What's new

Artistic movements have their own pages

Every movement in the catalog, from the Renaissance to Abstract Expressionism, now has a home: when it happened, what it was, and every work in the collection that belongs to it. Start at /movement and follow one in. The browse filter that said style now says movement, which is the word we always meant.

Uncertain attributions now labeled

Artwork and artist pages now show the museum's own qualifier when there is one, so a work listed as “Attributed to” or “Workshop of” says so. It used to appear under the artist's name as though there were no doubt.

A more consistent look

Type, color, and iconography now come from one shared set across every page, so the site holds together instead of drifting between screens. Text and status colors were also darkened where they fell short of accessibility contrast standards, which makes the smaller labels easier to read.

Artwork inside News & Notes

Posts can now show artwork from the catalog alongside the writing, with the title, artist, date, and the museum it came from, and a link through to the work's own page. Writing about a painting no longer means describing it and hoping you picture it.

Better search

Curators can now attach hidden keywords to artwork, so searching the words you would naturally type finds the right works even when museum records use different terms. The keywords stay behind the scenes; you just get better results.

Cleaner filters

Museum records spell the same idea many ways, so filters used to show near-duplicates like "Oil on canvas" and "oil on canvas." We now standardize values as they arrive and let curators merge look-alikes, so each filter option appears once and finds everything it should.

• •Related values group into families, so choosing "Print" also finds woodcuts, etchings, and engravings
• •Periods read as history, not data: works without a named period now show readable eras like "17th century" or "5th century BCE"
• •Artist names appear cleanly, without the biographical suffixes some museums append

Filter by material and style

Browse now filters by the material a work is made from, so you can find pieces in bronze, oil paint, or marble. You can also filter by individual style terms instead of one long combined label, which makes it easier to follow a single movement across the catalog.

A page for every artist

Each artist now has their own page that gathers their works in one place. From a single painting you can step back to the rest of what an artist made, and the search terms attached to an artist carry through to all of their work.

Smoother curation

For the team behind the catalog: metadata fields now edit in place on the artwork page, and collections, courses, and lessons reorder with drag and drop, including full keyboard support. Faster curation means a better catalog for everyone.

More help for the team behind the catalog

The curation tools gained a few helpers that keep the catalog accurate and consistent:

• •AI can suggest search keywords and materials for a work, and it checks the metadata it drafts against the museum's own record before a curator reviews it
• •Curators can set aside a single review flag once they have looked at it, and bring it back later if needed
• •A shared list of materials lets the team merge and rename look-alike terms so each one reads cleanly
• •Email to learners can now follow a set sequence that sends on its own

Smarter artwork discovery

A new discovery service searches museum collections on a schedule and stages promising public-domain works for curator review, so the catalog grows steadily with artwork that meets our rights and quality standards.

A refreshed admin experience

The curation tools were rebuilt on a shared foundation with clearer layouts, better keyboard access, and an accessibility pass throughout.

New lesson system

We've completely redesigned how lessons are created and structured. Lessons now use a flexible section-based format that makes it easier to organize content and integrate artwork.

• •Lessons can now have 1-5 sections, each with its own title, content, and images
• •Up to 3 images per section from our artwork collection
• •Improved markdown editor with live preview

Course improvements

Courses now have better publishing controls and drip release options for managing how lessons become available.

Artwork date handling

Improved how we handle artwork dates, especially for works with uncertain or approximate dates. This makes it easier to browse and filter artwork chronologically.

More museum sources

Added support for importing artwork from additional museum collections, expanding the range of artworks available on the platform.