Helen Casey, University of Hertfordshire he Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam claimed great success with its 2012 ‘Rijksstudio’, an app-like website allowing online visitors to curate, download and adapt its out-of-copyright artworks. This approach to sharing heritage – opening it up to previously unreached audiences and allowing them to enjoy it freely and on their own terms – is something that was predicted by academics and practitioners writing in the early days of the internet (1997-2003). But, two decades later, the Rijksmuseum’s approach is still the exception rather than the rule, so why have so few cultural heritage organisations opened up their collections fully in this way? In this paper, I take the point of view of the practitioner, examining the day-to-day pressures and policies that may have created barriers to digitisation. By examining grey literature, mainly policy documents, I theorise that digitisation has proved challenging due to a ‘perfect storm’ of pressures from policymakers, external funding bodies and the costs and complexities of digitisation itself.

1. Why Isn’t Every Museum Like the Rijksmuseum?
Helen Casey, DHeritage Candidate, University of Hertfordshire
Still Life with Cheese, Floris Claesz. van Dijck, c. 1615

2. Geldtellers, Jan van der Bruggen, after David Teniers (II), 1659 - 1714

3. The Fête champêtre, Dirck Hals, 1627

4. Two Men in a Seventeenth-century Interior, Called 'A Conference', Lambertus Lingeman, 1870

5. Lieven Willemsz. van Coppenol, writing master: the smaller plate,
Pierre François Basan, after Rembrandt van Rijn, 1733-1797
“This … is potentially a great
leveler, allowing people without
money or academic credentials
access to objects which
otherwise require admission
fees, travel expenses, or social
connections.”
Smith, D. (2003)
‘The Surrogate vs The Thing’

6. Hond en kat in vechthouding tegenover elkaar, Adam von Bartsch,
after Martin von Molitor, after Paulus Potter, 1809
“a fundamental incompability between the concept of a
museum and the concept of a computer” (Parry 2007)
“Why has it taken so long to make computers work for the
museum sector?”

7. Old Woman Reading, Jan Lievens, 1626 - 1633
“The most common
request from users
(including museum
professionals themselves,
organising exhibitions,
loans, etc.) was for
collections information,
preferably an object-by-
object catalogue, to be
available online.”
(‘Collections for People’
UCL/Keene 2008)

8. Storm in the Strait of Dover, Louis Meijer, 1819 - 1866

9. Goudweegster, Quirin Boel, after David Teniers (II), 1635 - 1668
Reasons not to digitise
1 Cost
2. Time
3. Expertise or IT Skills
4. Fear of Obsolescence
5. Lack of Political Will
6. Privacy or Copyright
issues
7. Other

10. Nazien van de munt van Harderwijk, Bartholomeus van Swinderen (medailleur), 1757
“Museums have been obliged to reduce opening hours and access,
introduce charges, cut exhibitions and free events, and curtail school
visits and outreach work. Some well loved institutions have closed to
the public. This year’s survey has also shown that, in the past year,
one in 10 respondents has been forced to consider selling objects
from collections to generate income.” (Museums Association 2014)

11. Portrait of a Painter, probably the Artist himself, Willem Uppink, 1788
“Currently the market for
charging for arts content
online appears challenging.
For research participants the
point of the internet is that it
is free”
Arts Council/Keany, E (2009)

12. Goudweegster, Quirin Boel, after David Teniers (II), 1635 - 1668
Reasons not to digitise
1 Cost
2. Time
3. Expertise or IT Skills
4. Fear of Obsolescence
5. Lack of Political Will
6. Privacy or Copyright
issues
7. Other

13. The Night Watch, Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642
“Different institutions take different approaches, and there’s
almost a vacuum of binding legal guidance on how institutions
should proceed, so it’s this grey area, this void that I’m interested
in”
Andrea Wallace, speaking at National Digital Forum 2017

14. Portrait of a Member of the Van der Mersch Family,
Cornelis Troost, 1736
“Developing a reputation for fully embracing open licensing, which
would clearly be beneficial in terms of public reach and perception,
may create issues for relationships with artists, estates, donors,
and benefactors. These stakeholders have a wide variety of views
and priorities in relation to licensing and access, and complex and
multiple negotiations around access take place when new works
are acquired or loaned to NGS (National Galleries Scotland). At
present there are not many examples to learn from or adapt of
large-scale open practice among institutions with significant in-
copyright collections.”
Jen Ross, speaking at Museums and the Web 2018

15. Ferrotypie-tent van de fotograaf, J.Q. Galusha, c. 1880 - c. 1900
2004 Facebook
2006 Twitter
2010 Instagram

16. Joyful Entry of the Duke of Anjou in Antwerp on 19 February 1582, Monogrammist MHVH, 1582 - 1600
“Museums, galleries and archives
have a role to play in helping to
exploit the new technologies to
generate social cohesion, community
involvement and participation, and to
aid lifelong learning.”
DCMS (2000) ‘Centres for Social
Change: Museums, Galleries and
Archives for All’

17. Bakker Arent Oostwaard and his wife Catharina Keizerswaard, Jan Havicksz. Steen, 1658
“There is no evidence that digital technology in
and of itself offers a way to engage people with
little or no current interest in arts and culture.”
(Arts Council 2010)

18. Still life with flowers, Jan van Huysum, 1723
“The UK’s future will be built at the nexus of our artistic
and cultural creativity and our technical brilliance… a
powerful combination of talents to project to the world
as we prepare to leave the EU.”
(DCMS ‘Culture is Digital’ 2018)

19. Koekoek in storm, Ohara Koson, 1925 - 1936
Global financial crash
HLF funding restrictions
Inability to monetise
Copyright issues
Social media demands
Political pressures
New technology – VR and AR

20. Italian Landscape with Umbrella Pines, Hendrik Voogd, 1807
Thank you!
Questions?
Email: helencasey28@gmail.com
Twitter: @helencasey28