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
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