LibGuides: Art Resources: Open Access: Educational Art Resources

Art Focus: William Blake (1757-1827)

William Blake: Visionary, Printmaker, Artist, Inventor - a short introduction. Source: Getty Center

William Blake: The Ancient of Days - Great Art Explained (16:53 min) - an excellent overview of Blake's life and work. Source: "Great Art Explained." YouTube, uploaded 31 May 2024.

Chronology of Blake's life with hyperlinks for his major works. Source: The Blake Archive

The William Blake Archive - a free site since 1996, the Blake Archive was conceived as an international public resource that would provide unified access to major works of visual and literary art that are widely dispersed, and often severely restricted as a result of their value, rarity, and extreme fragility.

VALA: The Journal of the Blake Society - a free online publication that celebrates William Blake’s art and legacy in exciting new ways that makes Blake relevant to the now and the everyday – in a magazine style.

The Otherworldly Art of William Blake (38 min) - an introductory video presentation of Blake's life, poetry and art, showcasing some of his most famous paintings (2022). Source: "Eternalised." YouTube, uploaded 11 April 2022.

For the curious - GLOBAL BLAKE NETWORK: Events, News, Resources, and more. This site showcases the wide variety of scholarship on Blake or global 'Blakes' and provides an overview of the international scholarship on Blake which falls into three categories: art, literature and music.

Image: Jerusalem, c. 1821. Source: The Blake Archive

Art Encyclopedias & eBooks

The Art Dictionary and Encyclopedia - "Artlex is the Original Art Dictionary and Encyclopedia on the Web, founded in 1998. More than just a dictionary, we have expanded to include Artist Profiles, Art Tutorials, and much more!"
ARTCYCLOPEDIA - Search Artcyclopedia by artist name, by artwork, by art museum. Browse artists by name, medium. Browse art movements.
Getty Publications Virtual Library - more than 300 books to read and download for free. Search by: publication type, subject category, series, and more.
Smarthistory Books - "with 800 contributors from 350 colleges, universities, museums, and research centers, Smarthistory is the most-visited art history resource in the world."

NEW: Interactive Art & Architecture

LibreTexts: Interactive Art Library
3D images of famous sculptures
LibreTexts: Interactive Architecture
3D images of famous buildings

More Open Access Art Resources

Smarthistory
"Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content for teaching and learning unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher."
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Explore Art & Architecture, World Cultures & History, and many more topics!
Google Arts & Culture
"Google Arts & Culture is a non-profit initiative. We work with cultural institutions and artists around the world" to make art digitally accessible. Explore: art movements, artists, mediums, and more.
Khan Academy - Art History
A free educational site.
American Antiquarian Society
"The American Antiquarian Society aims to collect one example of everything printed in what was once British North America before the year 1877 (and a few collections extend through 1900), as well as select manuscripts." Explore educational resources, online collections, specialized catalogs and directories, and more.
Art21
"Art21 provides unparalleled access to the artist’s voice to diverse audiences around the world, using the power of digital media to introduce millions of people to contemporary art and artists."
Art Journal Open
"an open-access digital journal for the visual arts, which presents artists’ projects, conversations and interviews, scholarly essays, and other forms of content from across the cultural field"
The Art Story
"modern art history that is optimized for the web: we clearly and graphically overview and analyze modern artists, movements, and ideas."
Artsy
"Whether you’re a student, teacher, art enthusiast, curator, or collector, Artsy offers a variety of additional ways to learn about art and design." Browse by: artists, artworks, auctions, galleries, fairs & events, shows, museums.
The Brooklyn Rail
"... provides an independent forum for arts, culture, and politics throughout New York City and far beyond."
EUROPEANA
Discover Europe's Digital Cultural Heritage. Search 50+ million items from thousands of cultural institutions.
HENI Talks
Stories of art from world leading experts. We work closely with a wide range of museums and galleries to film on location and bring out the stories in their collections.
This is Colossal
Colossal is an international platform for contemporary art and visual expression that explores a vast range of creative disciplines. Explore: Art, Craft, Design, Photography, Animation, Illustration, Film, Music, and much more!