From tradition to innovation: The UK’s heritage goes online

Associated media

As the UK’s Public Catalogue Foundation goes online, Alexander Adams talks to Andy Ellis, the PCF’s director

The Public Catalogue Foundation (PCF) is a charity dedicated to recording and making accessible art held in public collections throughout the United Kingdom. This summer, in partnership with the BBC,  it put its findings on to a website accessible to all: ‘Your Paintings’. Alexander Adams spoke to PCF Director Andy Ellis about this ambitious new project.

Alexander Adams:  At what point did it become clear that online accessibility was desirable and practical?

Andy Ellis:When I joined as Director in 2003 I was pretty clear in my mind that this project needed to go online. However, I suppose it was probably 2006/7 when we started to think about this more seriously.

AA:  What are the advantages of publishing PCF data on a website?

AE: It was obvious that the audience reached through the ’net would be far greater (and broader) than via the books. The  ’net  would allow audiences to search for paintings. Also ‘Your Paintings’ will allow for the catalogue data to be updated.

Ellis also sees the website has great potential as a teaching aid and as a more general chance to make work accessible to anyone in the country – and the world.

AA:  So what are the advantages to the individual museums, apart from getting their art seen by the public?

AE: Well, it also allows us to send traffic through to participating collections. We are keen to encourage visitors to link through to collections’ websites and where possible go and see the paintings for real. Also don’t forget that a major benefit to collections is that they get their paintings photographed free of charge.

AA:  To date the website covers (essentially) only England. Do you have a schedule for other regions becoming part of the ‘Your Paintings’ site?

AE: Between now and the end of 2012 all the UK will go online. Over the next six months we should add National Museums Northern Ireland, National Museum Wales, Edinburgh (partial), Aberdeen and Dundee. Eventually the website will cover 200,000 paintings from around 3,000 collections and by approaching 40,000 artists. [A big increase from the 63,000 paintings currently online.]

AA: At the moment it is possible to search by collection or by artist name. Tell us how the website will evolve, aside from the addition of new regions.

 AE: The site will evolve in a number of ways. First, the search functionality will improve, particularly when the results from our public ‘tagging’ programme feed through. Secondly, more links and content will be added. This will include more BBC TV archive material. Finally, new functions will be added, for example the ability to create one’s own private collection of paintings online.

AA:  Why did the PCF decide to enter a partnership with the BBC as host for the ‘Your Paintings’ site?

AE:  We initially approached the BBC in 2008 with the idea of some sort of media partnership. The response was positive. We then explored ways of working together. I then suggested that the simplest way forward would be for them to put our project on bbc.co.uk  We came to an agreement whereby they would build the front end and we would build the back end art historical database whilst completing the digitization programme. We thought the BBC was the ideal partner because of its audience reach, its strong brand and public service credentials and understanding of audience needs. The possibility of marrying our content with their relevant archive content was another advantage. [Users of the site are offered links to BBC news stories, film clips and programmes on fine art.]

All in all it has worked well. The BBC has been a fabulous partner.

AA: Can you tell us one or two of the biggest surprises you had as the information about the collections came in – or as it was digitized?

AE: I think for all of us over the life of the project the greatest surprise and pleasure has related to the rich variety of paintings and collections across the land. I am sure this will be the same for users coming to the site afresh.

AA: Finally, can you name a collection which you personally think epitomizes the richness of Britain's public art heritage?

AE: [Laughs] I am too diplomatic to pick out just one collection. Over to you on that!