Rescue Public Murals to Add Images
to ARTstor Digital Library

In February, Rescue Public Murals invited artists and art organizations to contribute to the "Rescue Public Murals (Heritage Preservation)" collection on the ARTstor Digital Library. Images of more than 350 murals have been submitted from large cities known for murals such as Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston and from small towns such as Union, South Carolina, Burlington, Iowa, and Belvue, Kansas. Although the deadline for submission was March 31, 2010, images can be accepted for several more weeks.

While much of Rescue Public Murals' efforts center on the physical preservation of community murals, it is inevitable that some murals will not survive. As another means of preserving this distinctive American art form, Rescue Public Murals is collecting photographs and archival documentation related to murals. Their placement in ARTstor means they will be made available in the context of other works in the arts, architecture, and humanities.

ARTstor is a nonprofit digital image library with more than a million images originally initiated by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2003. Its mission is to provide scholars, curators, teachers, and students with access to digital images for noncommercial, educational use. The ARTstor Digital Library already provides more than more than 5,000 cataloged mural photographs contributed by Rescue Public Murals co-chair, Dr. Timothy Drescher.

Those who wish to contribute images to this effort should contact Kristen Laise at klaise(a)heritagepreservation.org or 202-233-0824 to discuss their submission.