July 2, 1997 Museum of Art Contact Heather Brown (541) 346-0942 or John R. Crosiar 346-3135 EUGENE--A pioneering early-20th century art collector, Gertrude Bass Warner sought to bridge cultural differences and foster peace around the Pacific Rim during her lifetime. Her legacy is doing it again--this time on the Internet. Warner's 1922 gift of Asian art works forms the core of the University of Oregon Museum of Art's permanent collection and is helping the museum reach a global audience on the Internet's World Wide Web. The Museum of Art's new interactive multimedia web page, a collaborative project with the UO's New Media Center, was launched in June in conjunction with the recent opening of "Precious Cargo: The Legacy of Gertrude Bass Warner." The exhibition commemorates Warner's remarkable life and the museum's 65th anniversary. "In hopes of reaching a broader audience by publicizing its exhibits and collection on the Internet, museum staff felt the Warner exhibition offered an ideal opportunity for an initial outreach effort," says Heather Brown, the museum's promotions and marketing assistant. The award-winning New Media Center worked closely with museum staff to create an online mini-exhibit at the art museum's web site, <http://uoma.uoregon.edu>. The page features sound, narration and reproductions of selected artifacts and ephemera from the Warner collection. To view the page with full effect requires recent versions of Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer browser software and the most current version of the free Shockwave plug-in that supports streaming audio. The Web site offers web visitors the opportunity to preview or reexamine parts of the exhibit and focuses on three different "passages" from Warner's life. By making use of the cutting-edge, push-the-envelope web publishing skills winning international acclaim for the UO New Media Center, Brown says museum staff hope the dynamic web page will enhance visitors' museum experiences. "This exciting use of technology makes just a very small part of the museum's collection more accessible to a worldwide audience," says Mike Holcomb, New Media Center director. "By offering interactive online tours of its holdings, the museum can invigorate the public's interest in the UO Museum of Art and create an international awareness of the richness and variety of its collections." The new web page for the museum will be available through Sept. 28 when the "Precious Cargo" exhibition is scheduled to close. The UO Museum of Art exhibition program for 1996-97 is supported in part by a grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Oregon Community Foundation, and the Institute of Museum Services, a federal agency supporting the nations museums. Accessible to people with disabilities, the UO Museum of Art and the Museum Store are open free to the public from noon-8 p.m. Wednesday and from noon-5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. For more information regarding the museum's new web page or the museum's exhibition programs, call (541) 346-3027. A taped message about current exhibitions and events also is available 24 hours a day by calling GuardLine from a Touch-Tone phone at 485-2000, ext. 5665. -30- #P-2021/A&E