Talk Of The Region: November

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Crocker Digital - College Consult - Live Red Stick - Expo Tracking -

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Old World Crocker Art: Let’s Get Digital
Since the Crocker Art Museum’s end of August launch of Digital Crocker, the museum reports the website has received hits from more than 49 countries, excluding U.S. domains. Impressive when you consider a mere 500 artworks from the Crocker’s collection of 14,000 objects are online.
    According to LeAnne Ruzzamenti, marketing communications director, prior to the digital project, Crocker relied on a card catalog system with hand-written, often contradictory notes from curators, and nothing remotely like an accurate, central database. She adds that due to lack of gallery space just 4 percent of the collection is on display making the online gallery all the more useful.
    “We have a world-renowned collection of old master drawings, in particular the German collection, which are not on view. So, instead of only four staffers at the museum being able to see them, now anyone on the internet can.” The highly prized collection of European Old Master drawings includes works by Rembrandt and Albrecht Dürer.
    Using the best digital camera system on the market, the Crocker is in the midst of capturing its entire collection at the highest resolution possible -- 25,000 dpi (dots per inche). The resolution allows site users to zoom in and see details down to the brushwork. Ruzzamenti points out the painstaking nature of the work, “Due to the stress on the artwork – often having to be unframed and exposed to flash – we could do on average just two paintings a day.”
    The website launch is the highlight of a three-year grant project funded by $500,000 from the SBC Foundation to digitally record and photograph the works. A new grant for $149,993 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services will allow the museum to create digital images of three-dimensional objects.

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