The best of British: how a foundation is putting all nation’s publicly owned art online
The Public Catalogue Foundation is putting every painting in the UK online on a single website, placing some great artworks at your fingertips
A huge project has been launched that aims to include every publicly owned painting, drawing, sculpture and print in Britain on one website, creating the most comprehensive access to one country’s art in the world.
The artist Bob and Roberta Smith – who is one man, Patrick Brill – celebrated the creation of Art UK by presenting a new work in his trademark signwriter’s lettering, proclaiming “through our public collections we all own art”, to the parliamentary art collection, one of more than 3,000 collections already represented on the website.
It was the slogan Brill chose when he stood against Michael Gove in the last general election, he says, reflecting his unease over government cuts to art and education.
“The subtext now is the threat to so many local authority museums,” he says, “ we need to recognise and celebrate these collections in order to protect them.”
Director of Art UK Andrew Ellis says it is a momentous day that will open the art in public collections for enjoyment, learning and research.
