Search the Collections Database

The Belkin is delighted to launch a new online artwork and archives database with funding from the Canada Council’s Digital Strategy Fund. A collaboration with artist-run centre Western Front and the UBC Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC), the project is developed by Whirl-i-Gig using open-source CollectiveAccess software to create new tools for a growing community of cultural organizations sharing open-source resources. As each partner creates their own discrete interface to their collection and archive records, the cumulative open-source community allows for these resultant tools to be shared and utilized by a range of diverse institutions. The Belkin engaged Denim & Steel Interactive to create an elegant front-end transition portal from its main website to the new database, and data migration and cleaning of over 20,000 object, collection and administrative records in the database form the foundation of the project.

This partnership with Western Front and the IRSHDC enhances discovery and access to the records of important cultural material and media art, with the three institutions collaborating to develop innovative and nuanced tools for the processing, management and delivery of digital content. Working together allows each institution to strengthen engagement with local, national and international communities of researchers, students, artists, curators, Indigenous peoples and the public to discover and access images and information.

The project has drawn on the unique contexts and expertise of each institution, such as the technical and cultural knowledge of the IRSHDC, Western Front’s media digitization and preservation activities, and the Belkin’s history of collections and archives management. Shaunna Moore, the Belkin’s former archivist (2014-19), served as Project Manager and coordinated the development and implementation process. Special thanks are due to Francesca Bennett, Reese Irwin, Brandon Leung and Nicole Mulder for their extensive work on data dictionaries, design, migration, reviewing and data cleaning, always maintaining the highest standards against all obstacles. As the Belkin celebrates its 25^th anniversary of actively growing its holdings, we are excited by this opportunity to increase low barrier access to the institutional and cultural history preserved in our full archive and permanent collection.

This project has been made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts through the Digital Strategy Fund – Public Access to the Arts and Citizen Engagement in partnership with the Western Front and UBC Residential School History and Dialogue Centre. The Belkin gratefully acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Young Canada Works at Building Careers in Heritage Program, the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council Co-op Placements Program, and the UBC Irving K. Barber Learning Centre through the British Columbia History Digitization Program.

Image (above): Mark Soo, Monochrome Sunset (English Bay – Oppenheimer Park), 2006. Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Purchased with support from the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance program and the Morris and Helen Belkin Foundation, 2007. Photo: Michael R. Barrick