Art Authority Blog
The Art Authority Museum’s first additions
When we announced the pre-opening of the Art Authority Museum in February followed by its Grand Opening in May, we promised future features that would “transcend those of traditional museums.” Today we’re pleased to announce a number of those features.
- An all-new Early Room complete with 3000-year old Assyrian Lamassu, 2000-year old frescoes, and 700-year old altarpieces. We literally (ok, virtually) built and curated this room from the ground up in the four months since our Opening! Access to the Early Room, as to all our major period rooms, is currently free to everyone.
- Member’s Lounges. Is there any other museum in the world that gives each member their own personal lounge? Or, better yet, that lets members include any of the museum’s works of art in that lounge? The Art Authority Museum now does.
- Other new rooms. While adding the Early Room and figuring out the magic behind Member’s Lounges, we also built over a dozen new rooms for major artists like Anthony van Dyck, Childe Hassam, Marisol and N.C. Wyeth. Again in less than four months!
If you’re a current member, simply update your Art Authority Museum app to take advantage of the new features. And if you’re not, please consider becoming one (a 7-day free trial is available) and supporting the future of art. Thank you.
Art Authority Museum Opening: The Million Dollar QuARTet
Last weekend was the very successful grand opening of the Art Authority Museum, introduced last February along with Apple Vision Pro. Although virtual in implementation, the grand opening of this full-fledged museum was a physical one, taking place at the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) trade show in Baltimore. Many of our partners in this groundbreaking effort were there: traditional museums, artists and even Apple themselves. The event harkened back to a similar one from another era.
In 1956, a jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash was dubbed The Million Dollar Quartet. What took place at our Museum’s grand opening was a modern-day version, The Million Dollar QuARTet.
The Museum opening highlighted five major artist partners, each with their own dedicated gallery: 20th century color field painter Alma Thomas, pioneering sculptor Louise Nevelson, Baltimore artist Herman Maril, renowned photographer Frank Stewart and current-day abstract artist James Little. Mr. Little could not attend, but representatives of the other four made up the new QuARTet.
Million Dollar QuARTet galleries in the Art Authority Museum
The QuARTet was anchored by Frank Stewart and his family, which included his Emmy-winning daughter Sing Lanthan and her son William. Frank was often seen chatting with Maria Nevelson, granddaughter of Louise, whom Frank had met on a number of occasions. Maria spent a lot of time comparing notes with David Maril, Herman’s son. And they were joined by Lisa Chaplin-Hobbs, one of the heirs of the Alma Thomas estate. As far as ourselves, builders of the Art Authority Museum and curators of these great artists’ galleries, we very much enjoyed our role as flies on the wall and documentarians.
Frank Stewart looking at his self portrait in his Art Authority Museum gallery
One of the coolest aspect of the new QuARTet was that, unlike the original, it represented five generations: grandmother Louise Nevelson, father Herman Maril, the man himself Frank Stewart, his daughter Sing and his grandson William! Similar to the original Quartet, it remains to be seen the roll these four (and many others) play in the evolution of a new take on an old art form. With their help, the Art Authority Museum is sure off to a great start!
Frank Stewart and Maria Nevelson
David Maril (reviewing his father’s gallery), Maria Nevelson, Sing Lathan, Cheryl (Brandywine Museum), Frank Stewart
Lisa Chaplin-Hobbs immersed in the Alma Thomas Gallery in the Art Authority Museum
It’s All Led to This: The Art Authority Museum
If you’ve followed this blog, you may remember that in the past decade+ we here at Art Authority have: created a day-one award-winning iPad app, turned that app into an app line and then into a whole art company, acquired 1000Museums worth of art to go with it, and most recently acquired a whole bunch of Museum Store Products too.
After all that, there was only one thing left to do. Art Authority is thrilled that today we are announcing the pre-opening of our own art museum! And what a museum it will be! The Art Authority Museum will ultimately display thousands of the top works of art by hundreds of the world’s most significant artists throughout history. Our lobby, with pre-opening tours available today, February 2, 2024, already lets you experience dozens of the most important works of all time. da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Rembrandt’s Night Watch, van Gogh’s Starry Night, Munch’s The Scream and many more.
Really? you ask. How? No, we are not the world’s best art thieves, and we don’t have $1 billion to spend on our new museum. But courtesy of Apple’s new Vision Pro “spacial computing” headset (coincidentally also available for the first time ever today), we are able to build this new type of museum and provision it full of the world’s best art, in less than a year and at a very affordable cost.
The Art Authority Museum is not built out of bricks and mortar, but it is groundbreaking, being a whole new class of museum. As you’ve probably figured out, the Art Authority Museum is built as an app for Apple Vision Pro. As such, its art viewing experience will differ surprising little from the art museums you are used to visiting IRL (“in real life”). And that experience will be available any time, from anywhere. With no crowds.
We’ve been building the Art Authority Museum since Apple announced Vision Pro last June. And we’re almost ready for its Grand Opening. But groundbreaking apps take time, and we’re not quite ready for what we believe will be one of the grandest of Grand Openings. So, starting today, for the next few months, we’re offering a free “sneak peek” at the museum through a pre-opening tour of what we feel is already one of the most comprehensive museum lobbies in the world.
We realize that it may be difficult for you to get access to a Vision Pro right away, so, for a small taste of the Art Authority Museum without one, and for additional details on the museum itself, please visit artauthority.museum to see what we’re talking about and to sign up to be kept up to date as we complete construction.
We’re looking forward to seeing you soon!
Another Major Art Acquisition
In July of 2016, we here at Art Authority announced our first major art acquisition, which was 1000Museums worth of art. Our success with that company has led to another similar acquisition.
1000Museums specializes in creating the highest quality archival reproductions for museum stores, as well as for art lovers worldwide. (It is also the basis of the “1000Museums Gift Shop” in the app line.) Over the past 6+ years, we have greatly expanded the set of museums we support, but our product line has remained solely focused on printed items.
We are excited to announce that, effective immediately, Art Authority LLC is now in joint ownership with the leading provider of all types of products for museum stores, Museum Store Products, Inc. The two will still operate as separate sister companies, but with the same owners, same mission to help museums thrive, and same commitment to quality and USA manufacturing (MSP is in New Jersey, Art Authority in Oregon). So now we are not just the leading manufacturer of print products for museum stores, but of all products for museum stores!
Now on Art Channel: The Paul G. Allen Collection
Late last year, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s art collection sold at auction for over $1.6 billion. That’s $1,600,000,000! Through the magic of Art Channel 2.0 and Apple TV, you can now display dozens of works from that collection on your living room wall. Not bad for $0.99 per month!
Wassily Kandinsky, Tiefes Braun, 1924
Henri Edmond-Cross, Rio San Trovaso, Venise, 1904
Paul Cézanne, La Montagne Sainte-Victoire, 1888-1890
Announcing year 12 of the Art Authority Summer Intern program
It’s that time again! Year 12 of the Art Authority Summer Intern program is starting in a couple of months, and we’re encouraging early applications so art professors and students can consider how the program can enhance their education and career goals.
Following are details based on previous programs; some projects have evolved. If you’re an art history professor and would like to incorporate the program more directly into your online class curriculum, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us directly to discuss doing so. We’re happy to work with college programs to ensure students receive credit for the work they complete during the internship program.
If you’re an art history student, you might want to ask your professors about their thoughts and possible credit.
As discussed previously here, the Art Authority Summer Intern Program offers art and art history majors a 21st-century alternative to traditional art docent internships. By working on our cutting-edge Art Authority apps and 1000Museums.com e-commerce site (museum-approved archival reproductions), technology-focused students gain experience with and exposure to a set of tools they’ll need as “art goes digital.”
These past two years have been a learning experience at Art Authority, as far as how to support the internship program during a pandemic and what’s needed to keep our product line evolving. Students have learned a lot too, gained credit towards their major, connected with professionals in the museum industry, and even found jobs as a result of the program (including here at Art Authority). We’re looking forward to seeing what our interns will achieve this summer.
If you or anyone you know would be a good fit for this technology-minded art internship program, please check out the Summer Intern Program Web site site link for more information and an application form. The number of internship spots is limited, so anyone interested should apply as soon as possible. If you have any questions about the program please check the FAQ page or contact us directly.
Closing Open Door: the end of an era
December 31, 2021. Open Door Networks Inc., the company that in the last 27 years brought you
Mac-focused dial-up Internet, web page creations tools and easy web publishing, one of the first coffee shops on the Internet, sophisticated Mac server management tools, the Ashland Fiber Network, perhaps the first wireless Starbucks anywhere, Macintosh personal firewalls and other security tools, Internet Security for your Macintosh, AppleTalk-to-IP migration tools, a new way to experience the web, one of the first July 4 parade webcasts, an iPhone app on day one of the iPhone App Store, 100+ iPhone apps after that, an iPad app on day one of the iPad (the award-winning Art Authority for iPad), Art Authority K-12, a decade of college intern programs, Art Channel on day one of the Apple TV App Store, Art Authority LLC, Ranking Artists: an Internet-era Analysis, 1000Museums fine-art reproductions and much more
is open no longer. It is with pride in this history, but a touch of sadness too, that we announce its formal dissolution. Having sold its 1994-acquired opendoor.com domain name to a company now worth $1 billion, and transferred its apps and other assets to Art Authority LLC (the app that became a company), closing time has finally come to Open Door. Onwards…
Art Channel 2.0: even better art on your TV
We’re happy to announce that Art Channel 2.0 is now available for your Apple TV, just in time for the holidays. We could have called it Art Channel 4K, because its main new feature is even better, higher resolution art for your 4K television.
Over the past couple decades, TV has gone from SD (standard definition, around since the 1940s) to HD (turn of the 21st century) to 4K (mid last decade). Computers, iPhones and iPads have similarly increased in screen resolution.
In all cases, our apps and art have kept up. Our first iPhone art app had images with resolutions around 1000 pixels on the bigger side. Our ground-breaking Art Authority for iPad app pushed that to 2000 pixels, which worked especially well when Apple introduced the Retina display in 2012. The Apple TV and Art Channel were next in 2015, but it wasn’t until the Apple TV 4K that the resolution of art on your television could really surpass that of a Retina display iPad. But it has now! 4K images, as displayed by Art Channel 2.0, are nearly 4000 pixels on the bigger side.
Art Channel 2.0 (also available for iPad) introduces some new, dynamic features too, which we’ll be taking advantage of in the near future. So, as they say (anachronistically) in the TV business, stay tuned!
Art Authority for iPad ten-year anniversary
With the world, and our, attentions turned elsewhere, we missed the ten-year anniversary of Apple’s shipping the iPad, and our shipping Art Authority for iPad with it. Just as with the iPhone, we had an app in the App Store on day one.
Ten years later, Art Authority for iPad is still going strong. If anything, with art museums closed, it’s even more relevant today than it was 10 years ago.
Urgent: Year 10 of Art Authority Intern Program available early
We were going to start year 10 of the Art Authority Summer Intern program in a couple months, but we’re pushing up the start as much as we can so art professors and students can consider the program now as everyone scrambles to put and attend art classes online.
Following are details based on previous programs; some may change. Especially if you’re an art professor, please let us know if there are ways we can modify the program to meet your needs. We will certainly be waiving some of the requirements.
As we’ve discussed a number of times on this blog, the Art Authority Summer Intern Program offers art and art history majors a 21st century alternative to traditional art docent internships. By working on our cutting-edge Art Authority apps and 1000Museums.com e-commerce site (museum-approved archival reproductions), technology-focused students gain experience with and exposure to a set of tools they’ll need as “art goes digital.”
We here at Art Authority have learned a lot over the past nine years, both as far as how to run the intern program and as far as what’s needed to keep our product line evolving. Students have learned a lot too, gained credit towards their major, and even found jobs as a result of the program (some have worked here). We’re really looking forward to another great and meaningful summer for all concerned.
If you or anyone you know is curious about the program, please check out the Summer Intern Program Web site for more information and an application form. The number of spaces are limited, so anyone interested should apply as soon as possible.
