Arts.link (under development)
ARTS.LINK is the working title of a web platform that is currently under development. It is being developed by a Berlin-based NGO that is particularly committed to art and artists in exile. The website supports and connects artists, art technicians, cultural professionals and institutions worldwide with a special focus on countries where human rights, freedom of expression and/or artistic freedom are restricted.
Above all, the social network offers visibility for cultural scenes and their actors that are fragmented by political situations. It is intended to inspire visitors to discover new culture and artists, but also to find familiar ones.
Discover culture that was previously untraceable
The profiles created by the artists on the platform and their posted art offer a unique insight into the often locally fragmented cultural scenes whose protagonists have to live in exile due to the political situation in their home countries.
Art comes from showing
That is why we have opted for a very understated design and two different approaches: Discover & Research. In the Discover section, content is presented via topic-specific, partly gamified modules that cover a broad spectrum of what the platform has to offer. Users are playfully invited to discover new artists and their works for themselves.
Seeing who otherwise cannot be seen
For the artists themselves, the platform offers digital tools that make it easier to present themselves and their art professionally and to respond as flexibly as possible to the different requirements of the various art disciplines and local requirements of the artists in exile.
Data that simply does not exist elsewhere
Are you a curator, researcher or press officer looking for female sculptors aged between 40 and 50 from Syria who have previously worked in Istanbul? The Research section is optimized for all users who work professionally with artists and want to obtain specific information about the cultural scenes of the countries represented on the platform.
It was important to us to present the database and its meta-information in such a way that users can easily find what they are looking for - even if they lack information about what they are looking for. To achieve this, we designed an interface that is easy to filter and still offers a clear overview of a lot of content despite the large number of entries.
Great! But is it also understood?
Accessibility was our central concern when creating the editor for the artist profiles. At the same time, it was important to us to leave plenty of room for individualization so that the profiles would be accepted by the artists as their primary self-presentation on the Internet.
