From the Collection

The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College has about 20,000 pieces of art in its collection. This is far more than can be displayed in the physical museum at any one time. In addition, museum display is always about balancing access to artwork with care and preservation concerns. Many pieces, like works on paper and textiles are damaged by the light necessary to view the pieces. To prolong the life of an object, artworks are given “rest” times – a work on paper displayed for three months requires a “rest” time of five years afterwards, for instance. Putting the piece back on display too soon risks worsening existing light damage, which is cumulative and irreversible.

However, access is just as important as preservation. The eMuseum allows the museum to make pieces available for viewing, even if they are currently in a “rest” phase, or while we wait to display them in the physical space through a rotation of our permanent collections.

This digital collection contains almost everything we have photographed so far. This allows you to browse through all digitized pieces, or if you are looking for a particular piece of art, to search for it by title or artist. If you are looking for a more curated experience, many of these artworks are also present in other smaller collections on the eMuseum.

Gabrielle Friesen, Digital Collections Assistant

2021