Meet the Community

Morgan Wylder

How would you describe what you do to someone outside your field?

Professionally, I am a conservator of paintings. I also volunteer as a co-editor of an online journal dedicated to Technical Art History (TAH) called Materia. TAH is basically the study of art objects and other cultural heritage through the lens of materiality–what things are made from, how they were made, and why those matter in our storytelling about objects and our histories.

How did you find Quire, and what made you stick with it?

We found Quire at the suggestion of one of our former team members. She was researching ways we could produce a serial journal that would be accessible to a wide audience, free to use, and had customizability and features beyond a typical WordPress (in 2020) so that we could showcase objects and research better–including video, audio, zoomable images, etc. Quire had become a public, open-source tool by this time and was a great fit for our project!

Can you tell us about a Quire project (past or present) that has excited you?

My favorite issue that we (Materia) have produced so far might be issue 3, where author Rowan Frame submitted stop-motion videos of her painting en plein air in the style of English painter John Constable. It really showcases how digital media can be helpful in describing something that words cannot. Other Quire projects that I’ve been so impressed with are the Masterpieces from the Clowes Collection from Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields (it has technical reports of paintings!) and Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo from the Mingei Museum in San Diego, with many essays on the making of indigo dye and dyed objects from around the world.

What’s something you wish you knew about Quire before using it?

For someone who knows as little about website building as I did, there is indeed a learning curve between the Quire program itself, Github, Netlify, and some of the other steps involved, so this will require some time and patience. Thankfully, the Quire team has written excellent documentation to walk you through the process of starting a project. Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty straightforward and there is no limit to the information and images you can include in your project–other than hosting/storage fees.

What’s currently making you happy?

We are currently working on our 6th, 7th, and 8th issues! It’s amazing that our team is still as dedicated as it was in the beginning. We have so much fun working together, and we find contributing to this mission so rewarding. We are grateful to our early authors who believed in us and our potential for sustainability that they published with us, and so grateful that we continue to receive excellent research and can continue to publish.

Michelle Padilla

How would you describe what you do to someone outside your field?

My title is Digital Content Strategist, but most people don’t know what that means so I say that I manage the website content at my museum.

How did you find Quire, and what made you stick with it?

I first became aware of Quire at my last museum when we were trying to find ways to get more scholarly content online. We ended up not using it, but I kept my eye on it. When I arrived at the Carter and we were looking for a way to develop an online publication, I came back to Quire and suggested we look into it.

After launching our first digital publication in 2022, we decided it would be a good platform for a scholarly bulletin we were launching. That Quire is free to use and is basically ready to use “out of the box” are two pluses. There is definitely a learning curve to it, but with minimal customizations, it’s pretty easy to use. And the Quire team at Getty are always willing to help if you get stuck!

Can you tell us about a Quire project (past or present) that has excited you?

The Carter has launched two publications using Quire: The Art of the Scene (2022) and Carter Bulletin Vol 1 / Charles M. Russell: New Perspectives (2025). They’ve both been really fun to work with. But I’m currently using Quire for a personal project and I’m excited about that! I’ve digitized and transcribed letters that my grandfather sent my grandmother during World War II before they were married. I’m using photos, maps, and other documents to put them into context. It’s been a very heartwarming experience to get an idea of what they might have been like as young adults.

What’s something you wish you knew about Quire before using it?

While not directly Quire-related, I do wish I had a better grasp on how to use Github better. As I’m working on my third epub, I’m realizing the value of using Github, but I feel like real understanding is just out of reach and Github is where I often find myself getting tripped up.

What’s currently making you happy?

Always my pets - two dogs and three cats! Also, it’s been pretty hot here in Texas and my husband and I have been visiting some of the Texas State Parks for stand-up paddle boarding. We’ve found it quite relaxing - and cool! - to pack up our boards and float around on a lake for a few hours on a weekend. It’s a great way to step away from our electronics and get up-close and personal with nature.

Andy de Leon

How would you describe what you do to someone outside your field?

As a Software Engineer, I build software and tools that help people navigate and make sense of their data and information. Day to day, that means speaking several languages only computers understand.

How did you find Quire, and what made you stick with it?

I found Quire through my admiration for Getty and learning about the projects they are actively involved in. What’s kept me here is seeing the passion and inspiration with which Quire serves its community across the spectrum of media.

Can you tell us about a Quire project (past or present) that has excited you?

I am currently working on the Leopoldo Méndez catalogue raisonné project. I am helping extract and transform over 800+ entries to publish on Quire. Really exciting to work on this project and push the tool to its limits.

What’s something you wish you knew about Quire before using it?

I wish I had understood earlier how much good, well-formatted structured data pays off when starting a Quire project. This is less about Quire itself and more about defining our approach and outlining our thought process in advance.

What’s currently making you happy?

Coming home again to LA after living in Chi for some years. Though I do miss the concrete beaches.

Valerie Hellstein

How would you describe what you do to someone outside your field?

I make gallery text accessible and hopefully fun to read for museum visitors, and I also shepherd books into being, helping curators realize their vision for a book by being a thoughtful reader and listener. I’m also a project manager and a budget wrangler.

How did you find Quire, and what made you stick with it?

My predecessors had already decided to use Quire, and I got to be the lucky one to implement it for our first digital publication, Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection. We stuck with it because it was easy enough for a non-technical person to use and understand, and we had several more digital projects in the pipeline. Trying to learn something new for each publication sounded like a recipe for disaster. I also quickly learned that both Erin and Greg at the Getty—but also the wider community—were always willing to step in and help troubleshoot. Eventually, we also created customizations that are readily applicable to our future digital projects, making them a little bit easier to realize.

Can you tell us about a Quire project (past or present) that has excited you?

Our digital catalogue for Biophilia: Nature Reimagined had a lot of customization, which was exciting to see (not done by me but by a contract developer we hired) that really embodied the curator’s overall vision for the show. It was also the first time that working under the hood of Quire, so to speak, really started to click for me. I was able to do some troubleshooting on my own without bothering our developers.

What’s something you wish you knew about Quire before using it?

To create something truly unique with its own look and feel, a developer is essential. It’s really outside of a non-technical person’s ability to go beyond basic customizations, even with some general knowledge of HTML and CSS.

What’s currently making you happy?

Enjoying negronis in the backyard garden once the sun has dipped down below the tree line and the bees are still busy buzzing in the lavender bushes.

Yang Li

How would you describe what you do to someone outside your field?

I am a “translator,” sitting between faculty members and software applications, translating their needs into code that drives the web apps, sites, and publications people use on their computers and phones. I call myself a “translator” because I realize that I need to truly understand their needs and wants and put subject matter into context to arrive at meaningful designs and delightful software products, or, in this case, Quire publications. I enjoy this job a lot because I am educating, sharing, listening, and, hopefully, building beautiful things, and it never gets old!

How did you find Quire, and what made you stick with it?

I came across Quire in 2018 while exploring digital publishing platforms at the Emory Center for Digital Scholarship. It stood out as a structured yet flexible and customizable platform. Full code exposure allows a developer like me to make reasonable customizations, which complements more opinionated platforms. The Quire community is also very responsive and supportive, taking user feedback seriously and providing consistent updates and maintenance of the software.

Can you tell us about a Quire project (past or present) that has excited you?

I am currently working on a Quire project called Making an Impression by Professor Ruth Allen at Emory University, which features ancient engraved gemstones. Professor Allen has Reflectance Transformation Imaging objects that reveal the gemstone’s texture when light is projected from different angles. I retrofitted a web RTI viewer into Quire and minimized “footprints” on the platform, taking this experiment as a joyful exploration to push the boundary of the platform.

What’s something you wish you knew about Quire before using it?

At the very beginning, I was so eager to try things out that I skipped deep diving into the Quire documentation. I essentially started manipulating code straight away, which was okay for the most part because of my prior coding experience and how structured the platform is. However, definitions, best practices, and certain features weren’t obvious unless I read the documentation. Besides, the documentation also reveals the design philosophy and design choices made by Quire’s makers. This is important because it helps me better understand what the platform is meant to be and not meant to be. It helps me become a better consultant when I advise faculty members, or really anyone using or interested in using the platform.

What’s currently making you happy?

Lately I have been casually sharing my experience studying abroad in the U.S. with international students from Asia, a small act that brings me a surprising amount of joy. On the technical side, I have also been stitching vibe coding and AI-assisted design into my workflows, with equal parts excitement and caution. These pursuits are some of what keep me going these days.