Our collection data can now be found on the iPad courtesy of Wayne Bishop and his Art Collections app.
Art Collections iPad App is now available for free download in the Apple App Store.
The app uses our API and we’re pretty happy to see a developer pick up our data and run with it in this way. You may remember the earlier issues we had with app store confusion that resulted in changes to our API’s Terms of Use. Wayne’s app reflects those changes nicely—in its branding, it’s very clear that Art Collections is coming from outside the instituion and that leaves us plenty of room later down the line to create our own solution without confusing users.
Wayne’s got a nice Q&A up on his own website about the app and has been blogging about the process of coding it. I also asked him a few additional things as well…
Tell us about the app you’ve created.
Browsing the collection.
Our application, named Art Collections, is a free app that allows users to browse art, photographs, antiques and other content from the museum. The application provides access to over 25,000 pieces and was built specifically for the iPad (and iPad 2) because the large touchscreen allows users to scan, zoom, and touch the art. The app is available in the iTunes App Store.
How did you hear about the Brooklyn Museum API?
We heard about the Brooklyn Museum API through the Creative Commons (cc) website. We were really impressed with the level of sophistication put into the model, as it closely mimics an API one would normally associate with a technology company like Google or Amazon. When building an app using someone else’s data, one needs to have confidence not only in the data, but with other components like performance, documentation and support. We’ve been really happy with the end product and our decision to use the API.
If there’s one thing you’d really like to do in version 2, what would it be?
Looking at an object in detail using the Art Collections App.
An important goal for the project has been to experience the richness of art in a casual setting. Now that the foundation is place, we see being able to put the app in slideshow mode as the next major feature. It would allow for casual discovery of new favorites.
Author RSS 
RSS 
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum
Congratulations to Wayne; and Shelley, I think Brooklyn Museum’s attitude towards opening your data through providing an API shows a strong statement of intent, inviting collaboration and participation. Do keep tabs today on Culture Hack Scotland, #chs11 on Twitter – where cultural orgs geeks and hackers come together to work with data provided from 13 of Scotland’s most important cultural organisations.
Thanks, Hannah – great to know about Culture Hack Scotland and will be really interested to see how it works out. I know Seb and Luke at the Powerhouse have had a good amount of success with similar projects.
What is next? Anymore good news?
I’m holding an excellent Android 3.0 tablet and salivating.
Maybe?
Hi David,
We were lucky that someone like Wayne decided to build an app for us utilizing the API. It wasn’t on our current dev plan or anything we could afford to shop out given our budget. Hopefully, another developer will get inspired to create an app for Android tablet, but that remains to be seen.