In 2011, the National Museum in Warsaw volunteered to participate in the international Partage Plus project. The aim was to digitize and publish online, between 2012 and 2014, 75,000 objects of European cultural heritage from the period around 1900 representing the Art Nouveau style. In addition to this, the aim of the project was to create multilingual dictionaries to make it possible to search the metadata of objects collected in Europeana in the languages of the project participants. Besides, the project also created over 2000 3D models of Art Nouveau objects selected from the collection of 17 partner museums. The project, which involved 25 European cultural institutions, was coordinated by the British organization Collection Trust and co-financed by the European Commission. As part of the project, the Museum in Warsaw provided images of 5,000 objects with metadata on the Digital MNW website, and participated in the translation into Polish of dictionaries of object types and terms related to art of the Art Nouveau period. Among the objects made available are Polish and foreign paintings, engravings, drawings, photographs, posters, silverware, ceramics, furniture, textiles created around 1900. The data was aggregated by the Digital Libraries Federation, which then made it available to the Europeana portal.
During the two years of the project, the partner institutions made every effort to make Art Nouveau better known. Most museums that were partners in the project organized series of exhibitions that showcased materials digitized as part of the project or enhanced by the results of the digitization project. Information was updated on these exhibitions, as well as on other events organized within the framework of the project – such as international conferences, lectures and publications.
The Musée d’Orsay is the initatior of the venture titled “Un soir avec les impressionnistes – Paris 1874”, which ran from 26 March to 11 August 2024. This VR experience, co-produced with Gédéon programs, Emissive and the museum, took place as part of the exhibition “Paris 1874, the invention of Impressionism”, and transported users to Paris on April 15, 1874, to attend the opening of the first Impressionist exhibition. Taking place in photographer Nadar’s former studio on Boulevard des Capucines, the experience allowed users to relive a key moment in art history surrounded by works and key figures of the time.
State-of-the-art VR headsets were available to users to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of 19th-century Paris. They walked along the Boulevard des Capucines and entered Nadar’s studio, where they met famous artists such as: Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissaro and Edgar Degas. This tour offered users a spectacular immersion where they discovered the many connections between these artists and their work.
The experience was recommended for 11+ users with a restriction for children under 8. It was not recommended for those prone to epileptic seizures or migraines, or those with balance or vision problems.
According to one user’s feedback, instructions are repeated several times at the beginning to familiarize him with the space and movements. People who have not experienced VR can feel safe and comfortable. After “walking” into Nadar’s studio, impressionist painters take a tour of the exhibition as if the guide himself were doing it in the real world.
When we compare the two good practices we can see the difference caused by the scope of the projects. The first one had a broader scope due to the number of participating partners, while the second was a local Parisian initiative. This may have affected the number of people the initiative reached. Also, the duration of the projects may have made a difference in reaching those interested. In all likelihood, the financial capacity of both projects also had an impact.
The involvement of the audience may have been determined by interests in terms of directions in art, but also by the tools offered in both projects. It is one thing to immerse oneself in art through virtual reality and another to observe digitized works. Here, the level of knowledge of the project participants and their preferences regarding the ways of interacting with art could also have had a significant impact.
Resources
Welcome to the Partage Plus Project
An evening with the Impressionists: we tried out the virtual reality experience at the Musée d’Orsay