December 01, 2009
Public art in the metro will have a new home on the Internet in 2010.
Omaha by Design, in collaboration with the Omaha Public Art Commission, will launch www.publicartomaha.org in the first quarter of 2010. The new web site will include a searchable database of individual works by location, by medium and by artist as well as information on local galleries and museums and a vandalism hotline.
Omaha’s public art collection includes outstanding works by local, regional and national artists that reflect a variety of styles and traditions, said Connie Spellman, director of Omaha by Design. “We are pleased to partner with the Omaha Public Art Commission to give our city’s public art the recognition it deserves while making it more accessible to residents and visitors,” she said.
The project’s logo and web site are being developed by Eleven19 Communications. April Corbet, a member of The Attic in the College of Information Science and Technology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is doing the coding for the site’s searchable database. The Attic is a collection of undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in web design and multimedia presentation technologies. The group takes on web site projects for community nonprofit organizations with the intent of researching new ways to use technologies and present information in an interesting and understandable form while preserving data relationships across multiple platforms and systems. Corbet is a freshman majoring in English and computer science.
The inclusion of works and artists in the database is determined by the Omaha Public Art Commission. Current web site plans also call for the development of a section for temporary installations.
Members of the Public Art Omaha Project Committee are Joan Baillon, Donovan Beery, Larry Ferguson, Ann Goldstein, Spellman and Jodi Taylor. It is supported by the Fund for Omaha through the Omaha Community Foundation in honor of Terry Haney for his years of service to the grant program’s committee.
For more information, contact Omaha by Design at 402.554.4010 or info@omahabydesign.org.