Artresearch.net: A Transformative Platform for the Study of Art and Architecture
PHAROS, the International Association of Photo Archives, is proud to announce the launch of Artresearch.net, a groundbreaking new platform for exploring works of art and architecture through the power of cutting-edge AI and rich, expert-curated metadata. Researchers, students, and the public have now access to an unprecedented visual resource—potentially encompassing 31 million images spanning centuries of artistic production.
Developed over more than a decade, Artresearch.net represents the collaborative effort of major art historical photographic archives in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. The platform brings together images and data from across these world-renowned institutions, offering free, centralized access to a vast and meticulously cataloged corpus of art historical material.
“The launch of Artresearch.net marks the culmination of more than a decade of visionary work by institutions and individuals dedicated to reimagining the photo archive for the digital age,” said Gregory P. J. Most, President of PHAROS and Chief of the Department of Image Collections at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. “Our goal was to transform decades of analogue cataloguing into a dynamic, evolving platform that responds to the technologies and research practices of today.”
Louisa Wood Ruby, Executive Director of PHAROS and former Head of Research at the Frick Art Research Library, adds, “Artresearch.net represents a true shift in how we study and discover art. By connecting millions of images and metadata across institutions, we are opening new pathways for comparative research, digital analysis, and interdisciplinary teaching.”
Funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, with ongoing institutional support from PHAROS partners, Artresearch.net brings together leaders in art history, information science, digital humanities, and art law. The platform is built upon ResearchSpace, a free and open-source knowledge system designed for scholarly research. Technical development was led by Artem Kozlov, with the user interface designed by Marilena Daquino at the University of Bologna, Italy.
Artresearch.net is poised to become an essential resource for art historians, curators, educators, and anyone seeking to explore the global history of art through images and data of unparalleled depth and scope.
About PHAROS: The International Association of Photo Archives
PHAROS is a consortium of leading art historical photo archives based in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Founded to advance the accessibility and scholarly use of photographic documentation of works of art, PHAROS promotes collaboration, standardization, and innovation in the digital humanities. Current member institutions include the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History (Rome), the German Documentation Center for Art History – Bildarchiv Foto Marburg (Marburg), the Courtauld Institute of Art (London), Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, DC), the Fondazione Federico Zeri (Bologna), the Frick Art Research Library (New York), I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (Florence), the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (Florence), the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (London), the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History (The Hague), the Warburg Institute (London) and the Yale Center for British Art (New Haven). More institutions will be added in coming months.
For more information, visit https://artresearch.net.