Related Projects

VAN EYCK (Visual Arts Network for the Exchange of Cultural Knowledge)

The VAN EYCK project aims to create a world wide network of art history library photo archives which together would provide an unparalleled resource base for research and study. Such a network would reach a critical mass with the co-operation of as few as ten of the leading art history photo libraries in the world. This would be facilitated by the existence of a relatively small number of leading centers such as the
Witt Library, the RKD and the Marburger Index with holding of images, associated scholarly material and practical information on millions of works of art.

Today, with the integration of information technology with all aspect of our lives and the increased availability of electronic digital communications, we can expect significant advances in the use of photographic archives. They will continue to carry out their traditional role in the fields of scholarly research, but they will also be able to reach out to a wider audience, providing images and pictures which document all aspects of the life of the past. The provision of subject access to these archives, together with effective information retrieval and the ability to link and search more than one database in one session, will enable photographic archives to have the indexing and searching facilities that many book libraries already have. In addition, the digital image should prove increasingly beneficial because of its stability, manipulability and transferability.

The VAN EYCK Consortium members are:

     Birkbeck College, London
     BSL, NL
     Courtauld Institute Witt Library, London
     RKD, NL
     SSL, London
     Trinity College, Dublin
     Utrecht University, NL
     VASARI Enterprises (Managing Partner), UK

MAGNETS (Museums and Galleries New Technology Study)

MAGNETS aims to provide an in-depth study of user requirements, selected critical market and technology issues based on an international survey of the needs and experiences of museums. The results will bring enabling support to future EC projects and key information for museums and galleries. MAGNETS will be carried out by a leading French Association of 40 museums with an image database on the 20th century of 100,000 art works, VIDEOMUSEUM, together with a 'Cultural SME' itself a product of one of the EC's first cultural systems projects, VASARI Enterprises. It focuses on the visual arts, archaeology and history museums.

Videomuseum and Vasari are conducting a study that falls into three parts:

Analysis of experiences and requirements of those involved in this sector: "Museums survey" and "An analysis of Museums on the Web"

Review of key technical and economic issues: "Economic and technology issues "

Summary of the situation plus prospects for the years ahead: "Visions"

Parts 1 and 3 were coordinated and for the most part conducted by Videomuseum, while VASARI
took charge of part 2.