Art enthusiasts in Colorado, or anywhere in the world, can now log on to the CU Art Galleries聮 collection from the comfort of their homes, thanks to the galleries聮 Web site.
The University of Colorado at Boulder site features 300 works of art from the CU Art Galleries聮 permanent holdings, called the Colorado Collection, accompanied by dozens of newly researched essays about the artists and the historic and cultural context of their art.
The multi-million dollar art collection, which has more than 5,000 pieces ranging from medieval manuscripts to contemporary prints, was started in 1939 by CU聮s fine arts department as a teaching tool. Because of the collection聮s fragile nature 聳 most of the holdings are works on paper that must be protected from exposure to light 聳 the Web site is an important way to increase access to the collection while also preserving it for generations to come.
"The idea was to design a Web site that would make this wonderful and unique collection more accessible to faculty, students and the general public," said Susan Krane, director of CU Art Galleries.
Visitors can roam around the site and view hundreds of pieces of artwork, which are searchable by the artist聮s name, time period or subject, according to David Schaal of CU-Boulder聮s Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society, or ATLAS.
"Having some of these works online has instantly made the collection more accessible to people here in Colorado, and for that matter, to anybody in the world who has access to the Web," said Schaal, who along with graphic designer Judy Palaferro did much of the technical design and web architecture for the site. "A truly unique part of the site is the essays that were researched and written by CU-Boulder students, staff and volunteer art historians. They really bring the collection to life."
Many of the artworks were researched for the first time in order to complete the essays, according to Krane.
"While doing this truly valuable, applied research, the students were also introduced to curators聮 practices and to professional museum standards," Krane said.
With more than 5,000 pieces of artwork in the collection, Krane said she hopes to add more objects to the site. The museum also plans to expand the Web site to include commissioned, online artists聮 projects.
"One of our goals for the site is to serve as a model for putting other highly significant university resources -- like the Special Collections, the Heritage Center聮s holdings and the CU Museum聮s natural history collections -- online," said Schaal. "I think this is a great start."
To view "Colorado Collections" visit the Web site at .
The Colorado Collection includes works primarily on paper, ranging from old master drawings to contemporary photographs. It is the only public art collection of its kind in Boulder, and one of the few art museum collections in the state.
ATLAS gave the CU Art Galleries a $16,000 grant to complete the project. In order to get the artwork online, a professional photographer was brought in to photograph the works, which were then scanned, color-corrected and placed on the site聮s 1,200 pages.
ATLAS is a campus-wide initiative whose primary goal is to prepare all students for lives and leadership careers in the new networked information age.