Beyond the Walls is the product of a collaborative effort. Thanks to VMFA staff, the RTS Labs team and the invaluable contributions made by staff from Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, The William & Mary Confucius Institute, and the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Generous funding for the Beyond the Walls interactive website and mobile application was provided by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
Content and interactive concepts created by Lulan Yu and J. Barry Matthews
Web and mobile application development by RTS Labs, led by Erin Janes Brooks
Editorial assistance Lucy Grey, Stacy Moore and Li Jian
Designed by RTS Labs in consultation with Trang Nguyen, Doug Fisher and Jean Kane
The calligraphy in the interactive section was written by Yi Hao, volunteer teacher working at The William & Mary Confucius Institute. We are grateful to Ying Liu, Assistant Director, The William & Mary Confucius Institute for her work to make this possible.
A very special thanks to Travis Fullerton, Chief Collection Photographer, VMFA, for creating the calligraphy and seal videos and for editing all VMFA created video.
The Cincinnati Art Museum generously offered to share Spring Morning in the Han Palace, an image from their collection. Dr. Hou-mei Sung, Curator of Asian Art selected the handscroll and Rob Deslongchamps, Head of Photo Services worked with us for permission to use the image.
For creating the video on the proper technique for unrolling a handscroll, we thank Darrian Mack, VMFA Director of Audience Development. Wang Yanjing, Painting Conservator from the Palace Museum, Beijing China, unrolled and rolled a VMFA handscroll for the video in the VMFA Frank Raysor Center for the Study of Works on Paper.
The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery allowed us to play and record their set of replica bells and provided photography for our use. A number of their staff made it possible; Stephen Eckerd, Educator and Coordinator, Imaginasia Family Program, Elizabeth Eder, Head of Education and Public Programs, Weina Tray, Curatorial Assistant for the China Program, John Tsantes, Head of Imaging & Photographic Services and J. Keith Wilson, Curator of Ancient Chinese Art, who was instrumental in this collaboration.
Special thanks to Bret Payne, Production Coordinator at VMFA, who recorded, edited, (and played) all of the bell tones and recorded and edited all audio content.
Tony Eckstat, General Manager, Celestial Harmonies granted permission to use "Heroic Air of Chu", "Concert of the Eight Tones" and "Collecting Mulberry Leaves" from The Imperial Bells of China. Courtesy of Fortuna Records, Celestial Harmonies.
David Badagnani, musician and independent scholar generously shared his research on ancient Chinese bells.
Robert Yanal provided the video of bronze bells being played at the Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan, China.
Austin Anderson, artist and VMFA Education Assistant, painted the image of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts that is incorporated into Wu Yanlai's, Album of Twelve Landscape Paintings in VMFA's permanent collection.
We are grateful to the VMFA objects conservation department and especially to volunteers Maria and John Shugars who created a 3D version of the seal to animate.
Celeste Fetta, Chief Educator, and the entire VMFA Education department for their ideas, ongoing support, encouragement and feedback.
Li Jian, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of East Asian Art, for her guidance and consultation on the content and selection of objects.
Travis Fullerton, Howell Perkins, David Stover and Megan Zalecki for their invaluable work creating photography, video and assistance with logistics and obtaining images.
J. Barry Matthews, Li Jian and Lulan Yu for narrating the audio sections.
Joe DiMiceli and Lauren Kitts for their technical assistance.
Our Advancement and Development team for their continued support.
We recognize the contributions of RTS Labs and the extended technology team under the direction of Erin Janes Brooks, including Nathan Coates (front-end design and development), Trish Brumett (seal illustrations), Shantanu Wagh (seal making interactive), Joe Baker (scroll and painting interactives), Taylor Campbell (seal making and scroll interactives), Trevor Niklawski (calligraphy interactive), Jonathan Lee (seal making 3D animation and bronze bell interactive), and Creative CoLab Internship students James Quinlan and Kali Gregan from Virginia Commonwealth University (seal making and bronze bell user experience concepts).