Art Institute of Chicago makes thousands of its images open access

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Recently, the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) allowed viewers to download its 44,313 images or see them in close detail under the license of Creative Commons Zero (CC0), which means the images go into the public domain and are free to use by the public.

Statue of lions at the Art Institute of Chicago. /VCG Photo

The museum has also enhanced the image viewing capabilities on the works, allowing them to be seen in far greater detail than before, including the works by Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and other impressionists, also, William Turner's landscapes and Katsushika Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa."

What is the license of CC0?

A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work." Besides licenses, Creative Commons also offers through CC0 a way to release material worldwide into the public domain.

Claude Monet, Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer) (1890-91). Gift of Arthur M. Wood, Sr. in memory of Pauline Palmer Wood. /Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

CC0 is a universal instrument that is not adapted to the laws of any particular legal jurisdiction, similar to many open source software licenses.

In simple terms, the images in the public domain can be used for any legitimate purpose and are free for both personal and commercial use, and don't need to ask anyone.

Other museums with open data

"Not all open access museums charge for entry," said Bendor Grosvenor, a blogger and art historian on Art History News.

He mentioned that the National Museum in Sweden already makes thousands of its images open access, also now introduced free entry.

Vincent van Gogh, The Bedroom (1889). Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection. /Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), also opened free access to 375,000 pieces of the collection of high-resolution image resources, image width of 4,000 pixels.

The Rijksmuseum of the Netherlands is famous all over the world for its collection of authentic works of the "Dutch Golden Age" in the 17th-century Dutch art history.

In recent years, the Rijksmuseum has released a large number of high-resolution photographs of its treasures to people around the world for free, such as Rembrandt's “The Night Watch,” and the digital image of the original "Self Portrait" by Van Gogh.

At the same time, open image access is also a way to increase traffic of the websites.

Claude Monet, Water Lilies (1906). Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection. /Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

As Artnet's report, after the Met made all of the public domain works in its collection available online for both scholarly and commercial purposes in February 2017, there is a 64 percent increase in image downloads on the Met's saw within just six months, and a 17 percent spike in traffic to the online collection.

Meanwhile, users who downloaded photographs were reportedly spending five times as long on the site.

Not all museums can support free entry

Some netizens worried that the museums putting their collections online would affect the museum's traffic.

The Rijksmuseum has no such concerns; on the contrary, they believe that more and more people from all over the world will learn about the treasures in the museum through these online pictures, and feel the charm of artworks and understand the value of artworks.

However, according to Grosvenor said, not all museums have the money to support free physical entry and free digital admission. Many of them rely on tickets and support. UK's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) submitted to the government in favor of selling images and indicated their rights.

Claude Monet, Arrival of the Normandy Train (1877). Gare Saint-Lazare, Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection. /Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Although the V&A tried to defend their right, the museum also agreed that the more people see images of a collection, the more people want to go and visit that collection, Grosvenor said.

A growing number of galleries and museums are joining the "CC0" team, which gives art lovers a home-access to the high-definition resources of the world's top museums.

(Top Image: "Under the Wave off Kanagawa," also known as "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Katsushika Hokusai, from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji." /Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago)