Five College Consortium launches online art collection database

NORTHAMPTON — Did Pablo Picasso ever use color in a portrait of a mother and child?

The answer is yes and it's easy to find on a new Valley website . It took about two seconds to locate an image of that work by Picasso among 100,000 other pieces in college art museums across Hampshire and Franklin counties.

The Five College Consortium has launched a major update of a website that gives students, researchers and art lovers around the world a gateway to objects from collections at five museums and Historic Deerfield.

"This is truly a groundbreaking model for how a variety of museums can work together to connect, leverage and facilitate access to collections data," said Sarah Pfatteicher, executive director of Five Colleges Incorporated.

The new system emerged from the collaboration of Five Colleges Inc. with the Hampshire College Art Gallery, Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Smith College Museum of Art, University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Historic Deerfield.

The partnership dates back to the 1990s, when the museums originally banded together, sharing access to what they owned with the world.

"Instead of having six separate collections databases, let's create one that all of us can use together. That was a groundbreaking collaboration because most freestanding museums did not embark on such an ambitious initiative," said Tricia Paik, director of Mount Holyoke's museum.

The consortium created a website that allows anyone to search for and find artistic work, from paintings and silkscreens to photography, sculpture, block printing, drawings and an array of other media.

"Thirty years ago, we chose the technology that was available at that time," said Paik. "We are now truly living in a digital age, so we decided to upgrade our collections database and interface, because our prior website was clunky and cumbersome."

The Five College Consortium banded together to create an online database featuring collections from Smith, Amherst, Mount Holyoke, UMass, Hampshire College, and Historic Deerfield. Above is the Mount Holyoke College Museum. (Submitted photo)Max Wilhelm

Museum directors say their online audience includes people from around the world, but their core constituency is teachers, students and researchers investigating the work of world-renowned artists — pieces created from antiquity to the modern age.

Under the old system, viewers had to know exactly what they wanted. Now, they can have a vague idea and be fascinated by what pops up after using simple keywords and search terms.

"Our old system inhibited casual discovery," said Jessica Nicoll, museum director at Smith College.

"The transformative features of this new platform are designed for a more intuitive ability to surface things — for browsing and helping people who don't quite know what they're looking for," she said.

The portal has a function familiar to anyone who has shopped online. Once search results appear, the system suggests other works that may interest viewers.

"In this instance, when you find the Picasso you're looking for, it will show you images of other works by him across these collections that you might not know you were looking for, but could be interested in," said Nicoll.

When the system delivers search results, the screen displays thumbnail images of art that matches the request. It also indicates who created the piece, which museum has it, the title of the work, a description of what it is and other information.

While most of the images are copyright protected, researchers can download them onto their computers.

"The easier interface allows for intentional searches, but also to linger and find objects in ways that we weren't able to provide. You can find more unexpected and serendipitous objects that you never would have been able to retrieve or ever access in the old website," said Paik.

"Hetch Hetchy Canyon," oil on canvas, painted by Albert Bierstadt (American, 1830–1902). This painting, part of the collection of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in South Hadley, is available in a new online database combining the collections of the Five College Consortium museums and Historic Deerfield. (Laura Shea photograph)Laura Shea

Well over 100 faculty members from dozens of scholastic majors bring college students to the museums, according to the directors. Beyond that, local high school students also use the portal for their projects.

"We are teaching museums, and this is an incredible resource for not only the students here at UMass, but it's a rich benefit and resource for all of the students and faculty in the valley," said Kristina Durocher, visual arts director of the Fine Arts Center at UMass.

"We're sharing our collection with researchers and scholars not only here, but also globally. It just expands our reach," she said.

Efficiency is at the root of the experience. Why should every museum own the same objects when they can use limited resources to expand the total collection?

Cooperation, not competition, is what drives these museums, directors say.

"There's an inherent responsibility in the care and keeping of those objects," said Durocher.

"All of our objects are held in the public trust," she said. "These pieces are culturally relevant, historically important and we're caring for them in perpetuity. This collection database makes it accessible so anyone can participate and take a look at what we're holding."

Before designers put the finishing touches on the database, they surveyed users who told them what they liked and disliked about the old system.

The result is features designed to amaze online visitors.

"I myself don't even know the full extent of what's possible," said Paik.

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