Dulwich Picture Gallery has announced a partnership with Google, which is expanding its path-breaking Art Project in the UK. Google are hosting a special event at Dulwich Picture Gallery, to mark a significant step forward in working towards its goal of bringing culture online and making it accessible to the widest possible audience. Ian Dejardin, Sackler Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery: “Isn’t technology wonderful? Dulwich Picture Gallery, in all that it does, is always striving to reach out to new audiences, in particular those who find access to art challenging. Google Art’s extraordinary initiative suddenly makes that reaching out global, allowing an astonishing level of detail to be appreciated on works of art that may be physically confined to their Gallery, but which now can fly! We are delighted to be partnering with Google on this transformational project.”
The partnership is part of a major global expansion of the project, which now counts 151 partners in 40 countries. Thanks to Google, art lovers are able, with a few simple clicks of their fingers, to discover not just paintings, but also sculpture, street art, and photographs. Creations from a wide variety of cultures and civilizations are represented, including Brazilian street graffiti, Islamic decorative arts and ancient African rock art.The project has expanded dramatically. More than 30,000 objects are available to view in high resolution, up from 1,000 in the first version. Street View images now cover 46 museums, with more on the way.
Nelson Mattos, VP Engineering, Google: “Google is committed to bringing all types of culture online and making it accessible. The Art Project demonstrates how the Internet helps spread knowledge.
A wide range of institutions, large and small, traditional art museums as well as less traditional settings for great art, are represented in the expanded Art Project. Explore the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar. Continue the journey in India, exploring the Santiniketan Triptych in the halls of the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi. In the UK, Dulwich Picture Gallery and nine other new gallery partners, join existing British partners National Gallery in London and the Tate Britain, including the Royal Collection; Victoria and Albert Museum; Imperial War Museum; National Galleries of Scotland; and the Jewish Museum, among others.
Key features of the new Art Project:
• Users may browse the content by the artist’s name, the artwork, the type of art, the museum, the country, the city and the collection. Google+ and video hangouts are integrated on the site, allowing viewers to create even more engaging personal galleries.
• A specially designed Street View ‘trolley’ took 360 degree images of the interior of selected galleries which were then stitched together, enabling smooth navigation of over hundreds of rooms within the museums. The gallery interiors can also be explored directly from withinStreet View in Google Maps.
• More than 30,000 artworks are featured in high resolution. Some have been photographed in extraordinary detail using super high resolution or ‘gigapixel’ photo capturing technology, enabling the viewer to study details of the brushwork and patina beyond that possible with the naked eye.
• An enhanced My Gallery feature allows users to select any of the 30,000 artworks – along with their favorite details – and ‘build’ their own personalised gallery. Comments can be added to each painting and the whole collection can then be shared with friends and family. It’s an ideal tool for students.
• The new Art Project includes other completely new tools called Explore and Discover. Users can find artworks by period, artist or type of artwork, displaying works from different museums around the world.
The Art Project illustrates Google’s commitment to bringing culture online and making it accessible the widest possible audience. Under the auspices of the Cultural Institution, Google is producing high resolution images of the Dead Sea Scrolls, digitizing the archives of famous figures such as Nelson Mandela, and creating 3D models of 18th century French cities.
Find out even more about Art Project on the new YouTube channel, and explore the project at the www.googleartproject.com
Dulwich Picture Gallery is England’s first purpose-built public art gallery: it was founded in 1811 when Sir Francis Bourgeois RA bequeathed his collection of Old Master paintings “for the inspection of the public”. The Gallery was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane and houses one of the country’s finest collections of Old Masters, especially rich in French, Italian and Spanish Baroque paintings and in British portraits from Tudor times to the nineteenth century.
Dulwich Picture Gallery is an independent charitable trust and is not in receipt of any regular government funding. The Gallery’s vision is to set an international standard of excellence amongst independent museums, recognised for innovative and dynamic engagement with art in the belief that art can transform lives for the better. Dulwich Picture Gallery’s directorship position is endowed as The Sackler Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery thanks to a generous grant given in recognition of the Gallery’s standing and achievements in both its exhibition and community engagement programmes. The grant from The Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation endows in perpetuity this position and secures the excellence and sustainability of the Directorship for the Gallery’s future. Amit Sood, Head of Art Project, Google: “The new expanded Art Project demonstrates our commitment to all types of art – and cultures and civilizations all across the globe. The Art Project is no longer just about the Indian student wanting to visit the 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.”