Smithsonian Digitizes & Lets You Download 40,000 Works of Asian and American Art | Open Culture

abernard102@gmail.com 2015-06-12

Summary:

"Art lovers who visit my hometown of Washington, DC have an almost embarrassing wealth of opportunities to view art collections classical, Baroque, Renaissance, modern, postmodern, and otherwise through the Smithsonian’s network of museums. From the East and West Wings of the National Gallery, to the Hirshhorn, with its wondrous sculpture garden, to the American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery—I’ll admit, it can be a little overwhelming, and far too much to take in during a weekend jaunt, especially if you’ve got restless family in tow. (One can’t, after all, miss the Natural History or Air and Space Museums… or, you know… those monuments.)  In all the bustle of a DC vacation, however, one collection tends to get overlooked, and it is one of my personal favorites—the Freer and Sackler Galleries, which house the Smithsonian’s unique collection of Asian art, including the James McNeill Whistler-decorated Peacock Room. (See his 'Harmony in Blue and Gold' above.) Standing in this re-creation of museum founder Charles Freer’s personal 19th century gallery—which he had relocated from London to his Detroit mansion in 1904—is an aesthetic experience like no other. And like most such experiences, there really is no virtual equivalent. Nonetheless, should you have to hustle past the Freer and Sackler collections on your DC vacation, or should you be unable to visit the nation’s capital at all, you can still get a taste of the beautiful works of art these buildings contain.  Like many major museums all over the world—including the National Gallery, the RijksmuseumThe British Library, and over 200 others—the Freer/Sackler has made its collection, all of it, available to view online. You can also download much of it ..."

Link:

http://www.openculture.com/2015/06/smithsonian-digitizes-lets-you-download-40000-works-of-asian-and-american-art.html

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » abernard102@gmail.com

Tags:

oa.new oa.comment oa.smithsonian oa.glam oa.museums oa.archives oa.libraries oa.images oa.ch

Date tagged:

06/12/2015, 07:10

Date published:

06/12/2015, 03:10