About the program

Mission Statement
Services/Accomplishments

The Art on Screen Database
Publications
Film/Video Productions
Conferences/Workshops/Screenings
Consultation to the Field

Who Are We ?

The Program for Art on Film is an international leader in the field of moving-image media about the visual arts, functioning as a clearing-house for information about productions on fine arts, architecture, photography, decorative arts, and related topics. The Program serves every sector of the visual arts media field--museums, libraries, schools and universities, media producers, publishers, broadcast and cable TV networks.

The Program's activities to date have included a constellation of complementary services: compiling and maintaining the Art on Screen Database; publishing Art on Screen, the newsletter of film and video on the visual arts; developing filmographies, handbooks, and other publications; reviewing and evaluating moving-image productions on art; presenting workshops and seminars for educators and museum professionals; and distributing a series of short films and videos involving collaborations between art scholars and filmmakers, produced as part of the Program's earlier Production Lab experiment.

Founded in 1984 as a joint venture between the J. Paul Getty Trust and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Program was established to foster new ways of thinking about the relationship between art and moving image media, and to encourage critical analysis of media productions. In 1996, the Program was restructured as an independent non-profit, tax-exempt corporation, and relocated to Pratt Institute's Brooklyn campus where it is affiliated with the Graduate School of Information & Library Science (SILS).

For more information:

	Contact:	Program for Art on Film, Inc.
		200 Willoughby Avenue, c/o Pratt SILS
		Brooklyn, NY 11205
		Tel 718-399-4506
		Fax 718-399-4507
		E-mail: Info@Artfilm.org

Program for Art on Film, Inc. -- Mission Statement

Statement of Purpose

To define issues, develop programs, and disseminate information that will support the effective production and use of moving-image media which contribute to a better understanding and appreciation of the visual arts.

Goals

To provide information about moving image media on the visual arts to art, education, and media professionals, and to the public
To educate art, education, and media professionals concerning issues of art on screen
To encourage and facilitate research and study of issues concerning art on screen
To provide opportunities for viewing media productions about the visual arts
To foster communication between the arts and museum communities and the film/video/television communities within the United States and internationally

Services/Accomplishments

The Art on Screen Database

A fully annotated research index to films, videos, and new media about the visual arts. Includes information on more than 25,000 titles from some 70 countries. Accessible online, on CD-ROM, or by staff-assisted search.

The Consortium of College and University Media Centers ranked the Art on Screen Database among the top three research and reference databases in the United States. Choice magazine recommended the CD-ROM edition of the Database as "an essential art library reference."

Publications

The Program has published several directories of selected productions drawn from Art on Screen Database research, including:

Architecture on Screen. (G. K. Hall, 1994)
Art on Screen. (G. K. Hall, 1992)
Films and Videos on Photography. (1990)

Other Program publications include:

The Art on Screen Handbook. (1994)
Films on Art Bibliography. (updated regularly)
Art Museums & Media. (1994)--survey of media use in American museums
Art History & Film: Starting from the Art. (1992)--conference report
Sound & Images in Films about Art. (1991)--conference report
Art on Screen. Newsletter (published twice yearly)

and a CD-ROM edition of the entire Art on Screen Database:

Art on Screen on CD-ROM. (G. K. Hall, 1995)

For more information, click here.

Film/Video Productions About Art

An ambitious experiment in the creation of visual arts media, the Program's Production Lab --which operated from 1986 until 1990-- was designed to stimulate innovative approaches to depicting art on screen. Teams of art experts and filmmakers were invited to submit treatments and encouraged to experiment with innovative filmic techniques and content. After reviewing hundreds of proposals, the Production Lab commissioned fifteen short films and videos. Because the Art on Screen Database revealed that the majority of films on art feature 20th-century Western art and artists, the fourteen Production Lab projects focused on art made before 1900. Subjects include ancient Egyptian funerary painting, a Japanese Zen garden, a mosque in Spain, Mimbres Indian pottery, and more.

The complete Production Lab works are available in Art on Film/Film on Art, a boxed set of five videos that also includes interviews with the production teams, conversations with participating experts, and a discussion guide.

For more information, click here.

Conferences, Workshops, Screenings

The Program has organized several national and international events focusing on visual arts media, including "Sound & Images in Films on Art," produced in collaboration with the University of Southern California (May, 1991), and "Art History and Film: Starting From the Art," a symposium held at Tufts University (November, 1991). The Program has developed a workshop for museum professionals which has been presented at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in collaboration with the Education Department, and at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts (by kenny at tforge). Program screenings and panel discussions have been presented at the Metropolitan Museum, London's National Gallery, and the Louvre, as well as at film festivals in Rotterdam (Netherlands), Asolo (Italy), and Bogotá (Colombia). Outreach plans include an annual film/video festival devoted to Art & Architecture on Screen.

Consultation to the Field

Facilitator, mentor, sounding board, resource--over the years, Program staff have been consulted on diverse projects by a broad variety of organizations and individuals, including:

International museum exhibitions, catalogues, and catalogues raisonnés
Television programs, from PBS-TV's "Nova" to BBC-TV's "The Late Show"
University courses on art history, architecture, and museum studies
International film and video festivals in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Canada

In addition, the Program has long-established working relationships with such international organizations as the British Film Institute, the National Film Board of Canada, and Germany's AG Kunstlerfilm.

For inquiries about consultation on new projects:

	Contact:	Program for Art on Film, Inc.
		200 Willoughby Avenue, c/o Pratt SILS
		Brooklyn, NY 11205
		Tel 718-399-4506
		Fax 718-399-4507
		E-mail: Info@Artfilm.org