|
Iconofile is a non-profit public benefit corporation organized under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law (State of California) for public and charitable purposes. The corporation provides: educational programs about icons and sacred visual art; resources and financial support to museums and cultural organizations for the purpose of preserving and restoring icons, wall paintings, mosaics, statues, reliquaries, manuscripts and other forms of sacred visual art; and assistance to contemporary artists creating icons and sacred visual art.
The Iconofile website was established in January 2002 to publish a collection of images of sacred visual art (especially portable [wood panel] icons). A part of this vision was to develop an extensive resource for painters, conservators, restorers, and others interested in icons to learn and understand icon painting and, in general, historical creative techniques used to make sacred works of art. A decision was made early on to use the worldwide web as the medium to accomplish part of this objective. Since then our vision has grown and we have a valuable resource on the Internet and in print for all those interested in icons and sacred visual art.
Iconofile's Mission
The website is the focus of Iconofile's mission, which is to publish a large collection of digital images of icons and to promote understanding and education of icons, iconology and iconography. Iconofile is seeking donations and grants to allow it to propagate knowledge and use of icons in everyday life. Funds that Iconofile generates will be used to help museums and cultural organizations in Russia (and later other countries) to acquire, conserve and restore icon paintings, religious artifacts and church monuments. To this end, Iconofile’s goal is to directly generate revenue for museums and organizations in Russia by selling usage rights to high-resolution digital images of icons and other artifacts in their respective collections.
At present, Iconofile has entered agreements with four major provincial museums in Russia (in the cities of Yaroslavl and Rybinsk) to publish their entire icon collections on Iconofile. Iconofile has also established formal agreements with private collections of images to publish them through its website. In addition, the Center for Information Technologies of Yaroslavl State University has agreed to provide website and database programming, technical support and Russian language text for the digital image collection.
 How you can help Iconofile
Organization of the Iconofile Website
The website is organized into six sections: Members, Forum, Events, Guide and Store. Each section provides useful information and services to both visitors and members. It is our goal to provide highly specialized information not readily available elsewhere for iconographers, icon painters and people interested in icons and sacred art, so as to make membership to Iconofile both desirable and cost effective.
Members
The Member section features several areas available only to subscribers of Iconofile.
Articles
The Articles area is a resource for Iconofile members. This section features an electronic magazine, Iconofile eJournal, published biweekly with an archive of past issues on all aspects of icons. Only Iconofile members have access to issues in the archive.
Glossary
The Glossary is another resource for Iconofile members. This section features an extensive glossary of terms used in iconography. Only Iconofile members have access to the glossary.
Collection
In the third quarter of 2003, Iconofile will add a collection of digital images of icons to its website. This image collection will feature a search system to allow visitors to find icons of interest. Visitors to the website will be able to browse or search the collection icons and iconographic religious objects. All visitors will have access to thumbnail-sized images of each icon and a basic description, once they register with Iconofile. Access to the full text in the database and larger resolution images will be available to paid members of Iconofile. High-resolution images, suitable for print reproduction and other high quality uses, will be available on a royalty fee basis collected through the Iconofile website. All fees collected from this database will be
used to provide funds for projects of Iconofile and its affiliate museums.
Iconofile is seeking content (both text and images) for the Learning resource. If you have original material about icons and sacred art available for publication, we would like to publish it as part of the Iconofile eJournal. If you provide content full credit will be given to you, and a link provided to your website.
How to submit articles and images
Forum
The Forum section is a place to ask questions, get answers and join others in many online discussions about icons and sacred art. We invite all visitors to Iconofile to visit the forum, and register as a member of the forum to post questions, answers and share their experience and knowledge in the forum's topics.
Register for the Iconofile Forum
Events
The Events section contains a calendar of events regarding icons and sacred art. This section is accessible to all visitors, and visitors can post items in the events calendar. You can publish your icon-related event in this section. Iconofile accepts relevant icon and sacred art-related events for the calendar.
Submit your event for the Iconofile Events Calendar
Guide
The Guide section contains a resource guide to icon painters, muralists and other artists working in various medium and formats in the creation of icons and sacred art. Do you offer services and products for icon painters? Do you restore or collect icons? Do you conduct workshops? Do you teach or apprentice icon-painting students? Have your business or listing published here.
Submit your listing for the Iconofile Resource Guide
Store
The online Store offers products specifically for iconographers and icon painters, and merchandise for all others interested in icons. We will also provide an online marketplace where Iconofile members can sell icons and other products, such as used books and other products through the store. The store provides revenue for Iconofile to support the website and its programs.
Iconofile is seeking products for artists, conservators and restorers to distribute through the Iconofile online store. We are also seeking unique merchandise that may be of interest to all people with an interest in icons. If you have any recommendations for the store or know where we can obtain such products, please let us know.
Recommend products or icons for the Iconofile store |
