Every family has a pile somewhere of their children’s drawings. Since culling out and saving the best works isn’t easy, two moms/entrepreneurs from New Jersey devised a solution: theART:archives. How it works? Parents send in their kids’ drawings and theART:archives team professionally photographs each one and sends back a DVD catalogue that can be viewed on a computer screen or TV.
The start-up’s founders suggest ordering a separate DVD for each school year to create a complete record of a child’s accomplishments. theART:archives’ prices range from USD 275 for 25 pieces of art up to USD 325 for 55 artworks. The company’s business model loosely resembles that of other cottage ventures that employ digital technology to reduce clutter, among them small businesses that transfer home videos to DVD or digitize a CD collection for iPod use. While millions of families own scanners and are tech-savvy enough to create DVD artwork collections on their own, many are likely to appreciate the time-saving convenience of a service that will handle the process for them. One to start up locally, in areas with plenty of two-income families with young children. Easy add-on product? Use a publishing service like Blurb to transform the digital scans back into coffee table books featuring the budding artists' work.
Website: www.theartarchives.com
Contact: www.theartarchives.com/contact.html
Spotted by K.M. Morano
Great idea. However, using the DVD format has its limitations. Moisture can create CD rot, and digital format lifespans are becoming shorter and shorter. Conservatively, we can expect the DVD format to last another 20 years. After that, you would need to keep a functioning DVD player on hand to view the images and a TV that will hook up to your antiquated player.
I'd highly suggest using a service like Blurb and print on acid-free paper if you want a product that truly archival (given the right environment).
Bryan Loar
Librarian
I was excited to see theArt:Archives featured on the website. I have used them for my kids' school art projects, and have loved it. The DVD is so much easier to store than bundles of paper (that you eventually end up throwing out anyway).
This is a great service, and it's great to have the DVDs. If you are worried about what is going to happen in 20 years, I'm sure that there will be a process to transfer CD or DVD materials to whatever is being used at the time. I wouldn't let that stop me from clearing out the school art projects and saving them in a format that is easy to save and easy to show to grandparents, etc. I love the service -- I don't have all that paper about the house, but I still get to keep copies of their work.