Sunday, February 8, 2009

Art and Design News



Thread
This is the website of the BBC's online magazine Thread, which deals with the concept of eco-fashion. The website can be viewed in an Adobe Flash version or as HTML. It contains a collection of feature articles, including: Reports on subjects such as sustainability, ethical designers, working conditions, fair trade and waste management; Columns from regular writers; How-To Guides, including conservation and construction tips, and instructions on finding ethical fashion; Galleries including current trends and recommendations. There are a number of BBC videos on the website including interviews with designers, and in depth reports. An archive of Style Files contains photo shoots of eco-fashion looks with details of suppliers and prices.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/thread/




The National Film Board of Canada’s new film site makes hundreds of animated films, documentaries, and experimental films freely available online.
Link: http://www.nfb.ca/

Katherine Dunham Collection
This website provides access to a range of materials taken from the Katherine Dunham Collection at the Library of Congress. Comprising a selection of photographs, videos and texts, this web presentation documents the life and career of a woman who has been credited with changing the face of American modern dance, largely through introducing African and Caribbean dance movement to the public. Photographs are taken from the Library of Congress, the Missouri Historical Society, and Southern Illinois University. The database allows searching by keyword, and searching can be limited by factors such as name of ballet, and format. Other features include a chronological timeline, featuring photographs of Dunham.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/dunham/dunham-home.html

Public Art Resource+Research Scotland
This is the website of Public Art Resource+Research Scotland (PAR+RS), a new initiative developed by the Scottish Arts Council to "promote excellence and innovation within public art". The website has a news section with opportunities and developments, and there are also a number of featured articles available in full-text. The 'Blogs and Reflections' section of the website has blogs from invited writers reporting on live and complete projects and events. The 'Archive' provides details of previous public art projects and includes information about the commissioning process, funding and outcomes. Other content on the website includes information about how to contribute, a forum for registered users and a tools section, which includes links to useful information for artists on external websites.
http://www.publicartscotland.com/


Florida Broadsides
This website forms part of the Florida Memory website maintained by the State Archives of Florida. It provides free access to a collection of more than 200 digitised images of broadsides (posters, leaflets, petitions, flyers, advertisements, political cartoons) and other ephemeral such as pamphlets and newspaper articles relating to the social, political and economic history of Florida during the period 1800-2000. Themes of particular interest to social scientists include political cartoons relating to US national and local elections; materials relating to race and slavery.
http://www.floridamemory.com/collections/broadsides/


Artists' Illustrated Letters
The Getting the Picture website provides a selection of artists' illustrated letters from the collection of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. The collection encompasses "exuberant thank you notes, winsome love letters, lively reports of current events, graphic instructions and other personalized communiqués from the early nineteenth century through the 1980s." It gives a wonderful insight into the private world of the artist. Artists include: Alexander Calder; Dale Chihuly; Marcel Duchamp; Thomas Eakins; Winslow Homer; Roy Lichtenstein; Man Ray; Eero Saarinen; Antoine de Saint-Exupéry; and Andy Warhol.
http://www.aaa.si.edu/exhibits/exhibit-illustratedletters/

Marcel Breuer Papers
Marcel Breuer Papers 1920-1986' is a website which provides access to the papers of Marcel Breuer in the Archives of American Art, at the Smithsonian Institution, New York City Research Center. They were digitized in 2005 from 32 reels of microfilm, totaling 42,734 images. Architect and furniture designer Breuer was born in Hungary in 1902 and died in 1981 in New York City. He studied and taught at the Bauhaus until 1928. The collection contains biographical material, correspondence, business and financial records, writings, project files, interviews, notes, sketches, exhibition files, and photographs.
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collectionsonline/breumarc/

2 comments:

Librarian at your service said...

Hi Wincent,

Do you see the Singapore arts scene as a tourist attraction?

Interesting that you raised this point, I was always under the impression that it was the shopping and food that attracted tourist to Singapore, if the arts scene is drawing tourists, it is something that should be recognized by arts entities to do the necessary to promote the arts.

Malar

chase said...

I believe that the arts is a tourist attraction. The Larasati and Masterpiece auctions always attract a steady flow of Indonesian artists.