Vancouver Art Gallery Launches Most Comprehensive Website Devoted to a Canadian Artist - Emily Carr
VANCOUVER May 8, 2007
On May 11, 2007, the Vancouver Art Gallery launched the most extensive online presence focused on a Canadian artist with a new website dedicated to British Columbia painter Emily Carr. A collaboration between the Vancouver Art Gallery, 7th Floor Media, the University of British Columbia's Department of Computer Science, and the British Columbia Archives, the website brings together images and information on nearly 1,700 artworks by Carr from more than 30 partner institutions and private collections. The most comprehensive and authoritative source of information on the artist, this online exhibit was developed in partnership with the Virtual Museum of Canada (VMC) at virtualmuseum.ca, an initiative of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
"We are so pleased to be able to use the Internet to share this great Canadian artist with the world," said Ian Thom, senior curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery and a central advisor on the project. "As the holder of the world's most significant collection of Carr's work, the Gallery has a long tradition of exhibiting her art and contributing to the scholarship surrounding it. With this website we are taking a major step forward by making the entire breadth of the artist's work available with the click of a mouse."
Covering the entirety of her creative practice, including paintings, drawings, textiles, pottery, cartoons and writing, the Carr website brings together an extensive database of the artist's work that is searchable in an innovative way. The website strives to make connections between Carr's work and the world in which she lived by including historical photos of the places she painted, relevant quotes from Carr's published writing, and preliminary sketches alongside images of her finished paintings. The site, available in English and French, also includes a complete biography of Carr and texts about her literary contributions, legacy and influence, as well as the Vancouver Art Gallery's collection and the Emily Carr Trust. Also included is a complete resource section for teachers, incorporating teachers' guides with numerous lesson plans for high school, elementary and ESL classes. The website is available for Gallerygoers to explore with a computer kiosk in the exhibition space.
"As fans of Emily Carr's work, we were thrilled to work with the Vancouver Art Gallery to bring this project to life", says 7th Floor Media Co-director Noni Mate. "The depth and breadth of information, together with the ability to see it all together in one collection is invaluable to everyone from newcomers to her work to serious art historians."