Case of the Reverse Art Theft

24 Oranges posted today about a case of reverse theft in three art museum in the Netherlands. The Groninger Museum in Groningen, Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle, and Maastricht’s very own Bonnefanten Museum.

According to the article, a group of young artists somehow entered (or stayed in) the museums after hours and left art pieces as a protest that young as well as old artists should be represented in these institutions. Apparently there is a online video of the groups approach at the Bonnefanten, but I haven’t located it yet.

My favorite is the large object seen on a monitor in Groninger Museum that disappeared when the staff tried to find it on the floor.

Security issues aside, this seems like interesting follow-up to last year’s “Exiles on Main St” exhibition of 9 American artists who (according to the museum’s press release) “care nothing for the rules of the market, much less the rules of art”.

I hope the Bonnefanten keeps the black and white photo they discovered. I want to see it.

(links: 24Oranges.nl, depers.nl)

Dutch-Themed Twitter Backgrounds

Lately I’ve been getting involved in web design activities and decided to make up a couple Dutch themed backgrounds for Twitter. Since there are not many things one can change on Twitter, backgrounds are fun and easy to make. Here are the first two I made. Feel free to use them on your own Twitter account if you want. Just click through to my Flickr account to download the full size version.

Orange Windmill

Stroopwafels

These backgrounds are protected under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. This means you may use and remix these backgrounds for free so long as you do the same with anything new you create from them.

Photo Picked up by Schmap

A few weeks ago I received a surprise message in my Flickr Inbox from Schmap, a website that creates free maps and guides online (and has a utility to allow you to make your own). They wanted permission to use one of my photos in their newest Amsterdam guide update. Pretty cool, I thought, and they since they aren’t charging people to use their guides I felt it was for a good cause.

Today I received notification that my photo (the one above actually) was included in their new Amsterdam guide. Its pretty buried in the Bloemenmarkt section, but it is there. Here’s the Amsterdam Guide.

Unfortunately, Schmap only creates guides for major cities worldwide, so no Maastricht guide. Yet.

Wiki Loves Art Photography Contest

24 Oranges, a fun, English-language blog about Dutch culture, blogged today about a photo competition that has museums opening their doors to camera-wielding amateur photographers. The contest is called Wiki Loves Art (Dutch site), and the intention appears to be to create a collection of Creative Commons images from various Dutch museums to be used in Wikipedia. Contestants can enter photographs under a Creative Commons by-sa (attribution, share-alike) license for the chance to win 500 Euros to be spent on photographic equipment. The contest is running the entire month of June.

While I’m not a great photographer, I may enter the contest just for the chance to take some photos inside museums that normally do not permit that behavior. I respect that many art pieces can be damaged by too much photography (flash exposure, etc), but limited bursts of activity like this seem relatively harmless and provide a great way for individuals to increase access to their cultural histories.

Evil Inc Artwork Framed

Nothing motivates a person to finish getting the little odds & ends tied up like having a dozen guests. One of my projects was to take this great original art from Brad Guigar of Evil Inc and get it framed. Since he has draws in black & white, but the comic displays on his website in color, I custom cut the mat to accommodate both the original and a printout from the website. It looks great hanging in the living room.

Evil Inc is a humorous webcomic about supervillains who have taken villainy to the corporate level. Even if you’re not typically interested in superheros (I’m not), its definately worth checking out.

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