ArtsConnectEd Beta launched in Beta on May 4 The new ArtsConnectEd, http://artsconnected.org, is completely redesigned as a dynamic and social Web site that empowers teachers, students, and museum educators in the creation and sharing of content and ideas in the process of learning about art.
The new Art Finder offers an intuitive and powerful interface to the combined collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) and Walker Art Center (WAC), encouraging both wide exploration and in-depth research. Users can browse over 90,000 works of art, watch and listen to more than 1,000 video and audio records, and read thousands of articles and object labels. All of these resources can be collected and arranged as interactive presentations for personal or classroom use, which can in turn be published for others to use. ArtsConnectEd also allows users to enhance their presentations with video and photos from services such as Flickr, YouTube, and the new ArtBabble video site. This new resource is the result of over two years of amazing work by the ArtsConnectEd partnership team, combining new media and education staff from the MIA and WAC with project management by Sandbox Studios and funding from an IMLS National Leadership Grant. It's been an incredible collaboration both cross-institutionally and cross-departmentally but special credit needs to be given to Nate Solas and Brent Gustafson as lead software developers for this project. The beta version of the software will be refined during the summer. Educators from both museums will continue to build new content as we prepare for the major launch of the complete site in time for the start of the new school year (September 2009). If you haven?t already done so, go to http://.artsconnected.org and take a look! Be sure to send us your feedback. We would love to hear from you. You can use the Feedback link at the top of any page within the site or send comments directly to Treden Wagoner at twagoner at artsmia.org. Thank you, The Project Co-Directors Treden Wagoner, Technology and Training Specialist, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, twagoner at artsmia.org Susan Rotilie, Programs Manager, School Programs, Walker Art Center, susan.Rotilie at walkerart.org
