Art Detective and public engagement with public collections on line Andrew Greg Director, National Inventory Research Project University of Glasgow A museum collection, not online but in store!

NICE Paintings (National Inventory of Continental European Paintings) National Inventory Research Project (NIRP) set up 2001 to aid research in UK regional museums and improve access to collection information. Aim to create an authoritative online inventory of all 20,000 pre-1900 continental European oil paintings in UK museums. Based in University of Glasgow since 2003 and overseen by the Advisory Committee for Research on European Paintings representing the museum and academic communities. This also manages the European Paintings pre-1900 Subject Specialist Network.

First project funded by the National Gallery Trust, the AHRC, the Getty Trust, the Kress Foundation and the Pilgrim Trust researched 8,000 paintings in 200 UK collections grant from the Kress Foundation to work with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Academy and Apsley House to research and add their collections to NICE Paintings. Over 9,400 paintings and newly researched records now online at RP/index.php RP/index.php Currently fundraising for new project to work with four major museums in the north of England NICE Paintings (National Inventory of Continental European Paintings)

NIRP has worked increasingly closely with the PCF since PCF/BBC created Your Paintings, 211,000 oil paintings in public ownership in 3,000 UK collections ranging from hospitals to national museums paintings/ paintings/. NIRP shares data with PCF - NIRP access to PCF digital images. NIRP working on Your Paintings Tagger to create metadata and Art Detective to create new collection information. Public Catalogue Foundation (PCF)

Galaxy Zoo: Launched July ,000,000 images of galaxies 150,000 worldwide volunteers in first year 50,000,000 classifications in first year Principles: No expertise required Images delivered at random Multiple classifications Results as good as professionals Your Paintings Tagger: the Galaxy Zoo model

Quality control: Thresholds for public tagging 15 taggers per painting Social tags, Names and Subjects accepted if 2 or more taggers use a term Types accepted if 4 or more taggers select a type Referrals to ‘Supervisors Interface’, e.g. Specific problematic subjects identified in pilot Two or more names selected in one painting Types: Abstracts, portraits and still lifes Your Paintings Tagger: implementing the Galaxy Zoo model

Over 10,000 registered taggers have created 3.3million tags. 23,000 paintings tagged. org.uk/ org.uk/ Your Paintings Tagger: workflows

Detail of Your Paintings webpage showing public tags for: Emily Mary Osborn ( ), Study for 'Nameless and Friendless', oil on wood, 1857, York Museums Trust Your Paintings Tagger: outcomes

Art Detective: to be launched February 2014 A free-to-use online interface bringing together: 1.Curators in search of specialist information regarding their collection 2.Specialist knowledge from academics, the art trade and other experts 3.Interested members of the general public. Aims: 1.Improve the knowledge curators and other collection managers have about the art in their care 2.Improve communication between curators and scholars 3.Engage the public in discussions around art history, historical research and connoisseurship. Preliminary design: home page

Art Detective: discussions Collections can use Art Detective to ask questions about a painting of academic experts, fellow curators or informed members of the public and thereby start a discussion. Experts and the public can use AD to offer information about a painting or contribute an opinion to a discussion.

Discussions are linked to one or more groups of users with an interest in a particular subject. Discussions can be viewed by group. Each group has a leader whose role is to bring discussions to a conclusion. Art Detective: groups

The management hub receives new discussion topics, gives them a status, edits, allocates and posts them. Art Detective: management

The group leader’s conclusion or recommendation is passed to the hub management, then to the collection. Amendments can then be made to Your Paintings database and website. Inconclusive discussions can be referred to a senior panel of experts. Art Detective: conclusions

Users can browse, but must register to initiate or contribute to a discussion. They select what groups they are interested in They can provide evidence of their specialist knowledge to allow group leaders to weight their contributions. Art Detective: users

Andrew Greg Director, National Inventory Research Project History of Art, SCCA University of Glasgow ‘Art Detective’ URL to be announced