Telling Stories About Art with Open Collections
A summer workshop at Harvard, supported by the Getty Foundation, taking place between July 6 — July 16, 2015.

With art museums making both their imagery and collections data open and accessible, a question arises: what to do with it all? Participants will be introduced to concepts and skills necessary to make use of open collections to develop art-historical storytelling through data visualization, interactive media, enhanced curatorial description and exhibition practice, digital publication, and data-driven, object-oriented teaching.

This second annual offering of Beautiful Data will focus on “difficult collections” poised on the edge of the digital/material divide. We’ll address collections of things that resist ready digitization, or exist as ephemeral and hybrid objects and events. We’ll ponder data as a medium for art with its own curatorial and preservation challenges. And we’ll consider ways of working with new-media artists in the context of materials and mixed-media collections. The workshop will take place at the recently-reopened Harvard Art Museums, in its remarkable new building designed by Renzo Piano, where we’ll have access to reimagined facilities for the study and exhibition of objects of abiding interest.

Intended for art historians, scholars of visual culture, and museum professionals at all career stages, admission is on a competitive basis. All participants will receive a stipend covering housing and travel expenses.

Please direct questions to: info@metalab.harvard.edu.