The Chazen Museum of Art is home to over 20,000 works of art. As a museum at a public university, the Chazen strives to make its art collection as widely accessible as possible. For example, images of art works have been published in catalogues and handbooks, there is no admission fee to visit galleries and temporary exhibitions, and museum staff regularly arrange storage visits for university and K–12 classes, special interest groups, visiting scholars, and local collectors.
The museum is pleased to announce that it will now offer unprecedented access to the entire collection—including paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, and decorative arts from ancient times to the present, in storage or on display—via an online database that is open to all web visitors. This online tool makes the museum collection available for browsing and searching. Artworks are illustrated with reference images for identification and basic information is included. Supplementary information, such as exhibition histories and bibliography, is listed when available. The web database is updated regularly to highlight recent acquisitions, the latest research, and new images of artworks.
With the online database, visitors can search for works by favorite artists, view art works by media or area of origin, or browse notable collections. Students can find where assigned art works have been published or download images for papers. Instructors can select groups of works prior to class visits. Scholars are able to verify museum holdings by particular artists or discover as-yet-unpublished artworks.
We are excited to provide online access to the collection. The project is the result of many years of effort and continues to be a work in progress. Data standardization and cleanup has been managed by registrar Andrea Selbig with the help of numerous student assistants. Imaging is coordinated by registrar Ann Sinfield in conjunction with contract photographers and student assistants. Technical support is provided by DoIT and Gallery Systems. The project has been accomplished with the assistance of generous funders, including the NEA and the Wisconsin Arts Board.