LACMA Launches New Collections Online Website

(Los Angeles, March 14, 2013)—The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) continues its innovative digital efforts with the launch of a new collections website that dramatically increases accessibility to the museum’s holdings. The new site (collections.lacma.org) allows visitors to quickly search and sort images and information based on the user’s individual preferences, ultimately providing quick and easy access to LACMA’s encyclopedic collection. In addition, visitors can now download nearly 20,000 high-quality images of public domain artworks from LACMA’s permanent collection without restriction on use.

In 2011, LACMA first launched an online image library giving away 2,000 images of public domain artworks for unrestricted use. With the launch of this new site, the number of free unrestricted images for download has increased ten-fold—representing nearly a quarter of the total number of artworks from LACMA’s collection online—roughly  80,000 artworks spanning the full range of cultural history, from 2000 BC to the present.  

Another noteworthy feature on the site includes a new interface that allows visitors to see what’s on view at any given time in various parts of the museum. The “On View” feature allows visitors to plan their visit, previewing artworks in any particular part of campus; this information is updated daily.