Crowd-sourcing and public engagement around the UK's painting collections: the experience of 'Your Paintings Tagger' and

'Art Detective'’

Andrew GregDirector, National Inventory Research Project & University

of GlasgowAndrew.greg@glasgow.ac.uk

Crowdsourcing, Co-curation, Co-creation in the Cultural Sector2nd workshop of Scottish Network on Digital Cultural Resources Evaluation

Tuesday December 1st 2015

The National Inventory Research ProjectAims:

• Improve public and academic access to information about museum collections

• Help museums research their collections

• Promote smaller museums and galleries online

• Encourage appreciation of collections, collection research and encourage future research.

A regional museum store © University of Glasgow

NICE Paintings painting page: core and full records on VADS of two Teniers paintings http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/NIRP/index.php

2003-7 funded by the National Gallery Trust, the AHRC, the Getty Trust, the Kress Foundation and the Pilgrim Trust: 8,000 paintings in 200 UK collections.

2009 grant from the Kress Foundation to work with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Academy and Apsley House.

2014-15 Current project NIRP in the North funded by Kress Foundation, John Ellerman Foundation and Pilgrim Trust, in National Museums Liverpool, Manchester Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries and York Art Gallery: an additional 1,300 paintings.

Jan 2016 c.10,300 newly researched painting records NICE Paintings: the National Inventory of Continental European Paintings at http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/NIRP/index.php

The National Inventory Research Project

Of 32 project researchers and Neil MacGregor Scholars (above, with Neil MacGregor and Dr Susan Foister), 12 now in curatorial posts, 7 in academic art history posts and 3 freelance art historians.

© University of Glasgow

The National Inventory Research Project

Luca Giordano 1634-1705, The Death of Seneca, c.1650-75, Bolton Museum and Archive (right). A museum store before and after NIRP research (bottom) © University of Glasgow

Other outcomes: conservation, store improvements and exhibitionsDiscoveries: New Research into British Collections, National Gallery, London 2007-8

Research on Paintings: Art History and Connoisseurship, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2013 (top left)

Exhibitions in other regional museums resulting from NIRP researchers’ work.

Public engagement with collection research: Your Paintings Tagger and Art Detective

NIRP has worked increasingly closely with the Public Catalogue Foundation since 2004:

Initially sharing NIRP data with ‘Your Paintings’ and PCF giving NIRP access top digital images digital images.

University of Glasgow is now academic partner with the PCF and has worked on ‘Your Paintings Tagger’ and ‘Art Detective’, providing experience of academic, curatorial and audience perspectives.

The PCF at work © Public Catalogue Foundation

‘Your Paintings’ contains images and limited info on all 211,000 oil paintings in public ownership in the UK.

In 3,000 collections ranging from hospitals to national museums.

On line atwww.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings

To be relaunched as ArtUK in 2016

Note links to NICE Paintings and Art Detective)

To create additional data for effective searching of ‘Your Paintings’ requires tags:

– ‘Social tags’– Structured content keywords– Names of people, places and events– Types, or genres

And specialised data on:– Dates and periods– Artistic styles and movements

Your Paintings Tagger

Malcolm Drummond (1880-1945), 19 Fitzroy Street, 1912-14, © Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne

Your Paintings Tagger

The constraints:– 211,000 paintings– Respond to

research on user needs

– Reliable and consistent

– Minimise cost– Short timescale

The conclusion:– Crowd sourcing Willem van Haecht (1593-1637), The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest,

1628, oil on panel, 100 x 130 cm, © Rubenshuis, Antwerp

Your Paintings Tagger

www.galaxyzoo.org

Encouraged by example of Galaxy Zoo:• Launched July 2007• 1,000,000 images of

galaxies• 150,000 worldwide

volunteers in first year• 50,000,000 classifications

in first yearPrinciples of Galaxy Zoo:• No expertise required• Images delivered at

random• Multiple classifications

(thresholds)Results as good as professionals

Your Paintings Tagger

e.g. Things and ideas: type in ‘lace’ or select ‘lace’ from drop-down dictionary

Launched 2011

9,500 taggers created 4.2m tags in two years

23,000 paintings now tagged

Paintings delivered at random* *(though can select region – about 400 are tagging London collections)

Your Paintings Tagger

Your Paintings TaggerThe first 2,278 completed paintings received an average of:

– 61 different free text tags, of which 22 were accepted (threshold of 2)

– 15 different subject terms, of which 7 were accepted (threshold of 2)

– A total of 87 different tags and keywords of which 30 were accepted.

N.B. Structured tags currently not implemented by BBC. Dates and styles/movements thresholds too high; alternative tagging strategy.

Detail of ‘Your Paintings’ webpage showing public tags for: Emily Mary Osborn (1828-1925), Study for 'Nameless and Friendless', oil on wood, 1857, © York Museums Trust

Art DetectiveYour Paintings contains • 17,591 paintings by

‘unknown’ artists,

• 3,117 by unidentified ‘British School’ artists

• 3,733 by ‘British (English) School’, artists, and

• well over 1,000 by unknown Continental European artists.

• 2,021 paintings with ‘unknown’ in the title.

At least 15% of the paintings in the UK’s public collections are in some way unidentified or erroneously described.

Unknown artist, Dorothy and Marjory Lees, © Gallery Oldham; Unknown artist, Portrait of an unknown Rheumatologist, © Royal Free Hospital; Cornelius Johnson, Unknown Burgomeister, © Salford Museum and Art Gallery; Unknown artist, London Bridge, © Atkinson Art Gallery. Identifications all improved through Art Detective.

Art DetectiveLaunched May 2014

Free-to-use online interface bringing together:• Curators in search of

information on their collection

• Academics, experts and members of the public with specialist knowledge

Aims:• Improve the knowledge

curators and collection managers have about their collections

• Enable and improve communication between curators and experts

• Engage the public in discussions around art history, historical research and connoisseurship.

A previous homepage for Art Detective http://www.thepcf.org.uk/artdetective/

Art DetectiveThe PCF management hub receives new Proposed Discussions via a link on the painting’s page on ‘Your Paintings’ website. The PCF and collections select those appropriate as a Public Discussions.

Collections can use Art Detective to ask academics, fellow curators and the informed public questions about a painting (right)

And, informed members of the public can provide information or opinions and thereby also start and contribute to a Public Discussion.

Anyone can contribute an opinion to a Public Discussion:

Art Detective

Discussions are linked to one or more of 27 Groups of users with an interest in a particular subject.

Discussions can be viewed by Group.

Each Group has an expert leader whose role is to bring discussions to a conclusion.

Art Detective

Art DetectiveThe Group leader’s conclusion or recommendation is passed to the hub management, then to the collection.

Inconclusive discussions can be referred to a senior panel of experts.

If the collection accepts the recommendation, amendments are announced (right) and made to the PCF’s database and then to the ‘Your Paintings’ website.

194 Public Discussions so far, of which 94 ‘completed’.

Art Detective Registered Public Users

30/05/1422/06/14

15/07/1407/08/14

30/08/1422/09/14

15/10/1407/11/14

30/11/1423/12/14

15/01/1507/02/15

02/03/1525/03/15

17/04/1510/05/15

02/06/1525/06/15

18/07/1510/08/15

02/09/1525/09/15

18/10/1510/11/15

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

Of first 2,000 registered public users:Discussions proposed

Number of users

Comments made

Number of users

Proposed any discussions

1,564 Made any comments

116

Proposed 1 - 9 discussions

1,552 (of whom 1,404 only proposed one discussion)

Made 1 - 9 comments

99 (of whom 60 only made one comment)

Proposed 10 - 49 discussions

6 Made 10 - 49 comments

10

50 - 99 3 50 - 100 1 100 - 149 1 100 - 150 2 150 - 199 1 150 - 200 0 Over 200 1 over 200 1

Art DetectiveCore values:

• Direct personal links between museums in search of knowledge and expertise and external sources of such expertise

• Public education through transparency of research process (see ‘Fake or Fortune’)

• Increasing value of the profession and the processes of research and connoisseurship.

Public Engagement: Tagging the Treasures

Tagging the Treasures: A Fylde DFAS (Decorative and Fine Art Society) project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to research and catalogue the artworks in the Lytham St. Annes Art Collection, now in the Fylde Gallery at Booths Store, Haven Road, Lytham.

Above: researcher training. Right: The presentation by John Booth of the 'Herd Lassie' by Richard Ansdell to the Corporation of Lytham St. Annes in 1925. http://www.lythamstannesartcollection.org/

Crowd-sourcing and public engagement …

Andrew Greg, University of Glasgow Andrew.greg@glasgow.ac.uk NICE Paintings: the National Inventory of Continental European Paintings

http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/NIRP/index.php The Public Catalogue Foundation http://www.thepcf.org.uk/

Your Paintings http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/ Your Paintings Tagger http://tagger.thepcf.org.uk/

Art Detective http://www.thepcf.org.uk/artdetective/Tagger and Art Detective designed by Keepthinking: http://www.keepthinking.it/

George Bernard O'Neill,Public Opinion, © Leeds Museums and Galleries