Begun in response to Covid-19, ‘Art is where the home is’ was set up by Firstsite in Colchester to keep children entertained during lockdown. A free online activity pack – which has had more than 72,000 downloads – includes contributions from Grayson Perry and Jeremy Deller.
Annie Morris’s contribution to ‘Art is where the home is’
This online exhibition – initiated after the physical show at Camden Arts Centre was postponed – is far more than a digital surrogate. New commissions and a podcast series exploring spirituality and nature are presented on an expertly designed website.
The Tree of Life (1922), C.G. Jung
In 1920 Alan Wace arrived to direct excavations at the Bronze Age site. To mark the centenary, the University of Cambridge has digitised a great tranche of archival documents – including some 80 notebooks, 600 drawings and architectural plans, and more than 1,700 photographs – relating to this and later expeditions. A major resource.
Plan and section drawing of Chamber Tomb 518, Mycenae (1922–23), unknown artist. Photo: © British School at Athens
Anyone with a screen and an internet connection can watch video art at home – but most moving-image work is made available online only for a limited period. Not so with the more than 860 works being added to Julia Stoschek’s online collection catalogue – of which dozens are already free to view, including works by Cao Fei and Lutz Mommartz (pictured).
Soziale Plastik (video still; 1969), Lutz Mommartz. Courtesy the artist
Forced to shutter for months, most museums have this year vastly increased their digital output. Few have done so as sustainably as the Morgan, which has kept adding to its already extensive digitised collections and archive of exhibitions and talks – and reached out to new audiences with smart communications strategy that includes a popular e-newsletter.
Gospel Book (880–99), St Gall, Switzerland. The Morgan Library & Museum
In a huge step forward for open access to digitised artworks, cultural institutions can now use Sketchfab to dedicate 3D models of objects in their collections to the public domain. The Smithsonian is among dozens of organisations on board.
Anton Dominik Fernkorn’s Lion of Aspern memorial (1858) on Sketchfab
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