_____Insight® Chosen as the Platform for ArtSTOR_________
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced it is adopting Luna's Insight®
software as the platform for ArtSTOR, a new independent not-for-profit
organization that will distribute digital resources for the study of art,
architecture and other fields in the humanities.
This significant new initiative, which is being led by retiring Harvard
University President Neil L. Rudenstine, builds off an existing partnership
Luna has with the Mellon Foundation. The foundation provided the funding
which supports Luna's work digitizing more than 6,000 works of art in the
Museum of Modern Art's Design Collection, which will become one of the first
collections available through ArtSTOR.
Rudenstine says the high quality of MoMA's Digital Design Collection will
characterize other ArtSTOR collections, in part as the result of an
agreement the Mellon Foundation has reached with Luna to make wide use of
Insight® to provide Internet access to ArtSTOR collections.
"In this and other ways, ArtSTOR expects to build upon Luna's
accomplishments and the high standing that the company enjoys within the
academic and museum communities," Rudenstine says.
Luna Imaging President Michael Ester says ArtSTOR is key to ensuring that
digital resources are available long-term for academic use, while providing
the owners of such materials confidence that their interests are protected.
"It has extremely exciting potential as a safe haven repository of cultural
resources for research and education,” Ester says.
One of ArtSTOR’s first major projects will be the construction of an image
“gallery” that will facilitate the teaching of art history courses, both in
the U.S. and abroad. It is anticipated that scholars and students with
access to the database via campus networks will be able to use its
high-quality images and carefully documented resources to enrich teaching
and learning.
In addition to creating a broadly conceived image gallery, ArtSTOR will
build and distribute electronically a number of deep scholarly collections,
including projects sponsored by Mellon as well as by others.
“The formation of ArtSTOR represents a significant technological advance
that will strengthen our capacity to study the field of art and many
neighboring fields," Rudenstine says. "We all recognize that there is no
substitute for direct engagement with original works of art or for actual
archival study. But the special opportunities presented by digital
technologies constitute the most fundamental development in the potential
for increased access and flexibility of use since the advent of photographic
reproduction."
The Mellon Foundation, www.mellon.org, has long-standing interests in higher
education and the arts and has made numerous grants in the humanities and in
art. In 2000, the foundation awarded grants totaling $220 million dollars,
with more than 65 percent going to institutions of higher education or to
independent cultural institutions (including museums and research
libraries). You can read more about the Mellon Foundation's ArtSTOR
initiative online at http://www.mellon.org/artstor%20announcement.html.
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