Date: Fri 22-Jan-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: JUDIR

Quick Words:

NMAA-Internet-Cottingham

Full Text:

Museum's Images & Information At Your Fingertips, Including Cottingham Show

(with cut)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian

Institution, announces the debut of its new web site at

http://www.nmaa.si.edu. First launched in 1995, the award-winning NMAA web

site has been fully redesigned to accommodate the museum's continuing growth

as a major online research and education presence.

"We're very excited about the possibilities the new site offers to our

cyberaudience," said MNAA Director Elizabeth Broun. "We serve an enormous

range of people online, from those with a casual interest in art to educators

and scholars, and this new site provides all of them a bigger and better

resource."

More than 3,000 digital images from the MNAA collection are available through

the museum's site, linked to a new collection information database. The site

is also home to NMAA'a online art reference librarian, who handles nearly

7,000 queries about American art each year from adults and students of all

ages.

Fourteen virtual exhibitions offer the online visitor rewards unavailable to

the museumgoer. "American Photographs" includes a video tour by curator Merry

Foresta and audio commentary by other scholars. "The Renwick at Twenty-Five"

allows viewers to rotate modern craft objects using a QTVR video plug-in.

"Metropolitan Lives: The Ashcan Artists and Their New York" features clips

from early Twentieth Century film footage of New York City.

"Virtual exhibitions not only parallel `real' ones, but they also stand on

their own," said Thornton Staples, NMAA's chief of information technology.

"The web site delivers information beyond what is in the exhibition itself and

invites us to follow our intellectual curiosity."

Viewers have access to extensive research databases, including the Inventory

of Painting and Sculpture, where they may refer to over 360,000 records

involving American artwork.

The new site's design is more user-friendly, with a structure that is easier

for viewers to navigate, a rollover function that elaborates on user options,

a calendar updated daily, and better member services, including online

registration for museum membership and events.

Newtown At The NMAA

"Eyeing America: Robert Cottingham Prints," a groundbreaking virtual

exhibition on the new site, complements the NMAA show on view through January

31 and marks the first time a contemporary artist and a major museum have

collaborated to create an online solo retrospective.

The exhibit "Eyeing America" was in Connecticut two years ago, when the

Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield presented the collection of

26 oils on canvas in its Edna Leir gallery for the first quarter of 1997. The

letters presented in the vibrant collection were all found individually on

neon signs across the country. Some of the letters were painted exclusively

for the exhibition; others were re-created from paintings Mr Cottingham

already had in his oeuvre.

Mr Cottingham and his wife, Jane, have been residents of Newtown since 1977.

The Cottinghams live in the former Blackman Farm, a historic dairy farm that

has been since turned into the Cottingham residence. Mr Cottingham uses three

of the former farm's buildings as his studio.

A section called "In the Museum," on the NMAA Web site, allows visitors to see

the Pop-influenced images that appear in the actual museum exhibition. Another

section, "On the Road," includes video clips of Mr Cottingham discussing

particular works and traces his cross-country journey documenting the American

urban landscape.