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Earlier this year, Petra
Chu, representing Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, was invited
to attend a colloquium co-sponsored by the Sterling and Francine Clark
Institute and the Mellon Foundation on "The Portals of Art History."
Participants in the symposia were more or less equally divided between
those who occupy key positions in major art history portals, such
as Artstor, Grove Dictionary of Art Online, or the Metropolitan Museum
of Art's Timeline of Art History, and those whom we may call
"art history portal mavericks," individuals who, single-handedly,
or with one or two collaborators, have created major sites. Among
the latter were Katie Deepwell, founder and editor of n.paradoxa,
a feminist art journal; Didier Rykner, founder and editor of La
Tribune de l'art; and Corinne Welger-Barboza, founder
and editor of Observatoire
Critique, a site that offers a critical perspective on
the use of the internet in the history of art. A report and comments
on the colloquium (partly in French) are found on the latter site. |
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The mixture of representatives of
major institutions with a good deal of money behind them and individuals
with lots of enthusiasm and energy but little or no financial support
created an interesting dialogue, which led to a predictable outcome.
While the entrepreneurs admitted they had to spend valuable time to
scrape together necessary fundingthrough donations, advertising,
etcthey also rejoiced in the freedom they have to publish what they
want and how they want it. By the same token, the representatives
of large institutional projects felt they occasionally were hampered
by funder-driven policy or became bogged down in bureaucratic detail. |
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What did
strike everyone who was present at the colloquium is that the internet
has created the possibility for enterprising individuals or small
groups to independently initiate major publishing projects with potential
worldwide impact. And for everyone who lives in fear of the complete
take-over of the publishing industry by a few enormous media companies,
this is a consoling thought. At the same time, the new capacity of
narrowly-based publishing projects to reach large audiences creates
ethical responsibilities for their leadersresponsibilities that
have to do with quality, clarity, and transparency. |
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