Presented at the 2003 World Art Museum Planning Symposium, Bejing, China.

1. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Case Study:
The building of ArtsConnectEd
through strategic digital asset
creation, capture and integration

2. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
For Museums…
Digitization is no longer a task
Digitization is a way of working

3. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
In today’s digital world, Museums can be
rich with digital assets if they understand
where to capture and apply them.

4. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Introduction / Assumptions:
• Museum Audiences are beginning to expect
electronic media as a component of their internal and
external museum experiences.
• Pre-existing media assets or “archives” are of
growing value in meeting these expectations.
• Media asset development opportunities occur
throughout many areas of museums’ operation.
• Museum staff education, procedure and policy can
provide future efficiencies in developing media
assets.

5. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Introduction / Assumptions:
• Museum Audiences are beginning to expect
electronic media as a component of their internal and
external museum experiences.
• Pre-existing media assets or “archives” are of
growing value in meeting these expectations.
• Media asset development opportunities occur
throughout many areas of museums’ operation.
• Museum staff education, procedure and policy can
provide future efficiencies in developing media
assets.

6. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Introduction / Assumptions:
• Museum Audiences are beginning to expect
electronic media as a component of their internal and
external museum experiences.
• Pre-existing media assets or “archives” are of
growing value in meeting these expectations.
• Media asset development opportunities occur
throughout many areas of museums’ operation.
• Museum staff education, procedure and policy can
provide future efficiencies in developing media
assets.

7. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Introduction / Assumptions:
• Museum Audiences are beginning to expect
electronic media as a component of their internal and
external museum experiences.
• Pre-existing media assets or “archives” are of
growing value in meeting these expectations.
• Media asset development opportunities occur
throughout many areas of museums’ operation.
• Museum staff education, procedure and policy can
provide future efficiencies in developing media
assets.

8. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Overview of Opportunities:
• Collection opportunities
• Archive and Access opportunities
• Application opportunities

9. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Collection opportunities
Identify all possible areas of contribution:
• Survey collection opportunities within all internal
functional areas
• Identify point person in each area
• Differs according to organizational size and structure

10. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Collection opportunities
Contribution areas may include:
• Print production
• Media production – web updates, audio, video
• Marketing and Public relations
• Rights and Permissions
• Museum store and product development
• Photography
• Registration
• Curatorial
• Library/Archives
• Education/Public programs

11. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Collection opportunities
Gain control rights and permissions
• Develop policy for obtaining all forms of rights and permissions
– Including:
• Production contracts
• Permissions
• Copyright
• Releases
• Develop formal paper trail whenever possible
• Educate staff on related legal and policy issues

12. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Collection opportunities
Identify points of opportunity
• Develop procedures for identifying collection
opportunities on an ongoing basis
– Including:
• Acquisition
• Exhibitions
• Events- Performances, Presentations
• Publication process
• Product development process
• Special guest- lectures, interviews, tours
• Physical changes/processes
• Research and writing
• External media coverage

13. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Collection opportunities
Develop formal procedures for creating
and/or intercepting media assets
Internal or contracted services
• Digital audio/video recording
• Digital photography
• File conversion
Procedures
• Request copies of externally produced materials

14. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Mini Case Study: Restoration Online
• Live ongoing event
• In-depth study of one work of art
• Related archives - technical and art
historical
• Scientific imaging
• Photographic, video, and text
documentation of restoration process
• Community input through questions
and answers
• Available both online and in gallery
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
http://www.artsmia.org/restoring-a-masterwork/

15. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Collection opportunities
Convert existing materials
• Identify existing formal and informal media and print
archives
– Including:
• Images – photos, transparencies
• Didactics/Labels
• Publications
• Audio, Film/Video
• Archives – notes, manuscripts, letters
• Define criteria and policy for evaluating, selecting and
prioritizing these archives

16. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Archive and Access
Store all assets in a robust form
• Store in non-proprietary, standard digital format
whenever possible, convert proprietary formats
• Encode at the highest affordable quality even if initial
use requires less
• Store and backup on reliable “permanent” media
whenever possible, off-site back-up recommended
• Develop strategies for transitioning storage media on
a regular basis

17. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Archive and Access
Access feeds ideas and future opportunities
• Centralize collection and storage whenever possible
• Develop formal procedure and system(s) for
cataloging all assets
• Provide distributed access to index and access
whenever possible
• Integrate and share with other systems whenever
possible
• Continuously educate staff on the existence and use
of these assets

18. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Applications
Identify opportunities for asset use
• Train staff to make effective use of media assets
• Reference available media assets at the onset of
each new project
• Consider multiple uses/reuses for every media asset
– Including:
• Different audiences
• Different applications
• Different media products
• Survey asset strengths for new program ideas

19. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Case Study: ArtsConnectEd
Walker Art Center and
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
http://www.artsconnected.org
Contains:
• Images of and information on thousands
works of art from two museums collections
• Hundreds of text, audio, video and
multimedia archives
• Dozens of online educational programs
• Specialized toolsets for personalizing
content
• Integrated library catalogs
• Catalog of hundreds of educational
materials
• Gallery location information “On View”
• Links to related external resources

20. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Case Study: ArtsConnectEd
Special Features:
• Integrated collections from two different museums
• Multiple use media library allows one media file to be
used simultaneously in multiple applications
• Flashpix allows images to be zoomed and panned
• Dynamically updated collection information, site updates
when internal systems are updated

21. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Case Study: ArtsConnectEd
Special Features (continued):
• Cross collection searching allows all resources to be
searched simultaneously
• Relational links highlight other related materials
• ArtCollector tool allows personal sets of images to be
saved and annotated and shared
• Search wizard helps users find materials through a
simple expert system

22. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Case Study: ArtsConnectEd
Multiple Use Media Archive
Media assets within this system support:
1) ArtsConnectEd Web site including ArtCollector
2) Both Museums Web sites
3) Online educational programs
4) Electronic postcards
5) Internal collection management system
6) Internal multimedia kiosk programs

23. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Case Study: ArtsConnectEd

24. Sandbox
Studios
Scott Sayre Ed.D.
October 25, 2003
World Art Museum, China
Scott Sayre
ssayre@sandboxstudios.org