Google has partnered with the South African National Gallery (SANG) and the Wits Rock Art Research Institute (RARI), at Wits University, to enable people to access African artworks online.

 

The partnerships are part of a global art project driven by Google to reach 151 partners in 40 countries and 46 museums.

The Art Project is a Java-based Google App Engine Web application and was built using Google APIs that are available to the public. It uses Street View technology to enable people to explore galleries in the same way as Street View in Google Maps lets people wander city streets virtually.

Julie Taylor, Google`s head of communications for sub-Saharan Africa, says: “Through the Art Project, we`re aiming to bring local history and culture online and make it accessible.

“Both the SANG and the Rock Art Institute have important collections, which will be of significant global interest to anyone interested in art, art history, anthropology and archaeology.”

According to the search engine giant, anyone around the world who is interested in African artistic heritage can now explore dozens of rock art images from five different community-run tourism sites, including those in Giant`s Castle Nature Reserve and Kamberg Nature Reserve.

Virtual visitors can also view more than 50 works from the SANG collection by renowned South African artists such as Sophie Peters, Thami Mnyele, Fred Page, Gerard Benghu, Walter Oltmann, Walter Battiss, Gerard Sekoto and Deborah Bell.

The SANG collection also includes photographs of cultural artefacts such as beaded aprons, headrests and engraved cattle horns, some of which date back to the 19th century.

Riason Naidoo, director of SANG, which is the first African art museum to participate in the Google Art Project initiative, explains that making art accessible over the Internet means that more people have access to the country`s most renowned pieces of art and that this will promote local artists on both a local and global level.

Users can explore museums with Street View 360-degree view technology via the Google Art Project Web site and virtually move around a gallery as if they were there, while viewing artworks in high resolution.

The project also has a `My Galleries` feature, which allows users to save specific views of artworks and build their own personalised galleries, which can be shared with friends. Google says this feature is a useful tool for students or groups to work on collaborative projects and collections.

The Art Project is accessible on most platforms, including Android tablet devices, and will soon be released onto the iPad.

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