The JSU Permanent Art Collection

Team: Brian Hunter, Brittany Myburgh
Overview

The Jackson State University Art Collection is a result of over 70 years of collecting artwork to support cultural and civic engagement amongst students and the public. The collection was founded by Lawrence Arthur Jones, the first chair of the Art Department, who began to collect artwork that would provide students with access to diverse forms of cultural expression. The collection is a valuable research and teaching resource, and is open to the public and researchers, and this project sought to catalog and digitize this collection to make it even more accessible.

Tools
CollectionBuilder, GitHub
Discover
Define
Develop

The discovery phase focused on understanding the history, scope, and impact of the JSU Art Collection, alongside technical needs for digitizing and preserving the collection.

  • Historical Context: Extensive research into the collection’s origins and growth highlighted its foundational role in the university’s legacy of cultural engagement. Jones’s vision emphasized the importance of art as a vehicle for civic connection, creating a collection that reflects both regional and global artistic contributions. This research was undertaken by Dr. Myburgh as part of a larger publication project.
  • Audience Needs: The collection serves students, faculty, researchers, and the public. Key insights revealed a need for a digital platform that is both accessible for casual viewers and robust enough to support academic research.
  • Technical Requirements: Working with large, climate-sensitive artworks presented unique storage and preservation challenges. CollectionBuilder and GitHub were chosen to facilitate a systematic, secure approach to digitization and online display, ensuring the collection’s accessibility while preserving its integrity.

This phase focused on setting specific project goals and identifying user expectations for the digitized collection.

  • Objectives: Create a comprehensive, accessible digital archive that reflects the historical and cultural depth of the JSU Art Collection.
  • User Personas: Key user groups include students seeking art resources, faculty incorporating the collection into curricula, art historians, and community members interested in cultural heritage.
  • Success Metrics: Metrics include user engagement with the digital platform, the frequency of academic citations or research requests, and visitor feedback on the usability of the digital archive.

 

  • Prototypes and Testing: Wireframes and prototypes were developed with user-friendly navigation and search functions in CollectionBuilder, enabling efficient access to artwork details, artist backgrounds, and high-resolution images.
  • Design Solutions: Feedback from students, faculty, and external users will help to refine the interface and develop a more visually engaging and informative website now that the initial catalog is complete.
  • To showcase the collection's diversity, the website will aim to integrate interactive elements, allowing users to explore themes across different eras, styles, and media. Filters and tagging systems will be added to aid in searches by genre, artist, or cultural significance.
  • Future goals: expanding the digital platform to feature student-curated collections, additional interpretive content, and virtual tours of Johnson Hall. This ongoing development will continue to connect the JSU community and the public with the collection’s cultural and educational wealth.
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