AMICO Press Release

November 14 , 2000
AMICO Headquarters; Pittsburgh, PA

The Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) is pleased to announce that its application to become an affiliate society of the College Art Association (CAA) has been approved by CAA's Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. The affiliate program is CAA's way to recognize the importance of collaboration, mutual enrichment, and enhanced communication among organizations. Prior to the addition of this year's inductees there were thirty-seven affiliate societies, ranging from the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works to the National Art Education Association. There is a governing body of the affiliates, known as the Council of Affiliates, that serves the needs of the affiliates and promotes dialogue with CAA's staff and Board of Directors. Executive Director Jennifer Trant observes, "the inclusion of AMICO in this prestigious group of affiliated organizations relating to CAA will be a great opportunity to build awareness of our mission among the art history education community and create new ties with art groups and associations with parallel aims to our own."

Benefits of being a CAA Affiliate Society include being listed annually in the July issue of the CAA Newsletter and obtaining facilities for one business meeting and one special session lasting up to 1.5 hours each during those time slots not reserved for CAA program sessions at the CAA Annual Conference. Affiliate societies may also propose one 2.5 hour program session, that addresses a specific issue of concern to the affiliated society, each year for the Conference. These sessions will be given special consideration by the Annual Conference Committee. Also, affiliated society representatives may be invited to CAA Board Meetings to act as a resource person for issues that arise in which the society's expertise is required.

The Art Museum Image Consortium (AMICO) is an independent non-profit corporation with 501 (c) 3 designation from the IRS. Founded in 1997 with 23 Members, the Consortium today is made up of over 30 major museums in the United States and Canada. It's an innovative collaboration - not seen before in museums - that shares, shapes, and standardizes digital information regarding museum collections and enables its educational use. Membership is open to any institution with a collection of art.

AMICO Members make annual contributions of multimedia documentation of works in their museums' collections. This is regularly compiled and made available as The AMICO LibraryTM to universities, colleges, schools, and public libraries. The 2000-2001 edition of the AMICO Library documents approximately 65,000 different works of art, from prehistoric goddess figures to contemporary installations. More than simply an image database, works in the AMICO Library are fully documented and may also include curatorial text about the artwork, detailed provenance information, multiple views of the work itself, and other related multimedia. As Jennifer Trant, AMICO Executive Director, notes, "subscribers find the AMICO Library valuable because it combines the immediacy and accessibility of the Web with the persistence and academic weight of traditional library reference sources."

The AMICO Library is accessible over secure networks to institutional subscribers including universities, colleges, libraries, schools, and museums, and is now licensed to over 2 million users, including faculty, students, teachers, staff, and researchers. Educational institutions may subscribe to the AMICO Library by contacting one of its distributors. These include the Research Libraries Group (RLG) and the Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK). A subscription to the AMICO Library provides a license to use works for a broad range of educational purposes. Potential subscribers may preview a Thumbnail Catalog of the AMICO Library and get further information at http://www.amico.org.

Current AMICO Members

Albright-Knox Art Gallery Art Gallery of Ontario Art Institute of Chicago Asia Society Gallery Center for Creative Photography Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute Cleveland Museum of Art Dallas Museum of Art Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College Denver Art Museum Detroit Institute of Arts Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Frick Collection and Art Reference Library George Eastman House J. Paul Getty Museum The Library of Congress

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art Minneapolis Institute of Arts MontrZ˙al Museum of Fine Arts MusZ˙e d'art contemporain de MontrZ˙al Museum of Fine Arts, Boston National Gallery of Canada Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Philadelphia Museum of Art San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Jose Museum of Art Smithsonian American Art Museum Walker Art Center The Walters Art Museum Whitney Museum of American Art

AMICO Jennifer Trant Executive Director Art Museum Image Consortium 2008 Murray Avenue, Suite D Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Phone (412) 422 8533 Fax (412) 422 8594 Email: jtrant@amico.org http://www.amico.org