(July 8)  The county has entered into an arrangement with Google to have art and other displays inside the San Bernardino County Museum incorporated into the internet search service’s Street View Art Project.
According to Leonard X. Hernandez, the director of the county museum, the deal forged between the county and the research giant clears the way for the county “to participate in the Google Art Project, allowing Google to take 360 degree photographs of the inside of the museum, which will make art, cultural artifacts, and objects at the museum more accessible to a global internet audience. The project provides a platform for cultural institutions to upload and present high resolution images and extensive information about their collections.”
The county tentatively entered into the arrangement with Google on February 11, 2014. The board of supervisors’ action this week set in print a secondary agreement specific to photography.
The agreement covers a two-year term with automatic one year renewal periods until terminated by either party.
The arrangement, Hernandez said, benefits the county “by sharing its cultural artifacts with an online accessible audience of county residents and others. The Google Art Project is an online platform where the public can access high-resolution images of artworks, cultural artifacts and objects. The Google Art Project started within Google in 2010 and had its first public showing in 2011. Initially 17 museums came to allow users to explore collections online from a centralized web site. Since 2011, the Google Art Project has become a large offering within Google – which is part of the Google Cultural Institute. There are over 300
partners in 44 countries who actively contribute to the project, putting up unique items from street art in Sao Paulo, Brazil to some of the most important impressionist paintings and artifacts of our time. The Google Art Team will visit the Museum for one day of planning and coordination, then over a two-day period photograph the county museum with the Street View trolley which provides an interior 360° virtual tour of exhibits and buildings that is uploaded into the Google Cultural Institute Art Project. The Google Art Project is a powerful awareness tool to serve the regional residents and the global audience using high resolution images and extensive information about the museum’s collections, exhibitions and mission. The county museum is hopeful that the Google Art Project will stimulate an interest among a local and worldwide internet audience, who will be motivated to patronize the museum to see first-hand some of the county’s most treasured artifacts and the 5th largest egg collection in the world.”