Digital art history resources
Research, practical guidance, and examples that help art historians understand and shape the digital methods used to preserve, connect, and publish knowledge.
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Research and publications
Original research, reports, and critical essays about digital art history, access, authority, and emerging methods.
Digital catalogues in practice
How research organizations use connected data and digital publication to make scholarship available and useful.
Practical guidance
Clear explanations that help research teams make informed decisions about data, digital tools, and publication.
Browse all resources
The complete chronological archive includes research, guidance, project articles, news, and field notes.
The foundations of SEO for art historians working on digital projects
The first publication of the Renoir digital catalogue raisonné from the Wildenstein Plattner Institute leverages expanded capabilities of the Navigating.art platform
Highlights for art researchers from “New Thinking about the Catalogue Raisonné,” ICRA’s annual conference
Demystifying metadata: a practical introduction for art researchers
Archival hierarchies: a comprehensive exploration of description levels
Understanding linked data and linked open data: a guide for art researchers
An API explainer for art researchers
A technical glossary for art researchers
A searchable glossary of technical terms that art historians encounter in digital research and publication, with clear definitions covering data, metadata, web development, and digital infrastructure.
Showcasing Navigating.art's sophisticated versioning system — “Gauguin: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings” from the Wildenstein Plattner Institute
Paul Gauguin, Le Champ de pommes de terre, Summer 1890, Oil on canvas, 74.3 x 93.6 cm. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
From database to a global readership: developing the Akseli Gallen-Kallela catalogue raisonné project
The Akseli Gallen-Kallela catalogue raisonné projects offers a model for other researchers invested in Nordic artist, as well as living artists across the world.
Technology in support of scholarship: the revised catalogue raisonné of Claude Monet
New avenues of research into Claude Monet’s oeuvre await researchers in the first installment of Claude Monet: The Revised Catalogue Raisonné from The Wildenstein Plattner Institute (WPI).
What is a catalogue raisonné? A guide to its purpose, contents, and use
A catalogue raisonné is more than a list of artwork. This guide explains its purpose, contents, uses, limits, and changing digital form.
How to create a catalogue raisonné team
A practical guide to defining catalogue raisonné roles, assigning decision-making authority, combining responsibilities, and planning for long-term maintenance.
Digital catalogue raisonné events and programs (2023)
A guide to 2023 catalogue raisonné webinars, conferences, and recorded programs exploring research, attribution, works on paper, and uncertainty.
Eva Hesse’s complete body of works on paper published in new digital catalogue raisonné
How AI can support catalogue raisonné research
A discontinued AI publication chat shows why technical feasibility is not the same as scholarly value, and why researchers must help define the problem before development begins.
The benefits of open access museum collections
Open access can extend the public value of museum collections. Meaningful openness also requires clear rights, ethical limits, usable information, accessible delivery, and continuing care.
How digital workflows can improve museum efficiency and support impact
Better digital workflows can reduce administrative friction, improve access to collection information, and give museum teams more capacity for mission-led work.
Is your catalogue data ready for reuse? Ten lessons from NEMO
What does it take to make catalogue data searchable, exchangeable, and sustainable? This field note turns NEMO’s ten-part digital cataloguing guide into a practical data-readiness review.
How to budget for a digital catalogue raisonné
A practical guide to creating a multi-year digital catalogue raisonné budget, comparing proposals, and identifying costs that continue after publication.