ARTstor’s new search features

ARTstor just launched some search and filter features that really help you drill down to the images you want.  You can start a search with a broad term (e.g. “Cordoba”), then click on the + sign beside “Narrow your results” (upper left).  This opens up a filter panel on with options to narrow the search by Classification (e.g.  Painting) or Geography (country).

Another nifty feature: If your search returns less than 1,000 results and the date range is less than 10,000 years, the density of images will be displayed in a timeline.  Just click any line on the timeline to see the results from that specific period.

Note: ARTstor recommends clearing your browser cache to optimize these functions.  In Firefox, go to Tools – Options – Advanced – Network, and click Clear Now; in Internet Explorer, go to Tools – Internet Options – General – Browsing History – Delete (you will be asked to select what to keep and what to delete).

Hammer Museum: 20th anniversary, 20 free days

In celebration of its 20th anniversary this month, the Hammer Museum at UCLA will have 20 days of free admission — from November 26 to December 18.  Additionally, the museum’s store will offer 50% discounts on design books (totaling some 10,000 titles) for the entire month of December.  Here’s more information on current programs and exhibitions.

Public domain newsreels and films online

Two wonderful sources for public domain film footage are available online

• Universal Newsreels: created between 1929 and 1967, these newsreels cover the major topics of the day.  They were put into the public domain by University City Studios.   (There are also many more recent pieces of news footage in this college.)
• Prelinger Archives:   a collection of “ephemeral” film: amateur, advertising, educational  and industrial material from a variety of government and commercial sources.

Try a search on “atom bomb” in either collection – in addition to several still-shocking film images, you’ll find the original “Duck and Cover” Civil Defense film.

UCSB Grad symposium – Call for Papers

The graduate students in the department of the History of Art and Architecture at UCSB are holding their 36th Annual Symposium on April 29-30, 2011, devoted to the theme “Moralities in the Visual Arts.”  They invite proposals for papers on any aspect of this theme from graduate students and recent PhDs in all areas of scholarship.

Read the full description, and call for papers, here.

The keynote speaker will be Richard Dyer, Professor of Film Studies, King’s College, London, who has published widely on aspects of race and sexuality in film and popular culture and will share some of his ongoing research about serial killers.

 

Latest ARTstor additions and announcements

ARTstor’s latest additions to their Digital Library include:

• Judy Chicago: 367 works by the artist, author, feminist, and educator (keyword: judychicago)
• George Eastman House: the completion of 19,161 images illustrating the history of photography (keyword: eastmanhouse)

And these institutions have agreed to contribute:

• Museum of the City of New York: over 55,000 images from prints, drawings and photographs that document the city’s ever-changing cultural, political, and social cityscape
• Getty Research Institute–Julius Shulman Archive: approximately 5,000 images taken by the architectural photographer of Southern California mid-century modern structures
• Getty Research Institute–Alexander Liberman Archive: 1,500 images of European and American artists from the magazine editor’s projects

Even more Santa Barbara and UCSB images available

We have recently added many more Santa Barbara and UCSB images and records to our online image database (MDID), making the total over 600, and with more on the way.   The most recent content we’ve added includes archival images of the UCSB campus and building (including the aerial view at left ca. 1941, long before it was a campus), and architectural drawings and proposals.   In addition to the UCSB material, there are numerous images of landmarks such as the County Courthouse and Mission (now and as they appeared over 100 years ago), vernacular architecture, public art, and even shots of the Solstice Parade of 1984.

Fisk University and the Stieglitz Collection: The ruling

The verdict is in: The Tennessean reports that a Nashville chancery court ruled in favor of Fisk University’s selling a half share of their Stieglitz Collection to Crystal Bridges, an Arkansas museum, to raise operational funds. There is a catch, however: the court ordered the university to set aside 2/3 of the sale—$20 million—in a trust to buffer any future financial troubles. Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper fought against the sale and has maintained that if it was approved it would deter potential local donors. Fisk University isn’t exactly thrilled, either.

Free Muybridgizer app from Tate and iTunes

Tate Britain, partnered with iTunes, is offering a free app that allows the user to create images inspired by Eadweard Muybridge. The app, which was launched in conjunction with the Tate exhibition Muybridge at Tate Britain (8 September 2010–16 January 2011), “Muybridge-izes” photos by placing a succession of images into grids and sepia tones.

[Note: the app is compatible only with iPhone and iPod touch (4th generation) and requires iOS 4.0 or later]

New additions to our online image collections

We’re continuing to expand our collections in MDID, and hosting more campus image collections.  We recently launched the first phase of a collection of Medieval Bibles from UCSB Library’s Special Collections.  These were digitized by Sharon Farmer of the History Department and her students.  So far there are 197 images from three volumes, with more to come.

We are also the grateful recipients of Instructional Improvement funding which will allow us to host digital collections from the Theater & Dance and Classics Departments – they should be up in the next few months and will be announced here.

In addition, we have added thousands of images to the online offerings, including over 1,000 African images (Professor Emeritus Herbert (Skip) Cole’s field slides from the 1960s and 70s).