Museum Expands Global Access To Permanent Collection Through Online Partnership
Stockbridge, MA, April 3, 2012—Google today announced a partnership with Norman Rockwell Museum to become one of the newest collaborators on Google Art Project, the company’s online art database.
The partnership is part of a major global expansion of the project, which now counts 151 partners in 40 countries. In the United States alone, 29 partners in 16 cities are participating, ranging from regional museums to university galleries. Through Google Art Project, art lovers are able to view high-resolution images of paintings, sculpture, street art, and photographs. Creations from a wide variety of cultures and civilizations are represented, including Brazilian street graffiti, Islamic decorative arts, ancient African rock art, and now the work of beloved American illustrator, Norman Rockwell.
“Norman Rockwell Museum is pleased to be a global participant in the Google Art Project,” states Museum Director/CEO Laurie Norton Moffatt. “The Museum has invested over ten years in digitizing more than 30,000 images from its Rockwell collection and expanding collection of American illustration art. This collaboration allows us to share the art of Rockwell and other American illustrators with millions of viewers and scholars who may not have the opportunity to visit our Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. During his career, Norman Rockwell’s art was viewed around the world at the turn of a page, and it is fitting that the Google Art Project is making it possible, once again, for the artist’s imagery to be seen and enjoyed by worldwide audiences.”
Norman Rockwell Museum’s featured images on Google Art Project chronicle Rockwell’s formative years as a visual storyteller, as well as offer important works by other noted American illustrators who created influential art for the printed page—from illustration giants Howard Pyle, Charles Dana Gibson, and James Montgomery Flagg to Rockwell’s beloved teacher, Thomas Fogarty. View Norman Rockwell Museum’s Google Art Project page at www.googleartproject.com/collection/norman-rockwell-museum
About Google Art Project
All told, more than 30,000 high-resolution objects are accessible on Google Art Project. A wide range of institutions, both large and small, is represented—from art museums to less traditional settings for art.
Key Features:
Users may browse the content by the artist’s name, artwork, the type of art, the museum, the country, collections and time period. Google+ and video hangouts are integrated on the site, allowing viewers to create even more engaging personal galleries. Street View technology allows users to move around a select group of galleries virtually.
Create Your Own Collection:
The ‘Create an Artwork Collection’ feature allows users to save specific views of any of artworks and build their own personalized collection. Comments can be added to each painting and the whole collection can then be shared with friends and family. The resource is a useful tool for students or groups to work on collaborative projects or collections.
Discover, Search, and Explore:
A custom search integration makes it easier than ever to browse through collections, and find what your are looking for instantly.
Multi-Platform Support:
Google Art Project supports the Android platform, with an iPad version available soon.
Super High-Resolution Feature Artworks:
Participating museums have provided images for a selection totaling more than 30,000 works of art. The resolution of these images, combined with a custom built zoom viewer, allows art-lovers to discover minute aspects of paintings they may never have seen up close before, such as the miniaturized people in the river of El Greco’s View of Toledo, or individual dots in Georges-Pierre Seurat’s Grandcamp, Evening.
Around 46 partners selected one artwork to be photographed in extraordinary detail using super high resolution or ‘gigapixel’ photo capturing technology. Each such image contains around 7 billion pixels, enabling the viewer to study details of the brushwork and patina beyond that possible with the naked eye. Hard to see details suddenly become clear, such as the tiny figures toiling on the doomed construction of Pieter Bruegel’s Tower of Babel; the mysterious and intricate carved symbols of the Pedra del Sol in Mexico; or the painstakingly detailed wonder of Seurat’s Pointillist masterpiece, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.
“Google is committed to bringing all types of culture online and making it accessible,” says Nelson Mattos, VP Engineering, Google. “The Art Project demonstrates how the internet helps spread knowledge.”
“The new expanded Art Project demonstrates our commitment to all types of art, and cultures and civilizations all across the globe,” adds Amit Sood, Head of Art Project, Google. “The Art Project is no longer just about the Indian student wanting to visit Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It is now also about the American student wanting to visit the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi.”
The Art Project epitomizes Google’s commitment to bringing culture online and making it accessible to the widest possible audience. Under the auspices of the Cultural Institute, Google is producing high-resolution images of the Dead Sea Scrolls, digitizing the archives of such famous figures as Nelson Mandela, and creating 3D models of 18th century French cities.
View Google Art Project online at www.googleartproject.com.