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FYI – forwarded announcement from ARLIS/UK List
A NEW RESOURCE FOR STUDENTS OF ART HISTORY, VISUAL CULTURE AND INTER-DISCIPLINARY STUDIES-
On 1 March 2011 the University of Glasgow History of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and Henry Moore Institute announced the launch of a FREE ACCESS ONLINE DATABASE AND MOBILE INTERFACE marking the end of a major digital humanities research project: Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951.
Mapping Sculpture is the first comprehensive study of sculptors, related businesses and trades investigated in the context of creative collaborations, art infrastructures, professional networks and cultural geographies.
This investigation, carried out in seventeen cities across Britain and Ireland over the last three years, has brought forward a mass of evidence concerning practitioners and businesses as well as mapping significant changes in the forms, techniques, materials, displays and teaching methods of sculpture. The database includes information on c.3,500 sculptors, c.10,000 related businesses, c.15,000 objects, c.1,300 exhibitions, c.700 other events, c.125 art societies, c.125 art schools and c.16,500 locations which will provide a major new resource for studying sculpture.
The project has also launched Mobilising Mapping, a new mobile interface giving access to the database from a variety of handheld devices. This has been designed to facilitate research in museums, galleries and public spaces and to widen access to the research data.
Numerous queries can be run quickly and efficiently on the database, such as:
• Performing rapid searches to find information on 3,500 sculptors and a further 2,750 associated practitioners
• Investigating up to 15,000 sculptures and objects made by sculptors (including vases, silverware and church furnishings) shown at more than a thousand major annual exhibitions across Britain and Ireland
• Exploring particular materials and techniques. For example entering the search term ‘wax’ returns information on: people and businesses working in wax; objects made using wax as one of the materials; art schools offering courses in wax modelling; and the titles of exhibitions that included wax objects
• Discovering connections between practitioners e.g. Fanindra Nath Bose (1888-1926) the first sculptor of Indian birth to be elected as an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1925. He was a pupil of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and was highly regarded by many Scottish and British artists including James Pittendrigh MacGillivray (1856-1938), Percy Portsmouth (1873-1953) and William Goscombe John (1860-1952).
• Browsing by location to find artists associated with a village, town or city. Although the project was focused on seventeen cities1, Mapping Sculpture uncovered and documented connections to nine hundred and fifty other places in Britain, Ireland, Europe, Asia and North America.
Although Mapping Sculpture is primarily an art historical project, its methods and findings will assist the studies of a wide range of students in arts related subjects. These are a few examples of the project’s inter-disciplinary potential:
• History - explore emergent national and regional identities in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and northern England in the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries
• Gender studies - the work of women sculptors is documented for the first time, revealing that almost a third of the 3,200 sculptors active between 1851-1951 were women
• Social and economic history – economic migrants (within Britain and Ireland also across Europe and North America); substantial listing of culturally related businesses with detailed analyses of key exemplars (including a leading firm of Irish Church decorators); the social status of artists through data gathered from census enumerators books and probate calendar; trades in luxury goods revealed through prices charged for art works and art services
• Visual culture – changes in exhibiting practices, art markets and networks of production
To find out more about the project and discover new information about sculptural practice between 1851-1951 visit the Mapping Sculpture website:
The mobile interface website is:
Mapping Sculpture is a partnership between University of Glasgow Institute of Art History, the V&A and Henry Moore Institute together with TRIARC (Trinity Irish Art Research Centre), Dublin and the University of Ulster. The project systems were developed by the Humanities Advanced Technology & Information Institute. The research has been supported by a substantial grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, with initial funding from the Henry Moore Foundation and has British Academy Research Project status. Grant funding has also been awarded by the Irish Heritage Council.
For further information please contact:
Ann Compton
Project Originator and Director,
Mapping the Practice and Profession
of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951 History of Art
School of Culture and Creative Arts
University of Glasgow
8 University Gardens
Glasgow, UK, G12 8QH
For up to date information on forthcoming workshops and free visits please see the online ARLIS/UK & Ireland Events Calendar 2011 at http://www.arlis.org.uk/
Kraig Binkowski
Chief Librarian
Reference Library and Archives
Yale Center for British Art
1080 Chapel Street
New Haven, CT 06520-8280
(203) 432-2846
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