WILLIAMSBURG, VA — The Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg has joined the list of international museums that comprise Sotheby’s Museum Network, a new online destination that makes videos from leading museums accessible to a vast global audience of art collectors and aficionados.
Through its participation on the site, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2017, and the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Art Museum will gain another vehicle for bringing material from their world-class collections to a broader audience. The Art Museums will be added to a select group of museums that presently includes the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Met Breuer in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Grand Palais in Paris, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, Museo Tamayo in Mexico City and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice among others. Launched last fall with more than 150 videos from 18 museums, the network is expected to grow to include more than 100 of the world’s leading cultural institutions.
“Sotheby’s Museum Network offers a wonderful opportunity for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to share its outstanding cultural collections with a worldwide audience,” said Ronald L. Hurst, the institution’s Carlisle H. Humelsine chief curator and vice president for collections, conservation, and museums. “We are honored to join this august assemblage.”
The Art Museums will initially share video content based on recent events and exhibitions on the Sotheby’s Museum Network that includes the 60th anniversary of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, “From Forge and Furnace,” “German Toys in America,” “Pieces of American History: The Restoration of Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area,” “A Century of African-American Quilts,” “Silver from Mine to Masterpiece” and “Lock Stock and Barrel.” This content will continue to be updated as additional videos are produced.
“We are thrilled to welcome the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg to Sotheby’s Museum Network at such an exciting time for the renowned institution,” said Anthony Calnek, Sotheby’s senior vice-president, worldwide director of media services. “Their distinctive and historic collections will be showcased alongside those of many of the world’s leading art institutions on a platform that exposes a global audience to art and collecting.”
The Sotheby’s Museum Network content can be seen on Sotheby’s digital platforms, which currently include www.museumnetwork.sothebys.com and Sotheby’s AppleTV app. Amazon Fire will offer the content in the future.