Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with gallery

Webpage personalizer wanted

leigh1 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:25:28 -0800

Is there a website that can allow me to make a personalized webpage (similar to iGoogle) full of pictures, like a simple image gallery, and all I have to do is add link to the picture? I don't want thumbnails, I want the page to be scrollable and all pictures at 100%. This is for personal use only. I am too lazy to save pictures to my disk and make this in Dreamweaver, then upload for every picture, etc etc.

But I don't have a sideways scroll button!

saturnine — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:35:02 -0800

Is there a Greasemonkey script to turn side scrolling websites into up-down scrolling websites? I view a lot of photographer's websites. Or, I would, if it weren't for the current fad for putting all the images on one line and making me scroll sideways. [random example]

I don't have a scroll button that goes sideways! I do however, have Firefox with Greasemonkey installed. I've tried to google to find a solution myself, but I'm a relative newbie to using this extension and I don't know where to start. Does anything exist that could help me view these websites and not kill my wrists/eyes in the process? Is it logistically too difficult because of the variations in HTML/CSS etc? Please hope me!

USB key-friendly photo viewer for Windows /w tagging?

onshi — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 13:04:36 -0800

Can you recommend a lightweight, USB key-friendly photo viewer software for Windows that supports tagging? If Cornice Portable supported tags (or was still under development) that would be perfect, as I use PortableApps on my thumb drive. Ideas/suggestions?

The little library that could

Dandeson Coates, Sec'y — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:25:58 -0800

Mini-libraryFilter: My small gallery has a reading room, with probably a couple of hundred books. I want a cataloguing and lending system that can turn these books into a real library. I'm ideally looking for a web-based system that will let me enter published and unpublished books, have a publicly-available online catalogue, and let me easily keep track of what's been lent out and who has it. LibraryThing seemed like the trick, but there's no lending system, and the only workaround seems to involve a lot of futzing around with private comments and the like. As I'm not going to be the one using the system most of the time, I'd like it to be easier than that.

The other online services I've found seem to involve lending to other users only. We're on Ubuntu, so Delicious Library is out, even if it could publish an online catalogue. At the moment we're dangling over the precipice of a spreadsheet, and no one wants that.

If anyone has any suggestions, fire away! You can come to our next opening and have wine.

Where to throw a party in San Francisco?

roxie110 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:03:30 -0800

Suggestions for birthday party locations to rent in San Francisco? I'm thinking about throwing a party for my 40th birthday in October and have been racking my brain for ideas for places to go or to rent. My best guess is about 30 people (could be less or more, probably depending on how cool the event is!), preferably an evening/night event, and those thousand-dollar-and-up uber-swanky places are definitely out. It's quite likely I'd want to have a couple bands I know play, and have some sort of music going (probably from an ipod playlist) the rest of the time. I could set up some sort of bar if the venue doesn't have one--quite a number of my friends are big drinkers, so availibility of booze would help grease the rails!

Every year on my birthday I just have friends show up at a bar (Zeitgeist, Casanova) so I don't have to bother with planning. This year I'm open to trying something a little more special--but ideally I'd like the venue to be cool enough that it will do some of the work of making the party successful. (I don't want a bunch of people standing around just *looking* at each other. Horror!)

Any suggestions would be gratefully welcomed. From looking at past Metafilter postings, it looks like art galleries are a possibility--does anyone know one or two in particular that might do the trick? I'm also open to suggestions for places or party ideas that are very cool but that are outside of what it seems I'm looking for.

Flash gallery without the Flash, or at least without much fuss

miniminimarket — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:05:18 -0800

Is there a Wordpress-friendly way (with a plugin, or a javascript gallery, or Flash-based gallery, etc) to make a gallery that looks like this site? I see lots of galleries with a filmstrip at the bottom, where you click on the thumbnail and get a full-sized image in the center of the screen. I'm looking to have full-size images scroll full screen. I've searched through a few "top jQuerty gallery plugins" lists without luck.

I realize the link is in Flash but with no experience in Flash (though I do have Adobe Flash CS4) I'm not sure how to reproduce it that way either. If Flash is actually the easiest/simplest solution, let me know.

The images I'm using will also be narrow.

Thanks in advance!

Short notice renting art/party space in San Francisco?

dual_action — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:20:36 -0800

How can I find a small art gallery/event space to rent this upcoming Saturday night in San Francisco? I'm going to be in SF this weekend for a convention and would like to host a small gathering of poets/live musicians outside the hotel for a little shindig. I'm thinking about 20-30 people and would like to keep costs down below $500 for the evening. A gallery space would be perfect, but since it is short notice (long story) I know that will be difficult. I'd like to stay away from the 'hotel conference room' vibe and would prefer it to be within walking distance of Union Square. One that looked great but is unfortunately booked is here. Thanks!

What's the best online picture gallery you have come across?

Juggernut — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:56:57 -0800

What's the best online picture gallery you have come across? Priority is the user-interface ( ease of navigation ) than the quality of the pictures themselves. I am a full-time programmer and one of my main hobbies is Photography. I wanted to implement an online picture gallery borrowing some ideas from excellent picture galleries and portfolios photogs have put together. What are some sites in your opinion are awe-inspiring not necessarily due to the quality of the photos but due to style and presentation? Some minor positive factors are keyboard navigation support, ease of access to the large photos from the medium ones or thumbnail etc, how the exif information is presented etc.

Art Gallery closes, my "friend" steals from fellow artist

Anonymous — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:16:15 -0800

I am an oil painter. I have a friend who is (was) a gallery owner (G). The gallery owner knew I am in touch with an esteemed oil painter (E) and arranged to have a two man show with E and another local (venerated) painter. Unbeknownst to E the G is/was in serious financial trouble. E had a gallery for a decade and had a decent reputation. Well, E's show went up and 3 paintings were sold. The other artist had 2 paintings sell. I know E trusted G largely because he felt if I was involved G is a good guy. (The "contact" type of arrangement). G's gallery has now closed and I have helped in final details as a volunteer as G has no staff. I consider G a friend..he has helped me as an artist. I consider E an A-list artist and someone to emulate. It has been over 30 days since the end of the show. Day before yesterday E emailed me a rather terse email asking if I had contact info on G. I called G and asked if I could give E the cell number. G said "sure" (but it begs the question...was G going to just disappear without giving contact info?). Yesterday I had lunch with G. He is leaving town never to open another gallery. Suddenly he said: " I don't like E bugging me! It makes me want to not pay him! He is not a nice person!" This took me aback. I said (gingerly).."well E is just like everyone else, suffering through the recession..and he has a little kid" G says "I didn't tell him to have a kid!" hmmm. I knew at that point that appealing to his humanity was going no where and that it was clear G is rationalizing away all reasons to pay E his 50% of proceeds for work that E did (and E footed a large frame bill as well). I do not have G's address although I have a vague description of where he is going (the next state). G is a very emotional person and I know he has been under a great deal of stress. At times I felt like I was one of his last remaining friends. But now this has happened and I am shocked that he would consider ripping off/stiffing E. It is likely that G simply does not have the $ to pay. This is out and out theft and I know how much E needs the $. I am heartbroken that G is not the man I thought he was. By the way, the other man in the 2 man show did get paid...possibly because G views him as a "nice" person (and/or he was still trying to hold it together...it doesn't seem like he is trying to hold it together anymore.).

E has expressed concern to me that G is going to not pay him. I now have information that confirms that. Should I alert E that he is correct about his misgivings? I have information that E doesn't have that could be helpful to him (the vague description of his G's new location).

How to retain a career in the arts industry

Weng — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:28:17 -0800

Is there a qualification that will (relatively speaking) "recession-proof" a career in the arts industry? For example, a management qualification? I have recently withdrawn from a graduate research program to work full-time in the museum & gallery sector (... and because, well, I found that I hated doing a PhD.) What I am now concerned about is how competitive this field is, and whether I may have disadvantaged myself by not having an extra qualification, beyond my BA Hons in Art History. Although I'm not keen on solitary academic research right now, I'm open to the general idea of more study - by coursework, for example - to gain extra skills & have better employment prospects.

I should add here that I'm not specifically interested in being a curator, although that is the area where I have done my internship and 1 year of work experience (just as an assistant). It's possible that I'd be equally happy in the areas of Education, Exhibitions, Marketing, Publications, Design, etc... the problem is, they are all specific skill sets in themselves, requiring e.g. an Education degree or Design portfolio. I am not sure where (or if) I want to specialise or how to get experience in those areas without more study - i just know I like working in this creative environment. I am a fairly typical ENFP personality type, if that helps.

* So my question is: Is there a general qualification that would give me a competitive edge in as many areas of museum & gallery work as possible? Is this what an Arts Management degree (e.g. Masters) is? Would this be more broadly useful than, say, a Diploma of Education? And if it really becomes hard to get a job in the arts (even more so that at present, I mean), am I better to get something non arts-specific? (I admit I have no background or apparent aptitude in economics and the like, although I am willing to learn.)

So I guess I'm basically asking which qualifications are most highly sought after in the museum & gallery sector (or more broadly the arts), by as many areas as possible?
(apart from a PhD, that is... if in fact it does top the list, as I have heard conflicting advice on this point.)

How do I find a flash gallery for my website that pulls from my Flickr account?

jnnla — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:46:52 -0800

Is there a fully customizable flash image gallery for my website that will pull photos from my Flickr sets? I need something like PictoBrowser but more customizable and without the "pictobrowser" link embedded in there. It is perfect in that it loads from Flickr sets, so I can have one particular set feed my website gallery and just worry about uploading my photos to Flickr and sorting there.

I have looked at dfgallery and it looks very close to what I need, but I am not knowledgeable enough to install it on my site. Also it doesn't look like it supports specific sets - and I need that capability.

I realize there are others that pull from flickr, but they tend to be gimmicky "postcard" galleries. I want the streamlined, simple "main image with thumbnails along the bottom" look.

Is there anything similar to Pictobrowser, free or not...that will pull from Flickr sets and create a Flash gallery that is completely customizable (in terms of colors, links etc)? I know this is a tall order, but any help would be appreciated.

What U.S. cities are best for artists to make a living?

RaceTheDream — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:29:07 -0800

I live in Madison WI and am looking to move to a larger city, under the impression that being in a larger city will provide me with more exposure and greater opportunities. I was thinking of moving to the outskirts of Chicago because it's close to my family in Madison and I love it there. I also miss Denver CO where I was born, but am unsure what kind of an art community it has. Does anyone know what cities are best for making a living as an artist? I have a degree in illustration but am also trying to get into gallery shows as well if that helps. Thank you very much for any advice.

Best ways to harness the web for museum/gallery collection access?

Weng — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:12:09 -0800

What are the best, most innovative websites that provide access to museum or art gallery collections, or related art historical information? For each example, what are the factors that make it so good? This can be in terms of style, aesthetics, useability, novelty value, whatever. Primarily I am looking for examples of how the capabilities of the web have been made use of in order to create better access to art collections and their supporting material.

Any suggestions? If so, what is the actual technology / tool / software being used? [Sorry, you can probably tell by my terminology that I'm a newbie in this area...]

My purpose in asking is to help with the brainstorming of new project ideas, for a website that I may be involved in developing in future. Obviously I am kind of a luddite in this area, but need to start researching the possibilities that are out there... So, any pointers towards blogs, books or articles that discuss this issue would also be appreciated!

Thanks all!

Image-board blog shoutbox?

Marquis — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:08:35 -0800

How can I add an image-based shoutbox to my blog? Looking for elegant, cruft-free scripts that allow me to create a kind of mini image-board within a blog post.

I'd like to be able to make a post (eg: "What's your favourite photo of a cat sleeping in a tuba?") and then let users upload images in reply. The images could be hosted on my server, and all I'd need is for the poster to leave a name/email etc.

Really what I have in mind is a shoutbox like YShout or Shoutmix, but with users leaving images instead of text.

Bonus points if I can have multiple boards open at once, and if I can close boards to new messages while leaving the image galleries online. (e.g. stop accepting new "cats in tubas" images after one week, but start soliciting "raccoons in trombones")

Setting up a multi-city art exhibition

lhall — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:50:35 -0800

Quickfire art exhibition in multiple cities - how do I even begin? I am playing a game which has introduced a fictional pandemic, and I want to ask players to create artwork, photos, sculptures, etc. dealing with the disease... but I want to take it a step further and actually set up an offline, real-world exhibition of the stuff they produce. Problem is, I have no experience in that sphere beyond attending a couple of exhibitions at galleries. So how should I go about making this a reality?

I have no budget so I know I'll have to rely on the kindness of gallery space owners. Are there any resources or messageboards where I could post to see if anyone's interested? (Specifically I'd like to display things in San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas or Austin, and NYC, because I have friends there who can help me coordinate stuff...but any cities are fine.)

What's a reasonable timeline from request -> artwork sending/arriving -> show? (I have about six weeks but I would like to do this in about a month, if that isn't totally crazy. I am considering having different art in each city, with the showing on the same night, to keep things within the timeframe.)

What steps am I woefully ignorant of/totally leaving out?

Thanks in advance for tips and advice!

Photo Gallery site - PLUS

davereed — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:12:06 -0800

I'm looking for a site that will let me send email or SMS to online galleries with photos, videos or audio. I am planning on a photo/video/audio scavenger hunt at a convention in May. (yay, time to plan and test the solution!)

I want each team to have a separate email address to send their entries to. I want each email address to go to a separate stream or gallery. Ease of downloading the entire stream/gallery is important since in the end we'll download the winning stream and post those messages, somewhere. (on the wall, on a dvd running a slide show... something)

Of course, I have no budget. This is a non-profit convention (Science Fiction convention, if you're curious)

Since I don't know how many teams there will be, or how many things there will be on the list (we just started working on that part) unlimited storage is pretty important.

I expect no 'adult' images, but I can't control what pictures other people take, so I need a site that won't go nuts if a little skin slips in. deleting the offending photo is fine. killing the account and all the photos is not.

So... Hive Mind, help? What's your best low-cost or free email-sensitive photo/audio/video sharing site?

CMS recommendations for paid gallery access?

Acetylene — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:25:59 -0800

A friend has asked for my help designing a site to sell access to photo galleries and videos (yes, porn). The way he'd like it to work is this: on the main page, you see a list of models. You click one and see that model's available galleries and videos, with some sample images and video clips. You then purchase (via credit card) access to the galleries and videos you want, rather than the usual porn subscription model. Can anyone recommend a CMS for this sort of thing? I'm at a loss.

Is this a Flash product

zingzangzung — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:08:36 -0800

Can anyone tell me if Erwin Olafs photography site (arty nsfw) uses commercially available Flash gallery products, or if it most likely a one off? As far as I can see the main functionality is that the photos can be scrolled through in small (several per page) and medium sizes, one per page, medium size images can be printed or saved, and zoomed to very large size where you can move around the image with the mouse.
It would be helpful to know if parts of this are add on Flash components or 3rd party products, and of course what these are.

Modern art framing

jayder — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:15:23 -0800

Art museum painting framing question. A common style of framing in art museums --- especially with abstract paintings such as Cy Twombly and Mark Rothko's works --- involves a thin strip of wood around the edge of a painting, perhaps with a few-millimeter gap between the edge of the canvas and the inner edge of the wood. The strip of wood is usually flush with the face of the painting. That's all there is to it. I would like to replicate this effect with some paintings I have. Any idea how best to accomplish this effect? I am hoping to do it myself, using some basic hand tools, but I am not sure how best to fasten the frame to the painting, nor am I sure what is holding the frame together. The wood strips are very thin, perhaps a quarter of an inch wide, no more than half an inch.

Gallery-quality prints from slides.

Sreiny — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:13:07 -0800

What are my options for gallery-quality prints from slide film? I've had an inquiry in showing some of my photographs in a small gallery here in the city. All of the photos were shot with slide film. In the past I've scanned, had printed and framed these on a purely consumer level. I'd like to look into what processes (printing methods, scanning, etc), papers, framing that professional fine art photographers employ when they need to have gallery-quality photographs from transparency film produced.

For now, let's assume that price isn't the biggest factor and that the photos would be around 16x20. I'm in Chicago, if that helps. Your help is much appreciated!

You have been looking at that painting a bit too long and it's making me feel like a nube

brandnew — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:32:24 -0800

Appreciating the visual arts: what should I be looking at? What should I be thinking about? OK, I love art. I had done several years of art technique in drawing, painting, and ceramics throughout middle school and high school, and a little bit more in college. I have taken (a while ago), classes on art history, so I vaguely remember the different art periods, and the meaning of art from a period perspective. I can appreciate the social aspects and movements that drive art. I understand a wee little bit on art theory - form and color, in particular, but not much.

Here's the problem: When I'm at a gallery or a museum, a lot of times I just don't understand what I'm supposed to be looking at. ISo, fall back to the aesthetics. I also try to role-play the artist - try to understand why they had made one decision over another. Finally, I try to appreciate the art technique.

But, to be totally and ignorantly honest, 75% of what I see, I don't understand. This is especially true in contemporary galleries, where I'm looking at art from this period. I end up passing up most of the art on the wall, because it's not immediately interesting or appealing. Especially photography - oftentimes, I'm puzzled and asking myself "why".

I really want to understand what I'm supposed to be looking at. But, I want to better appreciate art. I don't want to feel out of the know.

What are all of those other people (you) looking at when they look at a painting or sculpture? They seem to be standing there for a very long time.

Are there blogs or books that I can read to help decrease my art ignorance?

Can I write potential experience on my resume?

Anonymous — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:36:38 -0800

Is it okay to put an internship on my resume if I haven't started yet? I'm a junior in college. I applied to some art gallery internships for the summer, and landed an internship doing at this awesome place A which is cool, interesting, and well regarded to boot. However, they only need me for a few days a week, which gives me space for another internship. As a result, I'm applying again to gallery B.

However, I switched my majors sorta late in college (from computer science), so all my prior internships have been computer science or engineering related ones. I'm pretty sure this doesn't look that great on a resume that galleries will look at, and I'm also pretty sure that the fact that I'm working at A would be pretty impressive for gallery B.

Do you think it would be unethical/inappropriate if I included my future internship at gallery A in the resume that I submit to gallery B? Of course, I'd mention that I'm not working there yet but will be. Or is this a no-no? Should I mention it in the cover letter instead?

Adjusting PHP Code for Photo Gallery

jalexei — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:54:58 -0800

Non-programmer needs help with some PHP code for an online gallery. I'm doing a favor for a friend, and creating a simple portfolio site. I downloaded a cool bit of code that will let you dump images and descriptions (as text files with the same names), in a directory and have a gallery created - I'm basically creating a gallery for each piece of this artists' work, to show a main image and have several clickable thumbs that give alternate views - I'd like to force the first image in each discreet gallery to open whenever someone visits that gallery, but it looks like it's set to random. Here's what I think is the relevant part:

$rand_class=""; $rand_caption=""; // zero some stuff out
$rand_img = $a_img[mt_rand(0, $tot_img-1)]; // grab a random starting image...
$rand_caption = $desc_img[$rand_img]; // ...and it's caption if it exists
$rand_class= ($rand_caption!="")?"asdasd":"hidden"; // if it exists, we'll want to show it.

How can I adjust that second line to not grab a random image, but always go to the first?

a dream preferred

pinto — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:50:22 -0800

I'm looking for a dynamic, multimedia online portfolio system. Does such a thing exist? Kind of like a flickr model, but for different media types and personal domains. (details inside) My dream: To simply upload a file in a particular folder on a server, and have my portfolio (or gallery) automatically update and add the new media to its current presentation. FTP transfer preferred over a web interface, but whatever.

Ideally, a metadata field could be read to include caption or tagging information.

Further, different media types (audio, video, picture) would be automatically recognized and added to unique galleries of that mediatype.

What's more, customizable css for aesthetic fiddling.

Is it out there?

[it stands for getting my own fucking blog]

heeeraldo — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:39:40 -0800

Help me pick a CMS, so I can GMOFB (among other things) I'd like to pick a CMS to build a personal webpage off of; although it wouldn't be too difficult to put up HTML pages, I'd like to get some experience working with CMSes in case I need to do so in future.

I'm fairly proficient with X/HTML and CSS; I use mostly Coda to put stuff together (but have Dreamweaver CS3) and would like the following sections:

an about me page
multiple photo galleries
a portfolio section
a blog, mostly for detailing what I'm working on and/or interesting, work-related links
a fairly static colophone page
a contact page

As you can see, it's not really anything that would tax a CMS but it I would like something that is fairly flexible and tweakable because, frankly, I like poking around in the guts of things.
I've worked with Blogger before, and thought it was alright. At this point I'm leaning towards Wordpress but Movable Type also looks like an interesting option.
Thanks, folks.