An Experiment in Open Art History – Smarthistory.org on Kickstarter

The following is a guest post from Dr. Steve Zucker, co-founder of Smarthistory along with Dr. Beth Harris. He is also chair of History of Art and Design at Pratt Institute. You can follow him on twitter.

Support Open Art History
What will open art history look like? Is it even possible? Can small, nimble organizations begin to invent this future and create a path for museums and universities? How can we best reach and educate future museum-visitors and students who grow up with Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube? After all, the promise of the textbook, to be comprehensive, and to offer students all they need to know about a given subject in order to master it, no longer aligns with the culture of the museum-goer and student we now teach. They know that authority is dispersed and does not speak with a single voice, and that learning is more interesting when it engages opinion, emotion, and discovery.

These are the questions and issues that inspired Smarthistory.org’s creation and development. We publish—online—a Western survey of art history that re-imagines the format of the textbook for AP Art History students, college students, museum visitors and other informal learners. Smarthistory is multimedia, conversational, open and free. We’re not just an online textbook. And we’re not even an online textbook that includes multimedia. We want to rethink the very nature of textbook in a way that responds to the way knowledge is created and disseminated on the web now (in contrast to pdf-based content and other closed and static e-book systems).

Smarthistory is open and increasingly successful. In 2010, Smarthistory.org was visited more than half a million times by visitors from more than 150 countries. Close to one hundred universities, libraries and museums now recommend Smarthistory and instructors are increasingly adopting it in place of the expensive survey textbook.

Support Open Funding
We recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to create 100 more videos (we currently have 300). Patrick Masson, Chief Technology Officer for UMassOnline, recently posted to the Openness listserv at Educause,

Smarthistory…started up a Kickstarter campaign (http://kck.st/hhRyA6)….I like the idea of this approach, which to me resembles a meritocracy…if an open project can mature through the contribution of content, code, intellectual property, etc., why can’t it mature through donations? This allows me, a non-art historian without content to contribute, who does not have the time/skill to support their production, to be a “developer.” I think this is much different than seeking partners and sponsorships, who may direct development away from the interests of the community. Smarthistory adheres to the philosophy that the value/relevance/quality of the project is directly determined by the commitment of the community.

Smarthistory will always remain free and open to its users. That’s a commitment we’ve made; it’s in the DNA of our project. With the help of the community, Smarthistory will just get better—for learners everywhere. Our focus now has to be on meeting our $10,000 goal since Kickstarter is an all or nothing structure. We have had an amazing week and have already raised $4,455 toward our goal, but if we only raise, for example $9,000, the project doesn’t fund and Smarthistory get nothing.

What can you do to help? First, watch our short video, then give whatever you can afford (even ten dollars, we have AMAZING giveaways!). Thank you.