Grove Art Letter from the Editor

Greetings from Grove Art!

As the incoming Editor in Chief of the dictionary, I want to let you know about some exciting new developments. Grove Art, the premiere online art encyclopedia, launched online in 1998 and moved to Oxford University Press in 2003. Our mission is to serve as a robust critical resource for the arts around the globe, and we have therefore made the geographic expansion and terminological refinement of our entries a priority. Recent commissions, for instance, have produced new essays artists and arts collectives from Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and on artistic strategies ranging from social practice to Constructivism to récupération; extensive revision of dated entries has added new bibliographic data as well as new scholarship to the database; and we are especially excited about the possibilities for adding new image and sound media to the site.

This fall our site has completed its first major redesign since the launch of the Oxford Art Online portal in 2008, and this will be the first in a series of changes and improvements in the coming years. Our process was driven by feedback from you, our users, and by advice from consulting librarians and the editorial board. Among the improvements you will find include an updated layout and significant changes to image display, updated search and browse tools, expanded multimedia capacity, and the ability to create a personal profile and to save articles.

Grove has a robust editorial program: we publish new articles and entries on a regular basis and have an ongoing process, supervised by the editorial board and with the consultation of specialist advisors, for revision and emendation. In addition to regular updates on contemporary topics, upcoming entries have been commissioned on Latin American art, Asian art, the art market, and issues in conservation, and we plan to add new images and media in the year ahead. And we want to continue to encourage you, our readers, to engage with content development as writers. We’re eager to hear your suggestions for new topics and for new authors to adopt topics that need expansion.

Judith Rodenbeck, PhD
September 2017

Read previous letters from Oxford's Publishing Editor and the Editor in Chief:

March 2017 Letter
July 2013 Letter
November 2012 Letter