Harvard University Art Museums Appoint New Technology Chief to Lead Digital Initiatives
Making the Collections Accessible Crucial Role of the Job
Cambridge, MA (November 26, 2001) – Acknowledging the essential role that technology plays in all aspects of museum work today, the Harvard University Art Museums have announced their first-ever appointment of a director of digital information and technology.
Sam Quigley, the Art Museums’ new director of digital information and technology, is a former curator who developed and ran the 400,000-object collections information database at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and who most recently served as director of collections at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Last spring, he was appointed as part of an initiative to digitize the wealth of research, scholarship, and activity at the Harvard University Art Museums.
"Sam is a critical part of our effort to make textual and visual information about our collections accessible, via the Internet, to a global community of students, faculty, curators, scholars, and the public," said James Cuno, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums.
The Art Museums are working to enhance the existing database and create a comprehensive digital record for each of the more than 150,000 paintings, drawings, photographs, sculpture, and other objects contained in the collections. Curators, students, and others will ultimately be able to access images and textual information for many of these objects through Harvard’s Visual Information Access (VIA) Web-based initiative.
"The fundamental element of good collections management is the dissemination of accurate information—to provide good and appropriate access to any number of publics," said Quigley. "We want to provide a high level of support to the educational mission of the University."
To that end, Quigley oversees four teams within the Department of Digital Information and Technology: collections information management, visual resources, network and systems, and applications development and support. "Everything we do will be focused on redoubling our own internal intellectual resources as well as providing appropriate external access," Quigley said.
One of the tasks Quigley will supervise is transferring tens of thousands of negatives, films, and transparencies to a digital format so that every existing image of works in the Museums’ collections will be catalogued and available to staff and students. His staff will also work on a grant-funded initiative to systematically catalogue, digitize, and make available via the Web the world-renowned collections of Asian art in the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.
"This is a moment that’s very exciting in the museum world," said Quigley. "Every one of us is looking to harness these amazing technological tools for our own purposes. The University, this year, admitted freshmen who grew up since the World Wide Web came into being. They expect to have information delivered in ways we can barely imagine right now—and we plan to be ready."
Quigley’s background
Quigley has written extensively on museum automation and is on the
board of directors of the Museum Computer Network. He worked at the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, for 20 years in a variety of positions including
manager of collections information, keeper of musical instruments, and
associate curator of European decorative arts and sculpture. Most recently,
he was director of collections for the San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art. Quigley holds a master’s degree in musicology from Wesleyan
University, where he began a lifelong passion for Javanese music, and
has studied Indonesian languages at Yale.
About the Harvard University Art Museums
The Harvard University Art Museums are among the world’s leading
arts institutions, with the Arthur M. Sackler, Busch-Reisinger, and Fogg
art museums, the Straus Center for Conservation, and the U.S. headquarters
for the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, an excavation project in
western Turkey.
The Harvard University Art Museums are distinguished by the range and depth of their collections, their groundbreaking exhibitions, and the original research of their staff. As an integral part of the Harvard community, the three Art Museums serve as a resource for all students, adding a special dimension to their areas of study. The public is welcome to experience the collections and exhibitions as well as to enjoy lectures, symposia, and other programs.
For more than a century, the Harvard University Art Museums have been the nation’s premier training ground for museum professionals and scholars and are renowned for their role in the development of the discipline of art history in this country.
Location and Hours
The Fogg Art Museum and the Busch-Reisinger Museum are located at
32 Quincy St., Cambridge. The Arthur M. Sackler Museum is next door at
485 Broadway. All are a short walk from the Harvard Square MBTA station.
Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., and the Museums are closed on national holidays. Admission is $5; $4 for seniors; $3 for students; and free for those under 18 years of age. The Museums are free to everyone all day on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, 10 a.m. until noon. The Harvard University Art Museums receive support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. More detailed information is available on the Internet at www.artmuseums.harvard.edu.
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