The William Scott Foundation was established by his sons James and Robert Scott in memory of celebrated British artist William Scott RA (1913 –1989), who is best known for his still life and abstract paintings. The Foundation’s work covers a number of areas including the cataloguing of the William Scott Archive, which is built around Scott’s personal and professional correspondence papers and documentary photographs. The archive also features a collection of the artist’s personal effects including his brushes and paints, and a selection of objects used in his still-life arrangements. At present, the archive's primary concern is to serve as a research tool for the team who are investigating and editing the definitive catalogue raisonné of William Scott’s works in oil. With offices based very close to the former Chelsea studio of the prolific painter, in southwest London, the Foundation lends works to museums and exhibitions and authenticates paintings for auction houses and art galleries. All fees and reproduction rights received are used by the Foundation to sponsor stem-cell research projects with the Alzheimer’s Society to find effective therapies against dementia, a condition Scott developed in his later years.
William Scott Foundation
“Sometimes our computer network goes down and we feel absolutely helpless without access to FileMaker. We are heavily dependent on it - it is the hub where everything in the organisation goes back to,” says Robert Scott, Director of the William Scott Foundation.
Cataloguing an artist’s life works with FileMaker at the foundation
FileMaker simplifies the process of storing digital imagery as well as written information.
Overview
- Foundation was in need of a database that would facilitate its archiving work and allow the development of bespoke search functions.
Industry
- Arts: Established in memory of celebrated British artist William Scott RA, who is best known for his still life and abstract paintings.
Solution
- Database holds 3,500 separate records in various stages of completion.
Benefits
- FileMaker simplifies the process and allows the Foundation to store digital imagery as well as written information.
The challenge:
Because Scott suffered from Alzheimer’s during the last decade of his life, records cataloguing his works are incomplete. The situation is further muddied by the fact that the director of London’s Hanover gallery, who took on some responsibility for cataloguing Scott’s paintings, later developed the condition.
The Foundation, run by the artist’s sons, Robert and James, aims to capture information about the thousands of items pertinent to Scott’s life including images of the paintings, drawings and preparatory sketches, as well as chronological information.
This venture is a time-consuming process as Scott’s works are in the hands of individual collectors and museum collections throughout the world. One other stumbling block is the fact that in different catalogues for various exhibitions over the years, the same individual paintings have been given different titles, making the process of identifying works that much more complex.
As a result, the Foundation was in need of a database that would facilitate its archiving work and allow the development of bespoke search functions that would help identify individual works that had been given different names over time.
“Because I am retired and travel a great deal – both for the Foundation and partly for leisure – I need to access the database remotely, to add more information or to research details for a query,” says Robert Scott, the artist’s son and a director of the Foundation.
We use FileMaker as a repository for all the information we have collected about my father’s works, including digital images of paintings. It’s an enormous help.
—Robert Scott, William Scott Foundation
The FileMaker solution:
Robert has been using FileMaker for over twenty years both in his professional work as a designer and manufacturer of exhibitions and shopfitting, and now in his role with the William Scott Foundation.
“We use FileMaker as a repository for all the information we have collected about my father’s works, including digital images of paintings. It’s an enormous help,” he says.
“The database holds 3,500 separate records in various stages of completion and we are painstakingly working through filling in the gaps. We are able to ask the database about the status of each record; has a photo of the painting been taken yet? Do we have a year for the item? And we can call up that information almost instantly.”
Robert says he has written the script code for an application that helps search the images and make connections between different works, so he can, for example, locate a preparatory sketch with a painting, discover whether certain works are part of a series or check if the archive holds the same image under more than one title.
“All the programs I’ve written myself and although they may not be perfect, they are straightforward to use and it makes our job so much easier,” he adds.
The ability to access the database remotely is also of great benefit to Robert who these days is often travelling.
In addition to the on-going work of the Foundation, preparations are also underway for a number of exhibitions planned for 2013 to coincide with the centenary of William Scott’s birth. And again the search functions written for FileMaker are key to organising the events.
“I’ve written another program that enables the curators to make the selection of the works they hope to include in the exhibitions. It tell us the availability of particular works at any one time and where they are located, so they are able to better manage the logistics,” adds Robert.
Learn more about the William Scott Foundation here www.williamscott.org
Notable benefits:
- Archiving excellence – With so many separate items to record and track, FileMaker simplifies the process and allows the Foundation to store digital imagery as well as written information.
- Search scripts – Despite not having a background in IT, Roberthas written a number of search applications used to interrogate and refine the archive records.
- Remote access – The ability to update the database remotely is a huge boon to the Foundation guaranteeing the accuracy of the records and a swift resolution to queries.
Photograph of William Scott © William Scott Foundation 2011
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