Internet sites for Fine Art

There are a large number of art and design resources available on the Internet, and a few selected sites are listed below. There are many other useful and relevant sites available.

Subject gateways
Organisations and societies
Galleries and museums
Image sources
Other sites you might find interesting

Subject gateways

Subject information gateways are a good way to find high quality internet resources in a particular subject area. The sites are usually evaluated by academics and librarians before being listed and described.

  • BUBL Link: The arts : provides links to over thirty art-related sites.
  • World Wide Arts Resources : a gateway to arts information and culture on the Internet. Covers artists, museums, galleries, art history, art education, publications, institutions, and commercial resources.

Organisations and societies

  • Arts Council England : the national development agency for the arts
  • in England. Links to information on funding and publications, many of which are freely available online.
  • Axis : an online resource for contemporary art that includes a national register of contemporary artists living and working in Britain, artist profiles, art news and views and information about relevant opportunities and vacancies. Membership of the Axis community is free.
  • British Film Institute
  • Crafts Council : an independent, government funded organisation which promotes the contemporary crafts in Great Britain
  • Design Council : promotes all aspects of design in the UK.
  • Institute of Visual Arts (inIVA) : a contemporary visual arts organisation, with a special interest in new technologies, site-specific art works and international collaborations.
  • The Printmakers Council : promotes the art of printmaking and the work of contemporary printmakers.

Galleries and museums

London

UK

International

Image sources

  • Art and Architecture : 40,000 images from the collections of the Courtauld Institute of Art. Free to use but registration required.
  • ARTstor : over a million images from collections worldwide.
  • Bridgeman Education - a digital image library covering visual culture of all civilisations and historical periods from pre-historic to the present day. Images are freely available for teaching, learning and research.
  • BUBL link image sources
  • Collage: an image database hosted by The Corporation of London Libraries and Guildhall Art Gallery. Contains over 20,000 works.
  • FreeFoto.com : the largest collection of free photographs available on the web.
  • Imageafter : free online collection of photographs and textures.
  • Internet for image searching : JISC Digital Media tutorial on how to find copyright cleared images on the web.
  • JISC MediaHub : image, film and sound resources.
  • MorgueFile : archive of photographs freely contributed by artists for use in creative projects by visitors to the site.
  • Photostore Online : contains nearly 50,000 images of, mainly contemporary, craft objects by British makers, including textiles, ceramics, jewellery, furniture and typography.
  • VADS: the online resource for visual arts : a free image catalogue for the academic community providing access to over 100,000 images that are freely available and copyright cleared for use in teaching, learning and research in the UK. Covers all aspects of the visual arts.
  • Wikimedia Commons : database of over 4,000,000 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute. Searchable by topic, location, type and author. Categories such as Featured pictures and Quality images are recommended.

Other sites you might find interesting. . .

  • AMP: Artists Meeting Place & Resource Collective : offers support and networking opportunities to artists all over the world. Includes an International Arts Directory covering a wide variety of art resources.
  • Art&Education : international contemporary visual arts site. Includes news, announcements and papers. Free mailing list subscription which includes a monthly Artforum newsletter.
  • Artcyclopedia : an index and guide to fine art sites on the web.
  • Artforum : art news and exhibition previews. Includes Artguide, which is Artforum's guide to current exhibitions worldwide.
  • ArtLex: Visual arts dictionary : contains definitions of over 3,000 art terms from abbrozzo to zincography, along with illustrations, pronunciation notes, quotations, and links to other art web resources.
  • Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research : latest news and information on artist's book exhibitions (with images) and research projects, and an archive of newsletters.
  • Book Art in the National Art Library (V & A) : this site provides a good overview of the subject, as well as descriptions and images of some of the NAL's extensive collection of Artists' Books.
  • International Sculpture Center : site based in Washington DC dedicated to the advancement of contemporary sculpture. Links to a wide range of sculpture resources and includes an electronic version of Sculpture magazine.
  • Luxonline : invaluable developing online resource for British film and video art. Contains biographies of artists and essays about them, descriptions of individual works together with a gallery of stills.
  • RGAP (Research Group for Artists Publications) : an independent artist-led organisation that publishes artists' books, facilitates collaborative proects and organises exhibitions and events, including the Small Publishers Fair.
  • Sound and Music : website of UK organisation for the support and promotion of new music and sound. Provides an online community for artists and composers and listings of events and opportunities.
  • The Elements of Drawing : John Ruskin's teaching collection at Oxford.