EDUCATIONAL LICENSING PROGRAMS
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Art Museum Image Consortium
www.amico.net
On-line access to multimedia
museum documentation
for education
Founding Members
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Institute of Chicago
Asia Society Galleries
Center for Creative Photography
Cleveland Museum of Art
Davis Museum and Cultural Center,
Wellesley College
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
International Museum of Photography,
George Eastman House
J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
Museum of Contemporary Art,
San Diego
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Gallery of Canada
National Museum of American Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Jose Museum of Art
Walker Art Center
Managed by
David Bearman
Jennifer Trant
Archives & Museum Informatics
5501 Walnut St., # 203
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
USA 15232
Phone: +1 412 683 9775
Fax: +1 412 683 7366
www.archimuse.com
THE ART MUSEUM IMAGE CONSORTIUM
In 1997, 23 museums came together under the auspices of the Association of Art Museum
Directors Educational Foundation to create and distribute a digital library of museum
multimedia documentation for educational use. A planning process, funded by the members
themselves, resulted in the creation of a not-for-profit, whose membership is open to
institutions worldwide with collections of art. Participation in AMICO is seen by its members
as part of their educational mission. They believe in providing access to information, and are
adopting network distribution as a means of serving their diverse educational constituents in
Universities, Colleges, Kindergarten through Grade 12 Schools, and Public Libraries as well as
in other Museums and Art Galleries.
AMICO members believe in Fair Use as a means of assuring scholarly and educational access
to information. However, they also realize that there are many uses with educational purposes
that may not be considered Fair Use. AMICO will offer licenses for the non-commercial,
educational use of the Library that have been developed in consultation with academic and
educational users, and that enable a broad range of educational activities. The University
license draws on the work of the Museum Educational Site Licensing Project (MESL).
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Projects are now in the design phase to develop K-12 and Public Library licenses. Texts can be
found at http://www.amico.net.
AMICO members also realize that they have many works in their collections that are currently
under copyright. Licensing offers a means of distributing such information, and AMICO
members are working with the rights holders themselves to allow educational use of works in
their collections. We have begun discussions with artists rights societies, and look forward to
streamlined processes and procedures that remove some of the administrative burden of
educational licensing.
In the spring 1998, a “testbed” library of digital multimedia documenting approximately 20,000
works of art was created (comprising over 60,000 records and files, and 65GB of data). The
Research Libraries Group, a not-for-profit providing networked information to the academic
community, will distribute this beta AMICO Library to a limited number of universities
beginning September 1998. University Testbed participants include over 20 campuses in the
US, Canada and abroad.
AMICO is governed by a Board of Directors, comprised of the directors of its member
institutions. Its Chairman is Harry S. Parker III, Director of the Fine Arts Museum of San
Francisco. The body of its work is directed by three membership committees, on Users,
Technical Operations, and Rights. To date, all AMICO activities have been funded by its
members themselves. Full details about AMICO, including the licenses offered to Universities
and Museum Members, can be found at http://www.amico.net, or by contacting Archives &
Museum Informatics, Management Consultants to AMICO.
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Maxwell Anderson, Founding Chairman, David Bearman, Management Consultant to AMICO, and Jennifer
Trant, Management Consultant to AMICO, all served on the MESL Management Committee. Trant was the first
MESL Project Director. MESL was launched by the Getty Information Institute in conjunction with MUSE
Educational Media and ran from 1996-1998.