IU Art Museum offers virtual exhibitions

Sophomore and studio art major Marine Tempels is similar to many other IU students – when it comes to a quick homework assignment, the Internet is her No. 1 tool.
 
But Tempels isn’t just looking up information on Wikipedia. For her art classes, online exhibits have become a fast and helpful way of getting what she needs.

“As an art student, I am researching and discovering new artists all the time,” Tempels said. “Online exhibits allow me to be exposed to artists’ work that I would not otherwise have the capabilities of discovering.”

Yasemin Gencer, a doctoral student in the Department of Art History who focuses on Islamic art, coordinated a special IU Art Museum exhibit last spring titled “From Pen To Printing Press: Ten Centuries of Islamic Book Arts” and its current online exhibit.
“For me, it’s all about making the art accessible,” Gencer said.

The IU Art Museum has 10 online exhibits, two of which were designed and produced this year. The exhibits, or “modules,” have a variety of content that accompanies the art, ranging from timeliness to more written information and links to other Web sites and modules.

Gencer said she had always envisioned a module accompanying the exhibit and hoped to entice people to the show and to make both the artwork and information within anyone’s reach.

“A lot of what is online is the same as what was in the exhibit,” Gencer said. “But online, it’s more extensive. You cannot have as much text in a regular gallery.”

Linda Baden, associate director of editorial services for the museum, said the concept of an online exhibit is not new.

“Toward the end of the summer, 10 or 12 years ago, we did a little online slide show in conjunction with a show of School of Fine Arts photographs,” Baden said. “It was on our first Web site and is still available now.”

Baden was in charge of editing Gencer’s work as well as the museum’s most recent online module, “The Grand Tour: Art and Travel, 1740–1914,” based on an exhibit that highlighted themes of art, travel, culture and politics in the 18th and 19th century.

Baden said making an online module was also partially a cost-effective decision. A book of the work would have cost the museum almost $50,000.

She added that all of the museum’s online modules cater to a variety of viewers for different reasons.

“Although the Internet has lots of works of art, a module like the ‘The Grand Tour’ is a thematic show,” Baden said. “The people that look at it are those who want to enjoy the material. People can select the level of information they want, interact with the timeline. The visitor can drive the experience.”

Baden and Gencer both agreed that while the audience makes use of the online content in their own way, part of the online experience is determined by the module’s design.

“I think audience is a huge part of any design project,” said Jeffrey Hanson, an IU alumnus who has designed multiple IU modules.

Hanson added that he has taken things such as age and the original exhibits intention into consideration when designing a module.

Gencer said she gave her module designers a basic idea of what she wanted but left much of it up to them.

“It was a fun project,” said Kathleen Chmelewski, art director for IU’s Office of Creative Services, the team hired for Gencer’s online exhibit. “Gencer’s enthusiasm was infectious. The specific color pattern for the module was really our only restriction.”

Chmelewski said it was the office’s first time making an online exhibit and said she hopes to do more in the future.

“The arts don’t have as much funding. It’s unfortunate,” Chmelewski said. “We’d love to do more. We were really just getting our toes wet.”

However, a concern to the museum is whether online exhibits can replace visiting a museum gallery in person. Baden said she hopes that’s not the case for anybody.

“Although we like to put the art online, it doesn’t replace the experience to confronting a piece of art in person,” Baden said. “Its an entirely different experience online.”

Gencer said her exhibit, similar to many other online exhibits, offers students a chance to get quick information for papers and projects. However, she said looking at a piece of work in a museum should always be a priority.

“If you have the opportunity, go to a museum,” Gencer said. “It’s different. Paintings have dimensionality. When you look at it in the museum, you can see the texture, the lighting.”

Both Gencer and Baden said they trust the online content will entice people to come to the museum rather then hold people back.

“Maybe I’m just an optimist,” Gencer said. “I don’t see a conflict of interest. A lot of libraries and museums are digitizing catalogs.”

Hanson said the museum made it clear that while making an interactive, aesthetically pleasing Web site was important, the art had to take center stage.

“I think the goals of the museum is to really focus on the imagery and artwork,” Hanson said. “I try to make that imagery central. It’s not really about the little devices or the color scheme I thought worked best. It’s about the artwork.”