Yes, Beth, we have a relational database for exhibition history at The
Center for Book Arts, documenting about 150 exhibitions over 34 years.
"Relational" means that several databases tie together
interactively, so if you click on an artist's name in the exhibition, you
will get the data for all the exhibitions they have been in, etc. It also
tells you if a catalog is available for the show, and may have the entire
catalog available online.
There are still years of work to be done in populating the data with
images of every work and all the other details (funding would help), but
still the exhibition history is attracting visitors at the rate of about
a million user sessions a year.
The entire Center for Book Arts website is database driven, including
current and future exhibitions, classes and publications. It was set up
so that the administrative staff can simply upload revised data files as
they occur, keeping the website reasonably up-to-date.
http://www.centerforbookarts.org/exhibits/archive/ is the main
exhibition archive page. I would suggest you look at
http://www.centerforbookarts.org/exhibits/archive/showdetail.asp?showID=81
as a good example of a record with populated fields. You also will love
this landmark exhibition, Book Arts in the USA, which circulated
throughout Africa and Latin America 1990-92 after its debut at the CBA.
Click on
"
view the exhibition catalog" when you are there (or here).
On the exhibition catalog page there are thumbnail images of details from
each page. If you click on a page thumbnail and go to a page, you can use
navigation arrows to read the entire catalog cover to cover.
Artists' names are below the thumbnail images, and clicking on a name
takes you to that artist's page, which shows what exhibitions they have
been in and what works were shown there. You can travel further along
those paths if you like.
That is the great feature of relational databases. A variety of intuitive
and logical paths can be followed.
We still have to integrate the bookstore database with the exhibition
pages, so that books by each artist or catalogs they are in, as well as
exhibition catalogs for the show being viewed, can be ordered directly
from the archive. For now, you need to go to the Publications section
at
http://www.centerforbookarts.org/bookstore/
which is like a candy shop for book art fiends.
Best regards,
Richard
To: ARLIS/NA Listserv
I am working in conjunction with the people who run our school's student
and professional galleries to create an online database documenting the
school's exhibition history. The database will not only contain
information about each show (artists, curator, location) and hopefully an
image or two, but will also alert patrons to the availability of whatever
publications (catalogs, invitations, posters) and other documentation are
available. I haven't been able to find many examples on the Web so
I was wondering if anyone out there has successfully done something
similar.
Thanks,
Beth Kleber
Archivist
Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives
Visual Arts Foundation / School of Visual Arts