Your Paintings, the digital collaboration between the Public Catalogue Foundation (PCF) and the BBC, was launched last week with 60,000 paintings by 15,000 artists.
The project is ongoing, but the PCF aims to have digitised the entire national collection of oil paintings – about 200,000 – by the end of 2012. This will cover works from 3,000 institutions, including museums and art galleries, as well as schools, hospitals, universities and even lighthouses. It is estimated that 80% of the national collection is either in storage or in buildings that the public cannot access.
The Your Paintings website allows people to search for artworks by artist or keywords, or browse collections in their region. There are also online guided tours from the likes of Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge, artist Yinka Shonibare and comedian Frank Skinner.
Andrew Ellis, director of the PCF, said: “No country has ever embarked on such a monumental project to showcase its entire painting collection online.”
The website is particularly valuable to smaller museums and galleries as it promotes their collections to a wider audience.
Val Boa, curator at the McLean Museum and Art Gallery, in Greenock, said: “‘This wonderful project also gives the collections – completely for free – a set of high quality photographs of their paintings. By providing knowledge of art collections throughout Britain, the PCF project allows the public to discover the richness, diversity and joy of works in public ownership and encourages cultural tourism in a way not previously available.”
The BBC will broadcast related programmes across its television channels this summer, and will also show selected highlights from the Your Paintings website on big screens in 20 cities between 24 June and 24 July.
Roly Keating, director of archive content at the BBC, said: “Your Paintings will be a hugely valuable learning resource for our audience and demonstrates the power of working with partners to open up the nation's cultural resources."
The website uses crowdsourcing to tag the artworks. Technology developed by the Astrophysics Department at Oxford University enables registered users to add tags to paintings describing things and ideas; people; places and events.
Although users don’t need to have any prior knowledge about art history, those with specialist skills or knowledge are able to add additional tags relating to style.
Click here to visit the Your Paintings website
The project is ongoing, but the PCF aims to have digitised the entire national collection of oil paintings – about 200,000 – by the end of 2012. This will cover works from 3,000 institutions, including museums and art galleries, as well as schools, hospitals, universities and even lighthouses. It is estimated that 80% of the national collection is either in storage or in buildings that the public cannot access.
The Your Paintings website allows people to search for artworks by artist or keywords, or browse collections in their region. There are also online guided tours from the likes of Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge, artist Yinka Shonibare and comedian Frank Skinner.
Andrew Ellis, director of the PCF, said: “No country has ever embarked on such a monumental project to showcase its entire painting collection online.”
The website is particularly valuable to smaller museums and galleries as it promotes their collections to a wider audience.
Val Boa, curator at the McLean Museum and Art Gallery, in Greenock, said: “‘This wonderful project also gives the collections – completely for free – a set of high quality photographs of their paintings. By providing knowledge of art collections throughout Britain, the PCF project allows the public to discover the richness, diversity and joy of works in public ownership and encourages cultural tourism in a way not previously available.”
The BBC will broadcast related programmes across its television channels this summer, and will also show selected highlights from the Your Paintings website on big screens in 20 cities between 24 June and 24 July.
Roly Keating, director of archive content at the BBC, said: “Your Paintings will be a hugely valuable learning resource for our audience and demonstrates the power of working with partners to open up the nation's cultural resources."
The website uses crowdsourcing to tag the artworks. Technology developed by the Astrophysics Department at Oxford University enables registered users to add tags to paintings describing things and ideas; people; places and events.
Although users don’t need to have any prior knowledge about art history, those with specialist skills or knowledge are able to add additional tags relating to style.
Click here to visit the Your Paintings website