ATLANTA, Sept. 23, 2021 — This month, the High Museum of Art launches LINK, a digital platform that extends the reach and accessibility of the Museum’s collection and exhibitions by providing new ways to experience them online.
The first LINK project, for the High’s recently opened collection-based exhibition “Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe,” debuted on Sept. 3 at link.rowe.high.org. On the site, visitors can learn about Rowe’s life and artwork through interactive content including a timeline, videos, exhibition texts, high-resolution images and a digital guestbook. Future LINK projects also will relate directly to the High’s collection and feature exclusive scholarship, virtual tours and archival materials available as online resources for Museum visitors, scholars, students and educators.
“The High has always maintained a robust program for publishing exhibition catalogues, but this is an entirely new platform that dramatically expands that effort for collection-based initiatives,” said Rand Suffolk, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., director. “Our hope is that LINK will serve as a model for the museum field as a way to reach a broader array of cultural consumers, offer dynamic content, and provide an interactive, second life for these important projects.”
The High’s Chief Curator Kevin Tucker added, “As a digital platform for scholarship and research, LINK provides a multi-faceted forum for both our curators and audiences to engage with our collections in a dynamic, ever-evolving way, decidedly unlike the static nature of a printed publication.”
In addition to texts, photographs and virtual tours, the LINK platform will archive public programming related to exhibitions and collection artworks, such as lectures and performances.
In the coming months, the High will publish LINK sites for the following exhibitions:
- “Picturing the South: 25 Years” (Nov. 5, 2021-Feb. 6, 2022), an exhibition commemorating the 25th anniversary of the High’s “Picturing the South” series, which commissions photographers to create new bodies of work inspired by the American South for the Museum’s collection (launching Nov. 5, 2021).
- The 2008 exhibition “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968,” featuring work drawn exclusively from the High’s unparalleled collection of photographs documenting the civil rights movement (launching in February 2022 to coincide with Black History Month).
- The Museum’s recent exhibition “Underexposed: Women Photographers from the Collection” (April 17-Aug. 1, 2021), featuring more than 100 photographs by women photographers in the High’s holdings (launching in March 2022 to coincide with Women’s History Month).
Visit link.high.org to learn more, and follow the High’s social media accounts for updates.
Design Partner
The LINK user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design was created by multispecialty design studio C&G Partners, dedicated to design for culture — from cultural organizations to organizational culture. LINK’s gridded structure was primarily inspired by the High’s Richard Meier-designed building with its white enameled steel panels that take on a grid-like appearance. The pattern also references the common use of grids in print publications to create structure and organization, as well as the grid as a visual structure, which lies at the heart of contemporary art.
About the High Museum of Art
Located in the heart of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions and engaging community-focused programs. Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 18,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from prehistory through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper. The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists and the creative process. For more information about the High, visit www.high.org.
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DIGITAL IMAGES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
Media contact:
Marci Davis
Manager of Public Relations
High Museum of Art
404-733-4585
marci.davis@high.org