Open Zachęta – experience art in new dimension

The key task of the Open Zachęta project is to reduce all barriers — legal, equipment- or competency-based, as well as those resulting from disabilities — in access to the digital cultural heritage. This is where innovation, openness, education and accessibility meet to make sure everyone can experience Zachęta’s amazing contemporary art collection. 

History & Background

Centrum Cyfrowe Foundation has been helping cultural institutions in opening up their collections for almost 6 years. We started by promoting open access to digitized artworks, by promoting Creative Commons licenses among cultural institutions and by providing training on copyright. However, soon we realized that It was not enough. Even if institutions had the knowledge about open access, they still couldn’t translate this knowledge into good, open technology — websites and applications for presenting digitized artworks to their audiences.

Based on that we decided to expand our offer for GLAMs. We started to provide training on open access and lead open-source IT projects together with institutions (eg. Muselfie, Forgotten, Szlaki tułaczy). But yet again we realized that even if the direction is good, it is still not enough. If we truly want to open up institutions and their collections we need to create a more holistic approach.

That is why in 2019 Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Centrum Cyfrowe and Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts decided to prepare a joint grant proposal for European Founds which received almost 2 mln $ for digitization and development of the new IT infrastructure that enables entirely open access to artworks.  

Let’s have a look at the project’s phases.

Phase I Project preparation and audits (2020)

In this phase we collect essential knowledge about different aspects of the functioning of the Gallery so far by conducting several audits: 

• legal audit 
• accessibility audit
• IT infrastructure audit 
• metadata standard audit
• internal procedures audit

All the materials from this phase – methods, document templates, instructions, takeaways – are available under CC BY license. We encourage all cultural institutions to extensive use of these resources. Since they are relevant for every cultural institution around the world we will also ensure English translation of the materials.

Phase II Shaping new architecture (2021)

In this phase, we are shaping the new open standards (accessibility, metadata, licenses) and open IT infrastructure of the institution. This phase is packed with workshops, brainstorming sessions, discussions and consultations which lead to the development of:

• metadata standard
• filename numbering and naming standard
• standard of open API for cultural institutions
• accessibility standard 
• standard of licensing
• the architecture of the IT system
• the architecture of the cloud system 
• low fidelity prototypes of the new website 
• and among many other minor standards even a standard of the plain language for the website to make it more accessible

All those standards are in line with the best open, already existing standards (Europeana, Creative Commons), publicly available and ready to reuse by other GLAM institutions. 

Phase III Development of the new IT system & digitization of the resources (2021 - 2022)

By 2023, 640 works from the Gallery collection will be digitized and made openly available, as well as more than 2,000 contextual materials from 1970–1990 (exhibition catalogs, posters, photographs, educational materials, and even chronicles of the Art Lovers’ Club that operated at Zachęta in 1962–2005).

The new IT infrastructure of the institution developed by Xfaang company consists of:

• open API with detailed documentation
• open-source IT system with detailed documentation
• open-source new website with detailed documentation
• open-source tools for people with disabilities and teachers and students
• detailed documentation with instructions, guidelines and explanations (all available on Github).

Phase IV Dissemination (2022-2023)

This phase concentrates on promoting the knowledge gained and the resources created during the project, among GLAM institutions in Poland and abroad. The whole methodology will be accompanied by tutorials and workshops for cultural institutions. 

If you have questions or you want to cooperate or contribute to our project, please contact Magda (mbiernat@centrumcyfrowe.pl) or Ola (ajanus@centrumcyfrowe.pl)

OPEN ZACHĘTA. DIGITIZATION OF POLISH CONTEMPORARY ART FROM THE COLLECTION OF ZACHĘTA – NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, CREATION OF DIGITAL TOOLS, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE PROFESSIONALS & CULTURAL ANIMATION AND DISSEMINATION AIMED AT ENCOURAGING RE-USE OF DIGITAL CULTURAL RESOURCES FOR EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CREATIVE PURPOSES.

beneficiary:  Zachęta – Narodowa Galeria Sztuki

total value: 7 384 688,10 PLN

value of co-financing from European Funds: 6 630 496,31 PLN

funding sources: Operational Programme Digital Poland for 2014-2020, Priority axis II. E-government and open government, Action 2.3 Digital availability and usefulness of public sector information, Sub-action 2.3.2 Digital availability of culture resources.

duration: June 8, 2020 – June 7, 2023

partners: Centrum Cyfrowe, Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych