'Million dollar man' heads digital art project
The 'million dollar man' was in Hong Kong last week to share his expertise on university leadership as a panel member of the University of Hong Kong's Fit For Purpose review of governance and management structures.
Professor Neil Rudenstine won his nickname during his decade as president of Harvard University where he was reputed to raise that much every day - in US dollars - for his institution.
But since stepping down from Harvard 20 months ago he has not had to worry about raising money. Although his academic background is in Renaissance literature, he is pursuing his personal passion for art and its history.
His current project - to create an international database of images and information related to art for use by not-for-profit education institutions and museums - is fully-funded. The New York-based Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has pledged up to US$25 million for its start-up phase and US$10 million a year after that.
From October, the arts database will be available online, although Professor Rudenstine says it will take 'centuries' of work to be a truly comprehensive record of the world's art. 'This is the beginning. It will add tremendous power to the capacity to teach and do research,' he said.
Among the initial images being uploaded are those of the Dunhuang caves in Gansu province, including images of the Buddhist paintings and sculptures as they are today, and those from a collection photographed in the early 20th century. Manuscripts related to the caves, now dispersed in libraries around the world, are also being brought together.
'The scholarly world is excited by the Dunhuang images. The software allows us to zoom in, even on tiny images on the ceilings,' he said.
The initial database will also include about 10,000 images of Asian art from the archives of the American collectors Henry and Arabella Huntington.
Also being uploaded in the initial stages is the entire collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Intellectual property rights issues will mean that only members of not-for-profit institutions will have access to the full site, free of charge. But a sample will also be open to general surfers.
'It is exciting in terms of its scope, scale and the fact it draws on different types of art. But it will only work if it is not only us who does the digitising, as that would take several centuries,' Professor Rudenstine said.
