Education, Exhibitions and Publications Online: The Art Institute of Chicago
David Stark, Art Institute of Chicago, USA
Liz Seaton, Art Institute of Chicago, USA

Demonstration: Demonstrations 1

The Art Institute of Chicago's Web site has broadened its range to include expanded representation of several museum departments, as it continues to augment its educational offerings. Art Access débuted in January 2001, designed to enrich visitors' understanding of various areas of the permanent collection. "American Arts to 1900" is the most recently posted of twenty planned modules. The five units currently online include interpretive texts, pan-and-zoom digitized clips and 3-D rotating views of objects, a glossary, lesson plans for the classroom, and art projects for the home. Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South, launched in the fall of last year, marks the museum's third online presentation of a major exhibition. A recently added section, "The Mary Louise Reynolds Collection," is an update of an out-of-print museum publication (Museum Studies, vol. 22, no, 2, 1996) on this important Surrealist patron and the art she collected, with a digital gallery of images and Web bibliography; it constitutes the first online version of an Art Institute printed volume. Projected to launch later in 2001 is an in-depth treatment of the conservation history of Picasso's Old Guitarist, which will represent the Conservation Department's first online project.