About this project
WallText helps art enthusiasts discover works currently on display across museum collections worldwide.
What is WallText?
WallText is a passion project inspired by my own desire to find where works by my favorite artists were not only housed, but on display. When I realized many museums provide open access APIs, I realized my dream could become a reality used by many!
How it works
WallText searches across multiple museum open access APIs in parallel, filtering results to only show works that are currently on display. Each museum's API provides a version of an "on view" indicator, allowing us to show you only the works you can actually see in person right now.
Data & Attribution
From REST APIs:
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art (API docs)
Collection data available under CC0 1.0. - Whitney Museum of American Art (API docs)
Collection data used for non-commercial educational and personal purposes in accordance with Whitney API terms. - Art Institute of Chicago (API docs)
Collection data available under CC0 1.0. Artwork descriptions provided under CC BY 4.0 by the Art Institute of Chicago. - Cleveland Museum of Art (API docs)
Collection data available under CC0 1.0. - Getty Museum (API docs)
Collection data licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the J. Paul Getty Museum. - © Victoria and Albert Museum, London (API docs)
Used for noncommercial educational purposes per V&A terms and conditions.
From open datasets:
- Minneapolis Institute of Art - Collection data published on GitHub, synced periodically.
Collection data available under CC0 1.0. - National Gallery of Art - Open access data on GitHub.
Collection data available under CC0 1.0. - Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) - Collection data published on GitHub, synced periodically.
Collection data available under CC0 1.0. Note: Images are not part of the dataset per MoMA's licensing terms.
We are grateful to these institutions for making their collection data freely available.
Images & Copyright
WallText displays artwork images only where the source museum provides them for open access, public domain use, or non-commercial educational display under the museum’s published terms. We do not host or store image files; all images are displayed via hotlinked URLs provided by the source institutions. Where a work is still under copyright, we show metadata (title, artist, date, location) without an image.
How we determine image availability varies by museum:
- The Met — Images shown only for works the Met flags as public domain.
- Whitney Museum of American Art — Images displayed for non-commercial educational purposes in accordance with Whitney API terms.
- Art Institute of Chicago — Images shown only for works AIC flags as public domain.
- Cleveland Museum of Art — The API only provides images for CC0 open access works.
- Getty Museum — Images shown only for works the Getty flags as CC0 (public domain). Rights are checked per object via the Getty licensing endpoint.
- Minneapolis Institute of Art — Images shown only for works with a public domain rights designation in the source data.
- National Gallery of Art — The NGA's open dataset does not include a rights field. Images are shown only for works whose artist died more than 70 years ago (the standard U.S. copyright term). For works with no known artist death year, images are shown only if the work was created before 1870. Some public-domain works may not display images as a result.
- Victoria and Albert Museum — Images are not shown due to copyright and licensing considerations.
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) — Images are not included in MoMA's open dataset per their licensing terms.
WallText aims to be conservative and respectful in its use of museum data and imagery. Where copyright status is unclear or a work is believed to be under copyright, we display descriptive metadata only. If you believe any content has been displayed in error, please contact us and we will review and remove it promptly.
Contact
If you have any questions, suggestions, or additional open access APIs to flag for inclusion, please email me at lkorwin [at] gmail [dot] com.
FAQ▸
Why do some searches take longer than others?
Each museum's API has different response times. Most return results in under a second, but the Getty Museum uses a specialized query language (SPARQL) that can take 3-8 seconds. We show results progressively as each museum responds, so you'll see faster museums appear first.
Why does "Check for more" sometimes find nothing new?
Some museum APIs return broad matches (e.g., searching "van Gogh" might return any artist with "van" in their name). We filter these results to show only exact matches for your search terms. When you check for more, the additional results from the API may not contain exact matches, so no new works appear.