Tate jumps on art carousel

New search facility brings catalogue to masses

The Tate Gallery has launched a new search facility on its web site to attract visitors and grow sales for its art-on-demand service.

The new ‘carousel’ feature scrolls through 2,000 catalogued pieces of art from the Tate’s collection automatically, to help make them more accessible to a broader audience.

Launched at the end of August, the tool uses BT-developed artificial intelligence software to display works of art in the same or similar genre to those that users have already clicked on.

For example, if a customer clicks on a painting by the artist Turner, it will recognise this choice as a favourite and use its classification to display other works with similar keywords or characteristics. These selections are used to build a personalised user profile.

Customers can also stop the carousel at any point to order prints from the Tate’s art-on-demand service, driving up sales for the gallery.

Jemima Rellie, head of digital programmes at the Tate, said: ‘We have attempted to get closer to the experience of wandering through a physical gallery and hope this project will increase the visibility of the collection.

‘It is designed to inspire visitors to make connections between collections.’