hyperallergic.com: Paris Musées announced yesterday that it is now offering 100,000 digital reproductions of artworks in the city’s museums as Open Access — free of charge and without restrictions — via its Collections portal. Paris Musées is a public entity that oversees the 14 municipal museums of Paris, including the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Petit Palais, and the Catacombs. Users can download a file that contains a high definition (300 DPI) image, a document with details about the selected work, and a guide of best practices for using and citing the sources of the image.
4 comments:
I love this trend in the art world! Most people will go their entire lives without seeing these beautiful pieces of artwork in person, so this is just one step toward making art more accessible to wide ranges of people. There are so many studies detailing the effects of art education on young people, and this will only make it easier to get art directly into the hands (or on the computer screens) of those who need it. I've definitely noticed a shift towards this attitude recently. So many museums have free galleries online and I'm so excited to see where it goes next! I'm super passionate about accessibility in art and theatre; I genuinely think that everyone deserves access to art and education about that art. Nobody should live a life where they've never been able to analyze such wonderful pieces of culture from all over the world. Call me radical, but I think all artwork (made by those who are no longer alive) should be freely and easily accessible to everyone, whether that be in books or online. Historically, art has been reserved for those who could afford to commission it, and that's really just unethical. I would love to see all museums implement this policy! I know it's difficult financially to run a non-profit, but at least government-funded institutions should be doing this.
Okay I am going to try not to turn into a total nerd here, but I have a very very deep passion for art history. As a senior in high school, I took AP Art History, and it was the greatest class I have ever taken. It sparked something in me that not just loves art of all forms, but also the motivations and contexts that surround art. Getting to sit in class every day and look at projections of various paintings such as “Liberty Leading the People”, the Sistine Chapel ceiling (which is not allowed to be photographed by the public), and Titian’s “Venus of Urbino” taught me more about the world and historical customs than I have ever learned in a history textbook. I think that exposure to art is so important for the human mind, and the sad truth of the matter is that accessibility to art is not the most ideal. Not everyone can just travel the world to these museums to see the greats that shaped art today. By releasing these works to the public, Paris Musées is providing the world with a platform to better appreciate and study art, and with that, appreciate and study the world.
I love the internet. Not all the time, but right now I truly do. It brings so much information to us so quickly and in an unbelievably accessible way. So many people would have been unable to see these works ever in their lives, but the internet and this museum have given them the opportunity. The arts and arts education is so important in every community in this world. The arts serve as a reflection of humanity and culture, so they serve as history textbooks waiting to be read. Art tells us about history and people and culture and life throughout the ages. By showing us a sliver of another time, we can begin to understand and process our own time. Art is a cathartic medium that helps people understand their own complex ideas and emotions in a healthy way. This database is such an incredible resource that is now incredibly available to millions of people around the world.
Wow this is amazing!! I’m really looking forward to looking at the collection of French art that has been made free to access online!! I’ve always believed that art should be made accessible to everyone who wants to see it! Art is made to be seen and enjoyed!! I plan to take an art history class next year because it’s something I’m really passionate about and I would like to know more about the history of art! Being able to access these works online is so important and can help inspire other artists. I love looking at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s costume collection for inspiration when I’m working on the costumes for a period show. It’s incredibly helpful to look at historic art for inspiration. Especially for a costume designer because paintings are all we have for evidence of what people wore before there were cameras. I look forward to looking at the paintings in this museum’s collection!
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