaraderie organizer.  At the this first meeting, they’ll want to:

1. Set a name, theme, and brief description of their Gallery.
2. Set a timeline for what they want to accomplish.
3. Think about creating a blog or email list or phone tree to communicate among the organizers and members.

Curator Duties and Tools

• Name a curator and maybe assistant curator(s).
• Decide who will apply for the local gallery and when.
• If there is/are an assistant curator(s), the curators will want to to discuss how they’ll handle distribution of submissions/load balancing. The curators will need to develop guidelines for reviewing submissions.  See NCTE’s guidelines as a model.
• Check out the information for curators as the gallery develops.

Using the Online Curator Tools

These tools will allow you to view submissions, make decisions about which pieces appear in your gallery, and communicate with submitters.

The process is really quite simple. Begin by logging in to your existing account with your email address and self-created password, then follow these five quick steps to get started using your online curator tools.

1. Select the View Submissions button to view all the submissions for your gallery. You can then identify the writing contribution you would like to review by selecting the Review button.
2. Select the View Submission bar (click to show/hide) to access the writing contribution.
3. After reviewing the writing contribution, scroll down to the administration tools section and select the Change Status button. You will then be asked to select from one of the following actions: Accept, Decline, Decline and Move to the Gallery of NCTE, Pending, or Move to a Different Gallery I Manage.
4. After making your selection, select the Generate Response button. To preview the full letter, select the Preview button.
5. After your final review, select the Send Email button to send the notification email to the author.

Entering Multiple Submissions

1. When you log in you will see a gray button titled, Multiple Pieces.
2. Once you click this button a new permission statement will appear asking that you acknowledge that you have received prior permission to contribute for others.
3. After you acknowledge the permission statement, a new button will appear titled, Contribute for Others.
4. When using this feature, you will be asked for a pen name. You can use the author’s real name, or you can assign a pen name to the submission as long as you have received permission.
5. After completing the pen name field, you will answer a few additional questions and then you will be able to describe and submit multiple writing contributions on behalf of others.

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