Blog

ResourceSpace at the heart of art: powering the world's leading art museums and galleries

10th November 2023

Digital Asset Management (DAM) isn't just a game-changer for businesses and environmental organisations; it has a profound impact on cultural hubs too. In the serene corridors of the world's leading art museums and galleries, ResourceSpace has been revolutionising the way curators, administrators, and art lovers interact with timeless art pieces. From simplifying the archiving process to enhancing viewer experiences, let's explore how our customers are harnessing the power of DAM to bring art closer to the people.

Ashmolean Museum Oxford

Holding the distinction of being the world's first public museum, the Ashmolean in Oxford is a beacon of cultural and historical preservation. As the museum faced the increasingly complex challenges of managing and showcasing its ever-growing archives, it turned to ResourceSpace.

Seamlessly integrating with the Ashmolean's Collections Management System, MuseumPlus from Zetcom, ResourceSpace has played a vital role in elevating the digital element of the museum. This harmonious blend allows the museum staff to meticulously digitise, catalogue, and curate their vast holdings. With instant access to high-definition images and associated metadata, the Ashmolean can now engage with a global audience more effectively, offering enriched virtual tours and in-depth educational programs. The partnership between ResourceSpace and MuseumPlus ensures that the Ashmolean's vast collection is not just preserved for posterity, but also brought to life in the digital sense, reaching audiences around the world.

LACMA

Situated in the heart of Los Angeles, LACMA stands as one of the most influential art institutions in the U.S., housing an extensive collection that represents an impressive cross-section of cultures and historical periods. As the museum sought to enhance the management and accessibility of its vast archives, they turned to ResourceSpace. Seamlessly integrating with LACMA's Collection Management System, TMS, ResourceSpace has empowered the institution with streamlined digital asset management and a single source of truth. This partnership allows curators and administrators to easily catalogue, retrieve, and share high-resolution images and sync data associated with each art piece easily. 

The Walters Art Museum

Nestled in Baltimore's cultural district, The Walters Art Museum is a treasure trove of over 36,000 objects that span nearly 6,000 years of history. The museum boasts over 300,000 digitised images in ResourceSpace. One of the monumental breakthroughs was the integration of ResourceSpace with The Museum System (TMS), a popular industry-standard collections database. This integration not only streamlined the cataloguing process but also synchronised daily to ensure all data updates in TMS were reflected. The significant impact of this feature can't be understated, as it saved the museum countless hours and resources.

Beyond mere cataloguing, ResourceSpace has also reshaped how The Walters manages object and image rights. By syncing data from TMS, the museum has devised an efficient formula for rights declarations. Furthermore, the platform has transformed condition reporting, making it accessible and shareable across the globe, facilitating on-the-go access and updates from anywhere.

The Clark Art Institute

Nestled amidst the scenic landscapes of Massachusetts, The Clark Art Institute boasts an extensive collection of European and American paintings. With ResourceSpace, staff members can now effortlessly manage and categorise digital images of these artworks, creating a seamless bridge between art and its enthusiasts.  As well as storing visual representations of the artworks contained within the museum, documents and technical information about the site itself are stored within the system, creating a full circle connection between the assets the Institute holds and the context within which they sit.

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art

Dedicated to the rich world of children's literature, The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts is a sanctuary for the art of visual storytelling. Celebrating illustrative wonders, from preliminary sketches to vibrant final pages, the museum houses thousands of illustrations that echo with tales of wonder and imagination. As the collection grew, so did the challenge of managing, presenting, and sharing these treasures. ResourceSpace stepped in, offering a tailored solution that enabled the museum to digitally capture the vibrancy and detail of each artwork.

This will allow curators to craft thematic virtual exhibits, educators to create immersive storytelling sessions, and researchers to delve deep into the evolution of illustrative techniques over the years. The digital transformation, powered by ResourceSpace, ensures that the magic woven by iconic artists like Eric Carle himself is not confined to the museum walls but shared with the world, allowing the stories to resonate, inspire, and be cherished by readers of all ages.

KMSKA

The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) houses over 9,000 works of art. ResourceSpace is used as a platform for managing, sharing, and high-quality viewing via IIIF, working from a one-stop-shop approach. The easy to use ResourceSpace API made it possible to integrate the Cantaloupe Image Server for a performant and scalable IIIF viewing experience.

KMSKA also utilise ResourceSpace as an archive for written descriptions of the works they curate, and administer the system as part of a wider, collaborative eco-system whereby works are shared and maintained across other Flemish Art Institutes.

Oklahoma City Museum of Art

OKCMOA, with its collection ranging from Dale Chihuly's glass works to European masterpieces, has tapped into ResourceSpace's capabilities to centralise all of its content across several teams - including the Collections, Curatorial, and Marketing departments. The Collections department is leveraging the built-in TMS integration to automatically populate the object-level metadata to improve digital asset tagging and discovery.

The Photo Services team use ResourceSpace as the fulfilment area, while the Marketing and Exhibitions teams store in-person/social images on the platform for re-use. The system also utilises automated expiration dates to ensure the content is used in line with internal policies.

Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive

This unique combination of visual arts and progressive film programs in California has used ResourceSpace to manage a myriad of digital assets, from film posters to art installations, bridging the gap between traditional art forms and contemporary media.

Using a clever combination of ResourceSpace functionality the system can automatically extract the CollectionSpace identifier from the filename on upload, populate it into a designated field and then, thanks to ResourceSpace’s Webhooks plugin and a series of API calls, sync data from the CollectionSpace system into ResourceSpace. 

ResourceSpace breaks down barriers to art appreciation, making it accessible to people worldwide. We're dedicated to sharing the beauty of art and cultural heritage through digital means. To museums and galleries, we're proud to support your mission.

If you're interested in a similar digital transformation for your organisation, our ResourceSpace team is ready to help. Let's schedule a meeting to discuss tailored digital asset management solutions that can help your institution join the global movement shaping the future of art and culture.