The Metropolitan Museum of Art has made parts of its vast art collection open to the public for the first time. Read more: History is being locked away. Google's museum is changing that
Thanks to the museum's Open Access Policy, all images of public-domain artwork are now available for free and with unrestricted use on its website. The museum’s policy had previously been to only allow for the non-commercial use of material as part of the 2014 Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC). The updated policy will allow for completely open usage using the Creative Commons Zero designation.
The Met, one of the world's most renowned art museums, has spent more than one hundred years collecting and cultivating artistic works of the greatest cultural relevance. Tapestries from the Yuan dynasty; jasper statues of Egyptian royalty and modern works such as Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers have all found their place within the Met's collections.
The introduction of the Met's Open Access Policy plans to build upon the museum's global cultural significance. The policy releases 375,000 images of public-domain artworks for both scholarly and commercial purposes, making them available for public use across the world.
In a statement made by Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Met, he said “increasing access to the Museum’s collection and scholarship serves the interests and needs of our 21st-century audiences by offering new resources for creativity, knowledge, and ideas.”
Ryan Merkley, the CEO of Creative Commons, added that: “Sharing is fundamental to how we promote discovery, innovation, and collaboration in the digital age.”
He described the project as a “profound gift” to the world, and that the Met’s Open Access collection shows “significant leadership” in allowing the public to “use, remix, and share their public-domain collections widely and without restriction.”
The Open Access Project lets people from around the world discover and study the fine art collected at the Met. So far-reaching is the project's commitment to culture-for-all, the museum is partnering with Wikimedia, Artsor, Pinterest and other online resources to spread the access to Creative Commons art as far as possible. Artsor plans to spread the images throughout the global education community, utilising its links with ITHAKA, the not-for-profit education organisation.
Kevin Guthrie, President of Artstor and ITHAKA, has hopes for expansion of Open Access in the future to be used as a tool for students and educators of the arts across the world. “Access is just the beginning. We look forward to continuously finding ways to work with those engaged in education to enhance and encourage the reach of this collection," he said.
All works the Met believes to be in the public domain are now freely available but there are still certain limitations imposed upon particular pieces. This is due to unclear copyright status, privacy issues or where the Met does not own the artwork in question. Despite these limits, the Open Access is an unprecedented example of an institution opening its doors to the online community.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has made a point of evolving with the times. From first opening to the public in 1870, the Met has adapted to meet growing demand with technological flare. The Audio Guide web app the museum introduced in 2015 allowed users direct access to over sixty hours of tour-guided content directly through their smartphones. This content was available in ten languages, including Spanish; Portuguese; French; Italian; Japanese and Chinese.
The Museum plans to continue to roll out works for public access as and when copyright allows them to do so, meaning that the Open Access collection, while only just initiated, will continue to grow with demand. With this policy in place, the cultural significance of artworks housed within the Met's Open Access collection will have lasting power across the world.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
