Google Art Project

I'm going to kick off this blog with a post of something I recently discovered and found really interesting. Google Art Project, sort of like Google Maps but for art museums, combines 17 art museums internationally. This project contains ultra high resolution images and a tool for combining digitized works into personalized collections.

Here is the website:

Google Art Project

There are quite a few potential uses for a tool like this in the digital humanities world. What I like most, besides the ability to see the interior design of each institution, is the digital collection creation tool. This allows everyday users to participate in gallery creation and apply the kinds of selection and organization that curators use to create galleries.

For public history, I think the digital history museum model is a good one, but could include a more interactive scheme. Maybe historians could consider creating more digital museum space and adding interactive sections like the digital collection creation tool. I like how the Google Art Project is user-oriented and designed as a tool for increased enjoyment of the museums themselves. Again, Google has proven how amazing it is and provided humanities lovers with an awesome tool.