The Global Art Initiative is based in Texas, and its goal is to help lift disabled third world artists out of poverty by providing them with art supplies, crutches, wheelchairs, safe spaces to create art, and art lessons. Another goal of the Initiative is to teach empathy towards the disabled, to both children and adults. Visitors can go under the "Artist" tab, on the left hand menu, to see five...

As a secular saint of Tin Pan Alley, Hoagy Carmichael looms large in the world of American popular song. As a native Hoosier, Carmichael graduated from the Indiana University School of Law and went on to write hundreds of standards, including "Star Dust" and "Two Sleepy People". This digital tribute and archive to his work was created by staff members at the Indiana University Library. On the...

Artist colonies have always fascinated the American public, and whether they have been informally organized or not, they seem to provide great opportunities for a variety of collaborations. One of the oldest of these colonies is the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The colony was started in 1907 by the composer Edward MacDowell and his wife Marian, and over the past century it has...

Based at the University of Illinois Library and University Archives, the Sousa Archives and Center For American Music brings together a host of ephemeral records and artifacts that "document America's local and national music history and its diverse cultures." The heart of the collection is, not surprisingly, a massive archive of John Philip Sousa's personal papers and documents. In the "Research...

Southern California artist John Frame has taken on a number of intriguing projects over the years, and this exhibit at The Huntington is as arresting as anything else he has done previously. This online exhibit is meant to complement an in-situ exhibit, and it profiles three dozen of his intricately carved sculptures. Visitors can start by watching an 8-minute film by filmmaker Johnny Coffeen...

This web exhibition from the Smithsonian's American Art Museum features the work of painter George Ault (1891-1948). Ault's "precise yet eerie pictures" chronicle the 1940s, a time when the United States was struggling to get out of the Great Depression and fighting World War II. Ault's subject matter is primarily rural, such as Brook in the Mountains, 1945, a depiction of a small waterfall near...

The letters written by Vincent Van Gogh have appeared many times before, but this is the first time they have appeared as part of a complete digital edition. This fascinating collection was created by the Van Gogh Museum and the Huygens Institute, and the letters were edited by Leo Jansen, Hans Luijten and Nineke Bakker. On the site, visitors can view 902 letters from and to Van Gogh, complete...

This website from an Italian lace making firm isn't just a mere company website. The "Virtual Museum" contains more than a dozen peopled scenes from the 1400s to the 1900s, and it highlights the lace-centric textiles in each scene. The textiles are listed below the scene, and when visitors click on the listed textiles, they are taken to the textile in the scene, where a few details are given...

In the 1970s, Vivienne Westwood and her partner Malcolm McLaren gained attention for designing clothes that captured the zeitgeist of the punk movement. Later, Westwood struck out on her own, and in 1989 Women's Wear Daily Publisher John Fairchild crowned her one of "the six best designers in the world." This online exhibit from the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) explores...

MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, uses blogging, podcasting and other Web technologies to create the WACKsite as a component of WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, a major show of feminist art created between 1965 and 1980. The WACKsite includes 42 Installation views of the exhibition, as well as a series of images from Walks Through the Revolution, a tour of the show held...