Digitization of the Art Collection of Galeria Bielska BWA
More works, photographed, described and expounded upon, will be available on the website of the collection.
In 2016, Galeria Bielska BWA completed a digitization scheme covering 500 out of a total of 900 works in its collection at the time. The project was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the program Digital Culture and the Municipality of Bielsko-Biała. The digitized works (photographs, descriptions, bios of artists) are presented on the following specially created website: www.kolekcja.galeriabielska.pl
The digital storage of the Art Collection of Galeria Bielska BWA also marked the beginning of making the gallery collection accessible to the blind and visually impaired. The first twenty selected works were accompanied by so called audio descriptions, allowing blind people to experience contemporary art. The website of the collection has a special Gallery bookmark with an audio description.
In 2018, the gallery proceeded to the implementation of the second part of the project, which involved the digitization of another 400 works from the Art Collection of Galeria Bielska BWA, including paintings, sculptures, objects, photographs, prints and drawings. 300 digitized works will be available for viewing at www.kolekcja.galeriabielska.pl . A further 100 works to which the gallery has no copyright, will be stored in a digital repository, accessible to the general public through a computer in the gallery lobby.
All of the recently purchased works have been photographed according to the standards of good practices of digitization of archival materials. Each photograph on the collection website is accompanied with an appropriate description. Currently, the gallery’s collection contains over 970 works.
Like in 2016, the presentation of the digitization of the second part of the Art Collection of Galeria Bielska BWA will be attended by members of the local branch of the Polish Association of the Blind. The presentation will include audio descriptions of selected works.
The presentation of the project will take place on Friday, 28 December 2018 at 1pm.
The computer with access to the digitized collections of the Art Collection of Galeria Bielska BWA is located in the gallery lobby; available to visitors during the opening hours of the gallery (10am -6pm).