Why Artwork Archive is the best online art collection management system for hospitals.
A growing hospital art collection is a valuable asset, but it is also another thing to labor over in an already hectic environment.
Luckily Artwork Archive's online art collection management software helps streamline your workflow. Learn why hospitals like Michigan Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, New York City Health + Hospitals, Stanford Children’s Health and Children’s Hospital Colorado use Artwork Archive.
“I highly recommend this database and the company as a whole. I love how easy it is to add files on the fly! It's cloud-based so I can access it on any of my devices. I use it in collaboration with the many stakeholders who work on the hospital's art program with me. It's also very easy to learn to use, as opposed to many of the databases I've been exposed to before. Plus, their customer service is impeccable!” – Stanford Children’s Health
1. Cloud-based tools: Access your collection anywhere
Rarely are hospital staff sitting at their desks for long. If you’re managing an art program, you’re in a million places and sprinting around the hospital. Don’t let your collection management system tether you to your desk.
With cloud-based tools you can access your Artwork Archive account from anywhere on any device. If you walk by a painting in the cancer ward and notice a chip on a frame, you can pull out your phone, photograph the chip, add a note to the piece record within your account, and contact your restorer about refurbishing the frame. Often things like that get forgotten when you’re running from one meeting to another.
Have a system that helps you work on the fly!
2. Multiple user access: No more licensing
Online tools enable collaboration. Multiple users can have access to information and the ability to edit from anywhere. You cannot collaborate from one computer. Give colleagues, interns, volunteers, board members logins so that you can distribute tasks and information.
You can also create view-only accounts for those that need to see, but should not touch!
3. Location tracking: Don’t lose artworks
Hospitals are not small places. Art is in multiple campuses, buildings, lobbies, hallways, and behind closed doors in patient rooms and doctors offices. Plus, works of art get shifted around constantly. Stop your art scavenger hunt. Location tracking tools let you know where your artwork is located.
Have a storage unit? Know what’s exactly inside before driving over and searching through drawers and crates.
Have artworks outdoors in parks and gardens? Keep track of the exact locations of the sculptures with GPS tracking. Learn more here.
4. Document storage: Have information in one place
Hospitals are complicated places. Artwork is complicated too. You don't just purchase a piece, hang it on the wall and sit back. You've got lots of things to organize like floor plans, artist contracts, exhibition lists, condition notes, volunteer hours, etc. Keep track of these key documents in one place.
Upload contracts to artist contacts. Attach floor plans to location records. Record and remember important information like arts programming schedules, treatment plans from conservators, and videos from unveilings.
No more sifting through manila folders, searching and opening multiple desktop folders to find an artist name or image of a painting in the lobby. Cloud-based tools keep artwork, location, artist, financial information in one place.
5. Price: Save thousands of dollars
Collection management does not need to zap your funds. Save money with your art collection management system so that you can allocate those funds elsewhere.
Premier technology does not have to break the bank and at Artwork Archive our organization plans start at only $24 a month.
“Why did we choose Artwork Archive? Cost…and it had all of the features we needed. And some we didn't even realize we needed. The cost is extremely affordable in comparison to other systems out there.” – Arts & Health at Duke University
6. Maintenance records: Preserve your collection
Artwork is susceptible to damage in hospitals and it’s not just the typical wear and tear of buffing bronzes and fixing lifted paint. Conservation may involve replacing pieces that a child pulled off from an installation in the lobby or fixing a tear from when a gurney swung into a canvas.
With Artwork Archive maintenance records you can track what was done, when, by whom and how much it cost. This is helpful for many reasons:
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Save information on how the artist intended the piece to be preserved.
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Create a treatment record for each piece. Don’t second guess years from now.
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Save your conservator’s treatment plans and recommendations.
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Scheduling upcoming conservation.
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Track your budget and make the case for increased maintenance spend.
You can also create condition reports for every piece so that you have a baseline to prioritize off of. There may be a crack in a painting, but when the paint starts to lift, you’ll need to address it!
7. Report generation: Save time
Do you envision a world without mail merges and hours spent assembling reports and developing powerpoints? Good news, you can take those tasks off your plate with Artwork Archive's report generator. Our templates help you save time. With a few clicks of a button you can create inventory lists, maintenance reports, financial documents, donation reports, gallery labels, QR code labels for storage, etc.
Need to present a new sculpture commission to the board? Quickly create a report of all of the sculptures in your collection for the board to review. Making the case for increased maintenance budget? Pull a report of maintenance cost to date. Communicating with your insurance broker, accountant, or legal team? Have all of your financials and insurance information to share. Need to organize works in storage? Apply a QR code label to a crated work; scan the code and know exactly what is inside.
8. Schedule Reminders: Set it to forget it
You’ve got enough to keep in your head, leave the tasks and deadlines to Artwork Archive. We’ll remind you.
Set reminders for artwork drop offs, grant proposal deadlines, conservation, appraisals, etc. It all lives within the Schedule. You can sync these reminders to your calendar. And, Artwork Archive will send you a weekly to-do list every Monday to help you stay on task.
9. Exhibition tracking: Establish provenance
Have temporary exhibits? Works on loan? You can track your art's display history within exhibition tracking. Build out the rich provenance of your works.
You can also print QR Code labels to place next to your artworks. This lets your audience learn more about the artwork without lengthy wall labels. When scanned, the QR code will bring the viewer to the artwork's Public Profile page. What's the Public Profile?
10. Public profile: Showcase your collection
By default all of your information is private within your Artwork Archive account but if you’d like to share your collection, you can activate your Public Profile.
Make information accessible to your patients, their families, staff and anyone else interested in the art collection. On your Public Profile they can learn more about the works in your collection—searching by piece, artist, collection name. Engage with your audience by creating an scavenger hunt or walking tour with the interactive map view.
Have information you don’t want included like price? That’s fine! Easily select what info you want to share like locations so people know where to find that whimsical bronze bear sculpture.
Utilize the News section of the Public Profile to share special events and details about your collection.
And you can integrate your Public Profile onto your website! Stop double entering information. Your public profile is synced to your inventory so as you update your account, the info will be updated on your profile. Plus, you don’t have to be beholden to your IT team to update your art program page.
Check out Children Hospital Colorado's public profile and Stanford Children's Health—two incredible collections.
"With the Public Profile, we tripled the number of votes for our annual staff exhibition. People were able to engage without being on campus and in the hospital." – Gifts of Art at Michigan Medicine
11. Contact management: Have info at your fingertips
With contact management tools you can have contact info at the ready for artists, conservators, curators, donors, etc.
Track how many pieces you have from an artist. Keep their bio saved with images of their works. Help your development team and grow your collection by closely tracking your donors: know the cumulative value of their donations, identify trends of giving, schedule key reminders.
Standing in front of a mosaic that is missing some tiles? Since Artwork Archive is accessible on your phone, you can take a photo and send it to your conservator ASAP.
12. Insights: Monitor your investment
Track your purchases and donations. Log appraisals and automatically update the market value of your art. Selling artworks? Add sales, create invoices and track your buyers.
All of this is tracked within your account so you can quickly pull and show financial information to stakeholders.
13. Data migration: Don’t be scared
Need to move from an outdated system? Don’t let data migration scare you from making a necessary change in software. Artwork Archive migrates your data for you. We help people convert from systems like Filemaker, ArtSystems, PastPerfect, Embark on a daily basis. A free data import comes with every organization plan and saves you significant time and gets you up to speed on your new account. You can learn more in this article about switching systems.
14. Simple tools: No training needed
You don’t have time to train up on a collection management system! You definitely don’t have time to train your colleagues. Why not use an intuitive system that you can log into and immediately start uploading and accessing information?
Some collection management systems entail training sessions, technology support for a fee, and just mind-blowingly complicated interfaces. Here at Artwork Archive we joke that our powerful yet easy-to-use online tools are robust enough to satisfy a collection manager, but yet simple enough for an intern to use.
15. Plan ahead: Because your art collection will outlast you
Have all of your collection information in your head? Everything on paper? Will a mural need to be treated in 10 years? Prepare for the future of the art collection and hospital by creating easily-accessible records for existing and new teammates.
“Artwork Archive has been an instrumental partner in helping take Children's Hospital Colorado's arts program to new heights. With Artwork Archive we have increased access to art across our System of Care and created a new standard for stewardship of our fine art collection. With Artwork Archive's suite of services we are able to create virtual exhibitions, catalog every piece of art, track donor and artist information, and more easily implement pieces for the greatest benefit of our audiences.” – Children’s Hospital Colorado
