Guggenheim Museum donates 100 master-class works of art to Wikipedia
May 5, 2015 | In the PressFrom The Next Web News (http://thenextweb.com/creativity/2015/05/05/guggenheim-museum-donates-100-master-class-works-of-art-to-wikipedia/)
The Guggenheim Museum in New York has donated 100 images of artworks from its collection to Wikipedia. The selection includes paintings by Edgar Degas, Paul Klee and Vincent van Gogh.
Now it’s inviting the public to visit the museum and contribute information about the artworks and artists to the online encyclopedia. The Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: Selections from the Guggenheim Collection takes place on Tuesday, May 19 from 3pm to 7pm.
If you’re not in New York, you can also participate remotely and follow#guggathon on Twitter for updates.
It doesn’t matter how much editing you’ve done. The event will include a training session for people who are new to Wikipedia and instructors will be available to help.
The meetup will focus on the chosen images allowing the public to help enhance scholarship and understanding of the museum’s collection of artists and works.
The program will begin with an overview of the Guggenheim’s founding collection and its development from Natalia Lauricella, Curatorial Assistant, Collections and Exhibitions.
That will be followed by a presentation by Wikimedia NYC president Richard Knipel about the impact of donating images of artworks to Wikipedia. Program attendees can take a free tour of the Guggenheim Museum’s Thannhauser Collection (6 to 7 p.m.), led by gallery educator Lewis Kachur, on a first come, first serve basis.
If you want to participate in person, register here. You’ll need to enter through the museum’s 89th Street entrance and head down to the Sackler Center. Bring your own laptop and power cord. Light refreshments will be provided.
The Guggenheim’s first Wikipedia-Edit-a-thon took place in October last year. Participants created 16 new Wikipedia pages about museum architecture. You can get a sense of what this year’s event will be like on the Guggenheim’s blog.
