» Virtual Reference: Art
General Art Sites
- Mother of all Art History Links Pages
- This site offers links to art history departments around the US, research tools, online exhibits and much more.
- World Wide Arts Resources
- Links to artists, museums, and other art-related topics.
- Artchive
- Good general site for images, art criticism, etc.
- Internet Art Resources
- Useful site for museums, schools, artists, images, etc.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History
- "The Timeline of Art History is a chronological, geographical, and thematic exploration of the history of art from around the world, as illustrated especially by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection."
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
- Union List of Artist Names
- "The ULAN includes names and associated information about artists."
- Artcyclopedia
- A fast way to find brief information on 7,000 artists, and links to at least one image of artists' work. Searchable by movement, medium, subject, or nationality, plus a link for doing picture searches.
- Artlex
- Visual arts dictionary.
- Words of Art
- Online glossary of theory and criticism on the visual arts.
- Art & Architecture Thesaurus Online
- AATO contains more than 125,000 terms covering “fine art, architecture, decorative arts, archival materials, and material culture” and is more than a thesaurus, including brief definitions (the searchable “notes” field) and an impressive, easily navigable hierarchical tree. Extensive and still growing, it includes historic and contemporary terms.
Libraries and Museums
- Alternative Museum
- A global museum, with exhibits, archived exhibits, store and a listing of art opportunities.
- American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM)
- Website of this national museum, located in Baltimore, Maryland. The museum is dedicated to outsider and visionary art.
- Smithsonian's Archives of American Art
- World's largest collection of primary sources on American visual arts.
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Website for the school and its museum.
- Art Museum.net
- Intel works with museums to present web exhibits.
- Art Museum Network
- The official website of the world's leading art museums.
- The Cincinnati Art Museum
- The Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati)
- Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- Its "Imagebase" has over 75,000 and growing.
- The J. Paul Getty Trust
- This comprehensive art site includes access to their museums, photo study collection and other research tools.
- International Directory of Art Libraries
- 3,000 libraries worldwide.
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collections Online
- LACMA's collections online represents over 42,500 images of nearly 100,000 works of art.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago
- Museum of Modern Art (NYC)
- Museum of Neon Art (MONA)
- Museum of Online Museums (MoOM)
- Museum Search
- Quick way to link to many types of museums in the U.S. and abroad.
- National Gallery of Art
- Can locate exhibition information back to 1941.
- National Museum of African Art
- Part of the Smithsonian Institution, with excellent online exhibitions.
- The National Museum of American Art
- The Taft Museum (Cincinnati)
- Tate Britain
- National collection of British art, with connections to all Tate locations, including the Modern.
- National Museum of Women in the Arts (D.C.)
- "Brings recognition to the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities."
Organizations
- American Arts Alliance
- Good for advocacy, especially with regard to the arts and government.
- Associations on the Net
- Select "Arts & Humanities" and then "Fine Arts" to locate organizations.
- College Art Association
- J.Paul Getty Trust
- This site links to the many art-related activities of this private foundation.
- Yahoo: Arts
- Look under: "organizations" for a large listing.
- Graphic Artists Guild
- Pricing and ethical guidelines.
Specialized Sites
- AICT (Art Images for College Teaching)
- Royalty-free image exchange resource for the educational community.
- Art & Science Collaborations, Inc.
- To raise general awareness of artists using science/technology to explore creative expression.
- Art Crimes: The Writing on the Wall
- Graffiti site.
- ArtsConnected
- From Minneapolis - great for art education.
- Guide to Public Art in Cincinnati
- Note: This may not be up to date.
- International Sculpture Center (ISC)
- Valuable site for information about conferences, competitions, exhibitions, etc.
- Kyoto National Museum (Japan)
- Includes about 2,000 of over 5,000 works owned by this museum.
- Masters of Photography
- Info about 50+ "masters of photography," with more to come, including photographs, links to articles and more.
- Mid-America Print Council (MAPC)
- The Mid America Print Council is a non-profit organization of artist printmakers and educators
- Museum of Web Art (MOWA)
- PhotoGraphic Libraries
- Links include stock and moving images, media services, photo and ad agencies, graphics, and clip art.
- The Picture Collection
- Access to over 22 million photographs from Time, Inc. (Requires registration)
- Printmaking Sites from Middle Tennessee State University Art Dept.
- "300 Important Women Artists" Medieval to Modern
- Arranged chronologically and alphabetically; mostly images, not narrative.
- Teaching (and Learning) about Japan
- From animated films to Zen meditation.
- Webseek
- More than 600,000 full color images, arranged by broad subjects.
- Worldwide Books Online
- Exhibition catalogues and other books on Art covering almost 40 years - searchable databases & ordering system.
- American Museum of Photography
- This website offers"a museum without walls... for an art without boundaries".Allows you to peruse online exhibits or do some early photography research in the research center.
- Arts Ed Net: The Ceramics Web
- One of many on the web, with links to other sites.
- A Comprehensive Resource for Sculptors
- Sculptor.org offers resources for sculptors or people interested in sculpture.This website has links to professional organizations,hints on techniques, and much more.
- The Big Cartoon Database
- Produced since 1998, The Big Cartoon Database currently features 70,298 cartoons from film and television, 4,965 series, 26,294 registered users and 4,210 reviews.
updated on 04/18/07