Historical Wisconsin art or indie rock’s
next big thing? Portrait of a bearded man
by Carl von Marr (Image: MWA)

The Museum of Wisconsin Art has finished a project ten years in the making. On June 1, the MWA gathered and publicly launched an online visual art resource that will be available to the public. 

It’s basically like the most comprehensive wiki you can find for Wisconsin artworks, and just like a wiki it is never going to be 100% complete – it will constantly evolve.

This project, straight-forwardly dubbed the Wisconsin Art Archives – is an online database that is simply a virtual version of the MWA’s physical archives. This database makes it simple to search over nearly 8,000 Wisconsin artists and art subjects and includes prints, drawings, watercolors and photographs.

Some of the artwork dates back to the early 1800s and through the 1950s. They are currently working to get more Native American art, but as of now the database includes biographical briefs on each artist, sample images, exhibition records, and audio/visual resources.

 

The non-online version of
the museum.

The WMA site explains, “During beta testing of the online resource, inquiries were received from individuals, curators, collectors, museums, individuals, antique and art gallery owners from throughout the United States as well as from Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Australia, Japan and the Ukraine."

.

Want to get some heritage in your eyeballs?
Here: www.wisconsinart.org/archives.