Shuttle Discovery
Destroying Asteroids
El Nino
Viagra Craze
Newsweek Website
Microsoft Case
Bell Atlantic

The National Gallery of Art was given a BOTI for art artfully done online.SPECIAL

BOTIs hands out awards

Web posted March 30, 1998

By Bob Suter
Newsday

In case it has somehow escaped your notice, awards season is in full gush. The Grammys and Oscars have been passed out with all the usual fuss and that fledgling new medium on the block, the Web, is making some awards of its own.

The BOTIs -- an acronym for Business on the Internet -- recently made its second-annual announcement of awards in 10 categories at Spring Internet World '98 in Los Angeles.

``More than just another pretty face,'' said Joe Caponi of one winner, sounding as though he were describing a talented starlet rather than a Web site. Caponi, a writer for Network Computing Magazine, which along with Internet Week created the BOTIs, was actually referring to the Internet incarnation of that respected American institution, the National Gallery of Art, which among 1,200 entries garnered the award for Best Site Design.

The gallery first opened its doors in the nation's capital 56 years ago this week and its Web site -- just a year old last month -- represents a significant new direction in its mission of bringing some of the world's finest art to the people.

A visit to the gallery Web site shows that the BOTI accolade is richly deserved. Many museums around the world have Web sites, but not all have translated their content to the Internet so successfully. I hate to say it, but this site does have a pretty face. The source of its beauty is an elegant, uncluttered style that both befits its subject and contributes enormously toward ease of accessibility of the site's rich offerings.

Art educators and students will particularly appreciate a search engine that tracks data on more than 100,000 objects in the gallery's collection by artist, title or a combination of criteria. It will even display a map showing where the work can be found should you visit the gallery.

Even casual visitors to the Web site will enjoy how easily they can navigate from object to object. Images of particular works load quickly and can be viewed full-screen. Or, you can view details of a work. Brief accompanying descriptions allow the option of probing more deeply for additional background or moving on to another work.

Over the years the National Gallery of Art's collection has grown to include works by many of the greatest European and American artists, including many by Europe's old masters. It's also renowned for its collection of 19th-century Impressionist paintings by Monet, Manet, Renoir and Van Gogh. So, be warned: After viewing many of the site's visually stunning images, you may want to kick yourself for not having sprung for that better PC monitor.

Of course no combination of pixels can ever substitute for seeing the original. One advantage the Web site offers is that exhibits that have closed at the gallery often remain online. And, in the longstanding tradition of the gallery, admission to the Web site is always free.