The treasures of 39 arts institutions worldwide are now open for public viewing with the introduction of individual subscriptions to The AMICO Library (tm) from David Rumsey’s Cartography Associates (www.davidrumsey.com/amico.) Now everyone from students, to arts professionals and those with an interest in art or art history can take a close up look at Julie Margaret Cameron’s unique photogravure prints, view fine grain detail of Maurits Cornelis Escher’s mind-binding etchings or explore any of the more than 118,000 different works of art in The AMICO Library(tm), all in one place and from their computer desktop.
The AMICO Library™ is an important collection because it is both a great resource for arts appreciation and learning, says David Rumsey, whose digital publishing company, Cartography Associates, has supported Internet access to other key cultural heritage resources, including his own award-winning collection of historic maps that are available for free public review.
Documenting different works of art from prehistoric goddess figures to contemporary installations, The AMICO Library™ distributed by Cartography Associates has been limited, until now, to institutional subscriptions used primarily for teaching arts and humanities courses to more than 400,000 students at universities nationwide.
“Art appreciation does not have to be limited to the classroom or the college years,” says Rumsey. “The Internet provides us with the means to support life-long learning, and this can only be stimulated if resources like The AMICO Library™ are available to everyone. Because it’s not heavily curated, people can freely explore the historic, cultural and creative output of a variety of civilizations throughout the centuries.”
New works are added annually to the collection that is available by subscription to individuals, with some exclusions, for as little as $15 per month or $150 annually. Individuals regularly employed by institutions of higher education must access The AMICO Library™ through an institutional subscription, which is also available through Cartography Associates at the lowest possible price, using a simple annual subscription fee structure.
No where else on the Internet can you find this many images of art through the ages, all in one place, with the highest quality images and catalog data coming directly from the museums and libraries that own the originals.
Your subscription helps support the Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO), a non-profit museum membership organization, which has built and continues to expand The AMICO Library™ through annual contributions from its 39 member institutions. It’s an innovative collaboration – not seen before in museums – that shares, shapes, and standardizes digital information regarding museums’ collections and enables its educational use. Membership is open to any institution with a collection of art.
“We are pleased that Cartography Associates has given individuals with an interest in the arts access to The AMICO Library™,” says AMICO’s Executive Director Jennifer Trant. “This supports the goal of AMICO’s members to make their rich collections known and have them enjoyed.”
The AMICO Library™ is also unique because it never closes. It is available online 24/7 through Cartography Associates using Luna Imaging’s Insight software, which allows viewers to search for works in the online collection, conduct side-by-side comparisons and zoom in on details that may otherwise be difficult to see with the naked eye. More than an image database, works are fully documented and may include curatorial text, detailed provenance information, multiple views and other related multimedia.
For more information about individual subscriptions to The AMICO Library™, to view thumbnail images of some of the works represented in the collection or to subscribe through the secure, online ordering system log on to www.davidrumsey.com/amico. Even international subscribers can use a credit card and the simple and secure online ordering form to subscribe to The AMICO Library™.
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