Curationist

Curationist Reimagining how people access art, knowledge and culture online.

05/28/2026

Katsushika Ōi was a gifted 19th-century Japanese painter and poet in the late ukiyo-e tradition. Despite her well-crafted contributions to the ukiyo-e tradition, her erasure from the art historical record ought to push contemporary viewers and scholars to reconsider female agency and artistic innovation during the Edo period. 🌠🌙

Read more at the link in our bio.

Our Work of the Week is Kawanabe Kyōsai’s depiction of the Hell Courtesan tale. 🌌Check out the enhanced description for ...
05/26/2026

Our Work of the Week is Kawanabe Kyōsai’s depiction of the Hell Courtesan tale. 🌌

Check out the enhanced description for this work, which is referenced in the editorial feature, “The Learned Courtesan” by Reina Gattuso:

In the most popular version of the Hell Courtesan’s (Jigoku Dayū’s) tale, Jigoku Dayū was working at a brothel when Ikkyū, a famous Zen Buddhist monk, patronized her. Because he broke monastic taboos by eating fish and drinking alcohol, Jigoku Dayū questioned his identity. She sent dancers to tempt him, but when she spied on them she found the monk was dancing with skeletons. Jigoku Dayū thus realized that life is impermanent. After that, she wore kimonos patterned with images of hell to express her spiritual commitment. This silk scroll is one of artist Kawanabe Kyōsai’s several ink paintings of the Hell Courtesan. In this version, her robe bears images of the Seven Gods of Good Fortune and strands of coral rather than the fires of hell. This is an example of mitate-e, a genre of prints that are visual puns on spiritual or literary figures.

Image:
Kawanabe Kyōsai, Hell Courtesan 地獄太夫図, 1871–89. Cleveland Museum of Art . CC0.

05/22/2026

Archiving is part of our daily work here at Curationist, but how can we carry this practice into our personal lives? Here are some reflections on being your own archivist and why it’s important. 📔💛

How do you build your life’s archive?

This Work of the Week tells the pious story of Mary Magdalene in one image. 🕯️🪞Also known as “Magdalen with Two Flames,”...
05/21/2026

This Work of the Week tells the pious story of Mary Magdalene in one image. 🕯️🪞

Also known as “Magdalen with Two Flames,” “The Penitent Magdalen,” is one of several paintings of Mary Magdalen by Georges de La Tour. De La Tour depicted Mary in front of mirrors, lit by candlelight, and surrounded by worldly and spiritual objects. In this version, Mary casts her jewelry aside, symbolizing her rejection of earthly possessions. A skull rests in her lap as a memento mori, indicative of mortality. Mary does not appear in the mirror, representing her commitment to piety over the flesh.

Image:
Georges de La Tour, The Penitent Magdalen, circa 1640. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

May’s comes from Curationist’s Executive Advisor, Tobias Sattler, who was struck by this instrument’s bright, contrast...
05/20/2026

May’s comes from Curationist’s Executive Advisor, Tobias Sattler, who was struck by this instrument’s bright, contrasting colors and the complex sculptural dimensions of the hand-carving. 🐦‍⬛🪵

Image:
“Raven Rattle”, late 1800s–early 1900s, Cleveland Museum of Art. CC0.

Thank you to everyone who attended the first Learning with Curationist Webinar last week! Our panelists engaged in rich ...
05/19/2026

Thank you to everyone who attended the first Learning with Curationist Webinar last week! Our panelists engaged in rich conversation about the ways we can make archival research a more ethical practice with platforms like Curationist.

We hope you left the webinar feeling as empowered and inspired as we did, and we look forward to the next installment of the series next month. 🤍🌎💻

Have topics you’d like to see covered in future webinars? Let us know in the comments!

05/15/2026

Exciting news! We have a new homepage! 🎉

These new changes and additions to our site make learning with Curationist.org smoother and easier.

You can now:
🌟Easily access all our rich content from the home page
🎨 Find highlighted works with Curationist updated metadata on the Works page
🌿Browse each institution’s open access collection on the Museum pages.

We’re making arts and culture knowledge even more accessible through these changes. Start browsing at Curationist.org!

This Work of the Week our new Highlighted Works page, which features all of the works with Curationist-enhanced metadata...
05/14/2026

This Work of the Week our new Highlighted Works page, which features all of the works with Curationist-enhanced metadata! 💀🥀🕯️

Skulls, femur bones, and flowers are scattered on the table of Aelbert Jansz van der Schoor’s “Vanitas still life.” Vanitas is a painting genre used to illustrate the brevity of life and the inevitable passage of time. It was popular among European artists and Christians from the 13th century to the 17th century.

Skulls—and there are many in this painting—represent the head of Death and remind us to face death courageously, without fear.

Browse more of our highlighted works at the link in our bio!

Image:
Aelbert Jansz. van der Schoor, Vanitas still life, 1640-1672. Rijksmuseum.

05/13/2026

Help keep Curationist’s mission for open access artistic and cultural knowledge alive. Donate today! 🖤🌠

Link in bio for more information.

The first installment of the Learning with Curationist Webinar series is next week! Here’s a couple of words from our pa...
05/08/2026

The first installment of the Learning with Curationist Webinar series is next week! Here’s a couple of words from our panelists. 🎉💫🌏

We launched this pay-what-you-can webinar to bring our community together for conversations around metadata, open knowledge, and digital collection stewardship. This model helps us continue offering programming like this while keeping these conversations open and accessible to all.

Each session features cultural heritage leaders and changemakers, exploring how data shapes what we know and remember, responsible stewardship,  questions of authority and access, the impact of emerging technologies, and what it takes to sustain open knowledge in a digital world.

Join us for monthly, one-hour virtual events from May through October, featuring presentations, discussions, and live Q&A. If you’re able, we invite you to contribute in support of this series and help sustain our work. Register for Webinar 1 at the link in our bio!

Webinar Info:
Tuesday, May 12th
3pm ET / 12pm PT

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