Douglas Pontsler, Chairman and Managing Director of COVE: Center for Visual Expertise, was honored with the International Visual Literacy Association’s (IVLA) Special Contribution Award at the 55th annual conference held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this October. This prestigious award recognizes non-member individuals, institutions, or organizations for their outstanding contributions to the field of visual literacy in research, education, publication, or creative productions.
Douglas Pontsler is one of the five recipients of this prestigious award since its inception in 1996. Winners are selected by an awards committee comprised of IVLA members.
COVE: Center of Visual Expertise was established by the Toledo Museum of Art with a specific focus on applying principles from art education, particularly visual literacy, to industrial and service organizations, primarily emphasizing safety. COVE’s cutting-edge visual literacy curriculum has taken theory into practice, working closely with major organizations to enhance success at every level by implementing strategies to improve workplace safety through enhanced visual literacy.
From the shop floor to the boardroom, the strategic value of becoming visually literate has helped organizations achieve significant improvements in safety performance. Since its inception, COVE has partnered with esteemed organizations such as the National Safety Council, Campbell Institute, Fisher Improvement Technologies, Bowers Management Analytics, and many others to advance the development, delivery, and application of visual literacy in improving safety performance. Since 2016, COVE has leveraged visual literacy to train over an estimated 2,500 environmental health and safety professionals, both in museums, at conferences, and through virtual delivery.
As thought leaders, COVE has published case studies with renowned companies like Cummins, Owens Corning, Turner Lathrop, and DTE Energy, as well as white papers and resources that illustrate the profound impact of our work and further the cause of visual literacy. COVE is the pioneering organization that successfully established the connection between Visual Literacy and its relevance to workplace applications.
About IVLA: Founded in 1968, the International Visual Literacy Association is an interdisciplinary organization of professionals dedicated to a comprehensive understanding of how we derive meaning from what we see and how we interact with our visual environment. For more information about IVLA, please visit IVLA’s official website.
