Google's+Art+Project

= Google's Art Project = toc

Google’s Art Project lets users visit virtual versions of seventeen of the world’s best art museums. Art Project was the idea of Google employee Amit Sood, who was allowed to lead the development of the project. On February 1, 2011, Google’s Art Project was released to the world. It offers a total of 1,061 images from the following museums:


 * Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
 * Chateau de Versailles, Versailles
 * Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
 * Frick Collection, New York
 * Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
 * Gemaldegalerie, Berlin
 * Museum Kampa, Prague
 * Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 * Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid
 * Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
 * National Gallery, London
 * Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
 * State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
 * State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
 * Tate Britain, London
 * <span style="color: #404040; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

How it works
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Art Project was innovative in its delivery of a virtual museum experience that includes exquisite detail. The project was widely praised for its coordination of seventeen different institutions for the purpose of creating a free educational public resource. Google used their Street View technology to film walkthroughs and panoramas of inside the museums. Users can explore selected areas of the museums that include featured artworks. Artworks on the walls that are not included in the project are blurred out. In addition to viewing works of art and accompanying metadata, users can add their favorite pieces to their own customizable art collection. Users can create and save details, add comments to their images, and share their collection with others. All this is done using your Google account.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In this six minute video, Art Project leader Amit Sood introduces the most important features of the project.

<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">media type="youtube" key="zw9NXY3xOOI" height="315" width="560"

Images
<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The images are of varying resolution, with each museum contributing one piece of artwork at least 1 gigapixel resolution. This translates to seven billion pixels or more in an image. The highest resolution image is over 12 gigapixels. This allows artwork to be viewed in even greater detail than in real life. The Art Project makes the 1 gigapixel images available for download and use on Wikimedia Commons. Google touts these images as important because they reveal small details that would not be possible to see during a real museum visit. Amit Sood has said that the Art Project is not intended to replace visiting a museum, but rather to “supplement” that experience.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Get a behind-the-scenes look at what it was like creating Google's Art Project. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">media type="youtube" key="aYXdEUB0VgQ" height="315" width="560"

**References**
//<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Art project: Visitor guide //<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.googleartproject.com/c/faq <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Smith, R. (2011, February 2). //The work of art in the age of Google//. Retrieved from []

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Terdiman, D. (2011, February 8). //The art of making Google Art Project//. Retrieved from []