How to Search

How you search depends on what you want.

If you want to know about an exhibition by a certain artist, type his or her last name into the "Search for" box. Some examples: "ManWoman," "Olson," or "Kantor." Then press "Search." All records containing the specified name anywhere in the text will be returned. To look only for records created by the artist, type the last name into the "Entity" box.

You can also search exhibitions by:

• concepts (try "identity," "social commentary" or "feminism")
• subjects (try "bird," "cake," or "flower")
• exhibition type or medium (try "sound installation," "photography," "acrylic," or "wood")

To search by exhibition location, use the "Place" box. Type either "main space" or "window" (without quotation marks), then press "Search."

If you want to search by date, type a four-digit year (2002) into the "Date" field at the right side of the screen. You can also enter a date range, like 2006-2009.

To find a certain category of material, use the drop-down menu in the "Classification" box. Leave the "Seach for" box empty, or add another term if you want refined results.

To find results matching an exact phrase or set of words, put the phrase in quotation marks. Try "Space for Space" or "visiting artist."

If you're trying to find a book or periodical, select "resource centre items" from the drop-down menu under "Classification." Then, type a keyword (an author's name, a word from the title, or a subject) into the box that says "Search for," and press search. We're still in the process of adding titles to the database, so check back frequently for updates.

If you just want to browse, you can check out our "Featured Items." If you want to see everything we have in the database, type an asterix (*) into the "Search for" box.

Although our database is constantly growing, you may at times have limited or no results. Try using fewer, or different, keywords to increase your results. Also make sure that you haven't accidentally filled in another field, creating a seach that is too specific to return hits. If you have too many results, try adding more keywords. If you get results that are just strange -- you were looking for First Nations but got an image of a butterfly -- enclose the phrase in quotation marks. (In the "First Nations" example, the database matched "First Nations" and "first nature," because the letters and their arrangement are quite similar).

If you need help, send a message to library@thenewgallery.org.

If you're interested in helping us improve our database by adding keywords to our images, check out our information about volunteering and send us and e-mail. More information about volunteering can be found here.

If you notice an error in a record, have additional information to contribute, or have a helpful comment, please feel free to let us know.