Arts

Quelle: Brinken, H. (2020). Finanzierung von Open-Access-Artikeln, open-access.network. https://doi.org/10.5446/49536 (CC BY 3.0 DE)

In recent years, the arts disciplines have also increasingly taken a position on open access. Because they are situated between the arts and the sciences, they always play a special role in this regard.

The arts are characterised not only by a diversity of disciplines that work both artistically and academically, but also by an extremely diverse publishing landscape with actors from the areas of science, culture, education, and (creative) industry.

The diversity of the arts disciplines is also reflected in the broad range of publications, which may be text-based or non-text-based. Whether they be artist books, exhibition catalogues, photos, music/performance productions, or 3D-objects, these publications usually require consideration of numerous legal issues and are often a challenge for publishing platforms.

The currently existing infrastructures for open access publications are geared mostly towards text-based publications and are not adequate for the needs in the arts. The infrastructures in the area of research data, some of which already exist or are currently being developed, are important points of reference and are groundbreaking for open access infrastructures (not only) in the arts.

In addition, because of the close links with the creative industries, develop­ments in the arts impact a new area for the open access community – namely, the economic livelihood of artists. Artists work both for cultural and educational institutions and in the culture industry; they are dependent on marketing their content; and their publications are financed only partly via royalties. Moreover, they are often members of collecting societies, and are limited in their freedom to freely license their works. An open access strategy in the arts must therefore include the safeguarding of artists’ incomes.

The arts disciplines already clearly show that open access must always be seen in the context of all building blocks of open science and of all actors.

As of March 2024, the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) listed 169 titles under the keyword fine arts, while the OAPEN Library listed around 450 titles under art. However, the search results are mainly publications from the areas of art/art history or even ethnology rather than from the visual or applied arts.

In the last few years, the first open library consortia have been establishing themselves, for example the Open Library Medienwissenschaft since 2021 and KOALA Media Studies since 2023.

The network Open Access in den Künsten [Open Access in the Arts] offers all artistic institutions and higher education institutions a forum for exchange and discussion. The aim of the network is to share materials and information and to anchor the open access idea in the arts. The focus of the network is on libraries, which, as service facilities, promote and contribute to shaping the establishing of open access structures at various levels.

Open access is also gaining in importance in art and museum libraries (Hahn, 2018). Besides making text-oriented electronic resources available, these libra­ries have long been administering analogous special collections, such as image archives, graphical collections, or artist books. Here, open access can be a step towards digital transformation and the expansion of the collection profile and the information offering. Via synergy effects, this can also advance open access in the arts. For several years now, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Kunst- und Mu­seumsbibliotheken (Working Group of the Art and Museum Libraries, AKMB) has offered further training in the area of open access.