Case overview
In 2020, more than 2,000 cultural institutions worldwide were represented on Google Arts & Culture. This platform was created in 2011 by the famous search engine. At the time, 6 million artefacts had been digitised.
Implementation Actions
Various activities are available:
- HD images of works and sometimes their analysis
- Virtual tours
- Virtual exhibitions
- Impressive zoom tools
Users can also discover works of art interactively, thanks to a range of tools:
- The “X degrees of separation” tool which finds similarities between two objects through ten other intermediate artefacts.
- Art Selfie
- A search based on color criteria
- Create an Artwork collection
Finally, the StreetArt project, launched in 2015, also makes street art available on the platform.
Results
But is it worth being part of this vast project? Here are a few advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
- It is totally free
- The Google Cultural Institute shares its skills and tools to develop online tours and exhibitions
- Institutions retain their copyright on content
- GA&C supports digitisation
- The platform enables institutions to reach audiences different from their usual ones
- It gives them greater online visibility
Limits
- At the same time, it’s legitimate to wonder about this project, officially presented as a non-profit. However, you may be familiar with the quote: “there’s no free lunch!”
- No one seems to really know what the Google Cultural Institute’s selection criteria are for proposing institutions to join the platform…
- so it’s hard not to assume that Google is the primary beneficiary of this kind of partnership…
- which first and foremost improve the company’s public image
- The company’s data collection policy is the subject of considerable suspicion, although the Google Cultural Institute claims it does nothing of the sort on the GA&C platform
- It is forbidden to download HD images from GA&C and use them in any other way. Google also owns all Streetview images.
- If you wish to share GA&C content, you must cite the platform, not the cultural institution that owns the artwork…
- Yet most of the artefacts digitised on GA&C are in the public domain!
Ultimately, it seems pointless to work on an institutional site in the knowledge that it will never enjoy the same audience as Google.
Key Takeaways
In conclusion, joining GA&C is certainly an opportunity, especially in terms of visibility. It allows institutions to concentrate on other missions. But it’s always preferable for them to develop their own projects, even if this requires skills, time and money. The Rijksstudio or the Prado examples prove that it’s possible to do just as well!