ASSOCIATION OF ART MUSEUM DIRECTORS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, INC.
41 East 65th Street
New York, NY 10021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
Millicent Hall Gaudieri
212-249-4423
Maxwell L. Anderson
416-979-6613
Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) Founded:
Collections of over Twenty Art Museums to be
Digitally Available for Educational Use
New York, NY - October 15, 1997 - The Association of Art Museum Directors
Educational Foundation, Inc. announces the formation of the Art Museum Image
Consortium (AMICO), a non-profit organization that will provide educational
access to a joint multimedia digital library documenting works of the
collections of the major North American art museums.
“AMICO is an unprecedented collaborative effort of many of the world’s
leading art
museums. It seeks to make a sustained and significant contribution to the
education of our young people about the history of art and its usefulness in
studying countless aspects of the humanities and social sciences. The
digitized text, images, audio tours and multimedia being created in museums
provide a rich source of content for on-line curriculum, and interest in
their use is growing. AMICO will offer non-proprietary, networked access to
images of the information about works of art scattered in dozens of major
collections, and allow the casual user and scholar alike to sample and
research works of art in our collective
care,” stated Maxwell L. Anderson, Director, Art Gallery of Ontario, and
Director, Art Museum Network (www.AMN.org). Both information providers and
users acknowledge that new economic and social models are required to support
the desired uses of digital information in learning, teaching, and research.
A not-for-profit Consortium that licenses the content of museums
collectively is a means of distributing museums’ digital information to the
educational community.
The directors and representatives of the founding art museums (see below)
desire to take advantage of an emerging new educational opportunity.
“Reaching out together through new technology, we can bring our collections
closer to those who use them for research, education, and enjoyment. This
unprecedented collaboration amongst art museums will create a rich resource,
unique in its scope and depth,” said Hugh M. Davies, President of the
Association of Art Museum Directors and Director of the Museum of
Contemporary Art, San Diego.
Working together through a six-month planning process, member museums have
defined mechanisms for the collection and distribution of a multi-media
digital library documenting
and interpreting their collections.
Prior to announcing the full availability of its digital library, AMICO is
launching a year-long testbed project. The founding members wish to validate
the proposed framework for the collective licensing of museum digital
collections, and to evaluate a means of delivering this content to the higher
educational community. The university testbed project will also increase
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understanding of the ways that universities are adopting digital teaching and
reference tools and enable AMICO member museums to offer a Library that meets
the needs of its users. A call for participation in the AMICO University
Testbed can also be found at http://www.amn.org/AMICO
Working within AMICO enables members to fulfill their educational missions.
By using digital technologies museums have the opportunity to make their
cultural resource more relevant and accessible to a wide range of educators
and students. This is the first step toward using these resources creatively
to illustrate and explore history, art, and culture. By reaching out into
the community, AMICO members hope to engage more students with art,
developing a visually and culturally literate public that, in turn, comes to
the museum.
A set of agreements were drafted by Archives & Museum Informatics, who acted
as
consultants and facilitators throughout the AMICO planning process. These
include
frameworks for organizing the Consortium, governing its strategic planning,
developing a standards-based approach to the distribution of the AMICO
Library, and defining its products and licenses. Key among these are the
draft University and Museum licenses, that outline the terms under which the
Library will be offered to these communities. AMICO’s framework documents
are available for public comment at: http://www.amn.org/AMICO
AMICO Founding Members:
1. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario
3. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
4. Asia Society Gallery, New York, NY
5. Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, AZ
6. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
7. Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley, MA
8. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
9. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
10. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
11. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
12. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
13. Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
14. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec
15. Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec
16. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
17. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
18. National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
19. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
20. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
21. San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
22. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN
Other AAMD members are expected to join the Consortium following the initial
offering.
About the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD): The AAMD represents
170 directors of the largest art museums in the Untied States, Canada, and
Mexico. The membership meets twice a year to explore topics in the arts and
education as well as to participate in programs on professional development
and management. The President is Hugh M. Davies, Director of the Museum of
Contemporary Art, San Diego. The Executive Director is Millicent Hall
Gaudieri. Further information about AAMD can be found at http://www.amn.org
About Archives & Museum Informatics. Since 1986, A&MI has consulted for
archives and museums worldwide, organized conferences, workshops and seminars
and published journals and monographs that provide specialists in archives
and museum information systems with timely and challenging opportunities for
professional exchange and training. The consulting services emphasize
strategic planning, inter-institutional collaboration and standards based
solutions. Further information about their activities can be found at
http://www.archimuse.com
J. Trant
Partner and Principal Consultant
Archives & Museum Informatics
[log in to unmask]
www.archimuse.com
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