gives artworks a second life. It creates a lasting, high-quality record of fragile, unique, or otherwise culturally significant originals and puts them within reach of anyone, anywhere. It means that art can be shared, experienced, and studied across time and borders.
An inspiring example is the Indonesian Visual Art Archive (IVAA) in Yogyakarta, a foundation dedicated to continuously archiving and digitizing contemporary art. It shows how archives can serve not only as safekeepers of memory but also as platforms for learning and cultural exchange. By providing open access to digitized artworks and related documentation, IVAA connects local heritage with the global art community.
Large-scale digitization requires collaboration. It involves artists, museums, universities, cultural organizations, governments, and private partners, each contributing in different ways. For example, an institution may provide a collection, a government may fund an initiative, private partners may offer technology, and universities may contribute research and expertise.
New Technologies and the Digital Future
Modern tools such as 3D scanning and rotating scanners make it possible to create lasting digital records of fragile or large-format artworks at very high resolution, while Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software reads printed or handwritten text from images and turns it into searchable digital text, helping archives organize and share their collections more effectively.
An example of how such technologies are used can be seen at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, a cultural foundation based in Venice, Italy. The foundation uses advanced scanning methods to digitize large archives of art history photographs, combining preservation with public access and study.
These technologies power innovative ways of experiencing art. Online collections give access to high-quality images and descriptions that can be browsed from anywhere; 3D museums simulate exhibition spaces in which visitors can move virtually on screen; and VR museums create fully immersive experiences using VR headsets, letting viewers explore artworks as if they were walking through real galleries.
Digitization is transforming how art is preserved, accessed, and shared. Through these efforts, artists’ legacies continue to grow, not only in museums but across the digital world, where their work can inspire new audiences and reach new generations.
But while digitization enhances access to art, it also raises questions about rights. Unless a specific exception applies, digitizing an artwork generally requires the artist’s authorization, since it involves reproducing the work. This applies even to institutions such as museums or libraries, although many countries provide limited for preservation purposes.
It is also worth knowing that a digitization project can create more than one layer of rights. The institution or partner carrying out the scanning may ask for rights in the resulting digital copy itself, separate from any rights in the original artwork, in order to be compensated for the effort involved. Whether a faithful digital reproduction generates its own, separate copyright is itself a question that varies by country: some legal systems require a degree of creative choice for this to happen, while others protect even a purely technical, faithful . Before agreeing to a digitization project, it is worth understanding exactly which rights you are being asked to grant, and which you keep.
To learn more, read the WIPO Toolkit on Access to Copyrighted Works in the Collections of Cultural Heritage Institutions and the WIPO Toolkit on Preservation for Cultural Heritage Institutions.
Image credit: Infinite Creations