WILLIAMSTOWN, MA.- Olivier Meslay, Hardymon Director of the Clark Art Institute, announced today that more than 2,700 high-resolution digital images of works in the museum’s renowned collection are now available for direct download from the Clark’s website, free of charge.

“The Clark’s central mission is to advance and extend the public understanding of art,” said Meslay. “By making high-quality images of the objects in our permanent collection readily accessible for public use, we seek to provide students, scholars, and art lovers with wonderful tools through which to explore, study, and enjoy these works.”

The images are made available at no charge and may be used for any purpose without requiring any permissions from the Clark. Prior to instituting its open-access policy, the Clark charged nominal fees for photographic reproductions of works in its collection. The number of available images will continue to increase as new digital files are added to the collection database available at clarkart.edu.

Most images are provided in two sizes—a JPEG file suitable for most uses and a larger, high-resolution TIFF file suitable for publication. The works for which high-resolution downloads are available are those that are believed to be free of artist copyright or other known restrictions. Some images may not have a download option available due to copyright considerations or restrictions from an artist, a donor, or related legal entities or because a digital image of suitable quality has not yet been created.

“We are proud to make these works available online and believe that this presents an exceptional opportunity to harness the power of digital technology to share our collection with an ever wider audience,” said Meslay.