The Arts Map is an international on-line resource to locate and identify artists and their studios, as well as galleries, art schools, museums, performing arts facilities, and related associations, service organizations, and businesses around the world, which are related to the arts. Public art in communities may be identified. The resource is focused especially upon the great range of fine arts and things related to them. Using specific names or more generalized selections made in an extensive check-box listing system and combined with the Google maps application and technology, The Arts Map may be used to search for what exists in a specific place, region, or country as well as to look up a subject by name or category. Each entry is created by its subject and an example of their work may be up-loaded. A highly detailed map of the community on each listing page identifies the location. The reference tool was created by Robin Colodzin and Jonathan Talbot.
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In the May 2010 edition of The Artist's Magazine, which publishes fine art resources, the author of an article on the resource site stated that two prominent collage artists "were coming up empty while looking for new ways of connecting with clients, collectors, curators, and other artists. They realized that they weren't the only artists seeking connections, so they created The Arts Map." [1]
The editor of the fine arts collage trade magazine, Cloth Paper Scissors,[6] led an article about the site with, "When you’re traveling and want to check out the local arts culture, it’s fairly easy to find museums and galleries. But artist studios? Not so much... [Robin Colodzin and Jonathan Talbot] have created an online guide to artists around the world...".[2] In another fine arts publication, Art Times, another editor advised her readers to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the resource by opening an account and trying it.[3]
Through unique entries created by the subjects,[4] The Arts Map site enables viewers to obtain detailed information about many types of fine artists and related institutions and businesses by their location as well as by name and type. Pins in a map displayed by a location search provide access to the subjects and moving one's cursor over the pins identifies each. The full listing for a subject opens with a mouse click. Listings may include images provided by the subject, a description of the subject, information on hours of operation, availability, or access. The subject of the listing may make it static or keep it as current as the subject chooses with new information. A map presented for each listing pinpoints its location within the community and may be expanded or contracted via a zoom device activated by the reader.
Use of this site can enable travelers to identify and locate artists, museums, performances, galleries, shows, art schools, and local teachers for classes, as well as finding individual art studios. Being useful to artists who are traveling also, they can find professional peers and supply businesses wherever they happen to be or plan to visit, by using any connection to the world wide web.
The The Arts Map site was created as a beta version late in 2009 that was launched on the Internet in mid-January of 2010 and, without promotion, by May 2010 it had drawn four thousand listings with sixty-five countries represented in the listings. Listings are expected to rise gradually as knowledge of the site disseminates among artists, art patrons, curators, museums, schools, and supply businesses. [7] In September 2010 the developers announced that the listings had risen to six thousand listings representing eighty countries.
The founders of the site, Robin Colodzin and Jonathan Talbot, assert that it is intended to be a resource which will benefit the entire arts community and that inclusion of all who wish to list is its goal, basic listings are free for artists, art museums, art schools, and art organizations.[5] A nominal fee has been established for many added benefits and for commercial users. There are special provisions for nonprofit organizations. Plans exist to enable the presentation of event schedules.[6]