The Public Art Archive™, a new project of the Western States Arts Federation, or WESTAF (www.westaf.org), is a sophisticated searchable database of public art in the United States. The Archive makes public art and its processes more accessible to the public, displaying images of each piece alongside an extensive description, including audio and video supplementary files when available. The Public Art Archive™ is the sister project of WESTAF's CaFÉ™ system (www.callforentry.org), an online application and adjudication system used by public art administrators everywhere. WESTAF's arts-based technology projects are in use in all 50 states as well as internationally, and the organization has a history of involvement in the public art field. In 1976, WESTAF published % For Art: New Legislation Can Integrate Arts and Architecture, an important seminal work in the field.

Add your collection now!

To begin, email your collection information to Rachel.Cain@westaf.org including:
1. A brief description of your collection.
2. How many artworks in general you wish to contribute now and in total.
3. The types of digital formats that your records currently exist in (MS Access, Excel, Word, custom database)?
4. Verify that you have the following information about each artwork: Title, team member name(s), year, street address, worktype, material(s), description? Please note that submitting additional information is encouraged. Please contact WESTAF if you have further information to include.
5. Verify that you have at least one image of each artwork you wish to contribute.
6. Do you have any multi-media files to contribute? How many?
7. Agree to the Terms of Use.

Once your information has been reviewed, you will receive an Import Template with further details.

What does the Public Art Archive™ mean to you?

• Public art administrators can use the Archive to manage their collections, promote their collections to the public, track national developments in the public art field, and move their work from multiple files and formats into a single integrated collections management and communication system. Administrators can easily search for and find components of the works in their collection in one online location.
• Artists and artist agents currently active in the field of public art or who wish to break into the field will use the Archive to see which agencies are commissioning work and what kinds of work are being commissioned. Artists who have received a public art commission will be invited to add their works to the Archive. This is also a great opportunity for artists to increase exposure to their work.
• The general public and tourists can use the Archive to locate public art and create custom walking or driving tours by using the system's mapping function. Cultural tourists can also enjoy videos, images, and audio about each work, allowing for a richer, more dynamic public art experience. This functionality can also augment education initiatives.
• Researchers will use the site to access its data to inform their work. No other resource comes close to what the Public Art Archive™ can offer researchers.
• The Archive's database structure was developed in line with exacting standards used by major museums and cultural institutions. The Archive uses VRA Core 4.0, a powerful data standard created for the cultural heritage community by the Visual Resources Association's Data Standards Committee. The structure is used by the Digital Library Projects at Harvard University, ARTstor and the Getty. Using a standardized structure to collect information about public art increases the value of the information for use in the academic community.
• The vocabulary utilized in the Archive is compliant with the Getty's Art and Architecture Thesaurus, also used by well-known institutions such as the University of Washington Libraries, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Victoria and Albert Museum, and many others. The vastness of the list of terms allows for standardized descriptions across the Archive, coupled with a flexibility that can accommodate new and emerging terms and descriptive language. Additionally, the Archive has been customized to include fields and data relationships that are specific to the public art domain. The Archive was built to utilize the best of museum collections' standards while offering functionality specific to public art collections management.

The Public Art Archive™ can accommodate a wide variety of file types. For instance, an Archive entry might include images to show what the artwork looked like at any stage of the project, documents that display the artist statements, audio to allow users to listen an artist interview, and video to show the installation of the piece. In this way, the Archive can house a multitude of records to educate people about public art collections and individual pieces, the public art process, and increase exposure to public art in the United States.

The Archive includes robust and intuitive search functionality. Solr is the popular, blazing-fast, open-source, enterprise search platform from the Apache Lucene project. Solr's major features include powerful full-text search and faceted search. These features are used by other sites like Etsy.com and FoodNetwork.com. The robust ability to search combined with intuitive search filters enables users to navigate effortlessly and explore the Archive easily, yet with exacting efficiency.

Google maps has been integrated into the Public Art Archive™. Users can see works on a map, get driving or walking directions, and save the map for later use. Cultural tourists can create a map of works that they wish to visit and use a mobile device to access information about a piece while physically standing in front of it. The mapping feature allows administrators to create tours for things like annual maintenance tasks, public interest topics, and advocacy initiatives.

At present, selected pilot organizations have begun importing their collections into the Archive. Currently the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, the Oregon Arts Commission, the City of New Haven, and the City of Las Vegas Arts Commission have partnered with WESTAF as pilot organizations. To learn more about adding your agency's public art collection to the Public Art Archive™, please contact Rachel Cain at WESTAF at rachel.cain@westaf.org or (303) 629-1166.

Want more information? See the Frequently Asked Questions page.

About the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF)
WESTAF, the Western States Arts Federation, is a nonprofit arts service organization dedicated to the creative advancement and preservation of the arts. Based in Denver, Colorado, WESTAF fulfills its mission to strengthen the financial, organizational and policy infrastructure of the arts by providing innovative programs and services to artists and arts organizations in the West and nationwide. Currently WESTAF programs focus on advocacy in support of public arts funding in the West, and a panoply of Web systems most of with serve the nation. WESTAF is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts; the state arts agencies of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming; private and corporate foundations; and individuals.

WESTAF has been developing and maintaining complex technology systems for more than 11 years and is proud to offer particular expertise in image management and a high level of system availability and security. Like all WESTAF technology systems, the Public Art Archive™ is hosted on a highly secure, multi-tier architecture deployed on a clustered server environment located in a secure data center. Our backup protocol is invoked every thirty minutes for all data to ensure multiple copies of all data always exist, in multiple locations. In addition, a purposefully underutilized network consisting of multiple high-speed network providers ensures the type of redundancy necessary to make the Public Art Archive™ available from anywhere. The WESTAF technical support and program development teams continually monitor all WESTAF systems for optimal availability, reliability, and integrity.