Share, collaborate, and remix with Open Access
Transforming access to the CMA's collection inside and outside the walls of our museum
Open Access Speech 2 (2019-01-01) by The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art
What is Open Access?
Since 2019, the Cleveland Museum of Art is an Open Access institution, opening up a world of possibilities by allowing the public to remix and reuse images and data for tens of thousands of artworks in the Museum’s world-renowned Collection, all without asking permission.
Collection Online Open Access Piece (2022-07-14) by The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art
Images and Data
In addition to high-resolution images of Open Access artworks, CMA offers up to 36 fields of metadata for all artworks in the collection - not just those in the public domain.
This ranges from information such as artist, year, and medium, to fields like provenance and citations.
Jessica Williams Open Access Collage (2022-08-09) by The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art
Why Open Access?
Open Access is a logical and exciting outgrowth of CMA's mission, "to create transformative experiences for the benefit of all the people, forever".
Open Access brings this mission into the 21st century, transforming access to CMA's collection.
CWRU Open Access Recreation of the Birth of Venus (2019-01-01) by The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art
Creative Reuse
Since Open Access was set in motion, a plethora of creative projects have already sprung up.
Depicted here is the recreation of the Birth of Venus, which was made exclusively using CMA Open Access artworks as part of a collage competition at Case Western Reserve University.
Comparison by Department Dashboard (2022-06-27) by The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art
Increasing Access to CMA's Collection
CMA makes its Open Access collection available via the museum's Collection Online, an Open API, and repositories across the web, like Wikimedia and Google Arts and Culture.
To track increased engagement, the museum created live dashboards that monitor engagement across platforms.
Twilight in the Wilderness (1860) by Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900)The Cleveland Museum of Art
Reach
Comparing how the public interacts with the collection on CMA’s platforms and partner repositories can help inform not only future decisions, but hopefully inspire others in the museum community to extend the reach of their collections.
ArtLens for Slack (2022-06-20) by The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art
Building Toolsets
ArtLens for Slack pulls from Open Access to allow users to get inspired and discuss current topics in the digital workplace. It combines the traditional museum experience and those in-office watercooler conversations, almost like actually visiting the museum with your coworkers.
ArtLens AI Match (2019-01-01) by The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art
Driving Innovation
Open Access enables not just artists, but also developers and data scientists.
The museum leveraged the Open Access API to build ArtLensAI: Share Your View, a reverse image search tool that uses Artificial Intelligence to match images to Open Access artworks.
Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan (c. 600)The Cleveland Museum of Art
Open Access in 3D
After the initial launch, CMA extended its Open Access policy even further to include 3D models of public domain artworks in their collection. Anyone can now download and edit the files for the models however they see fit.
Here we see Krishna Lifting Mount Govardhan.
Open Access Speech (2019-01-01) by The Cleveland Musuem of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art
CMA's Open Access content is offered with a Creative Commons Zero license. This best-practice license relinquishes all copyright and related rights associated with a work, ultimately allowing for infinite creative possibilities.
CWRU Open Access A Night at the Museum (2019-01-01) by The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Cleveland Museum of Art
The potential for re-envisioning art and its impact on community in the framework of Open Access is virtually endless. How will you use CMA's Open Access initiative to create something new?
