Overview


Arches Open Source Project Website: archesproject.org

The Arches project began as a collaboration between the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) and World Monuments Fund (WMF) to develop for the international heritage field an open-source software platform for cultural heritage data management. Since 2016, the Arches project has been led by the GCI. Our long-term aim is improved data management to support effective heritage conservation and management.

This enterprise-level system is freely available for organizations worldwide to install, configure, and extend in accordance with their individual needs and without restrictions. Arches is built using open source software tools to make its adoption cost effective, and to allow heritage institutions to pool resources to enhance Arches in mutually beneficial ways.


Open Source Community

The GCI and WMF have from the start invested in creating infrastructure for the Arches open source community, including online forums, documentation, and demonstration instances of Arches. The Arches project has a growing and increasingly active community including institutions and individuals representing the government sector, NGOs and philanthropy, academia, as well as commercial entities.

The GCI, through partnerships with other institutions, has furthered the development of the Arches platform in ways that respond to particular requirements of agencies responsible for heritage stewardship through supporting selected strategic Arches implementations.


Arches Open Source Project Website: archesproject.org

Learn more about the Arches platform and become involved in the open source community

Watch webinars demonstrating capabilities and features of the Arches platform and Arches Collector, the Arches mobile data collection app, on the Arches community

Learn more about featured implementations of the platform

Interact with a demonstration version of Arches.


Expected Project Outcomes

The aims of the Arches project guide our software development roadmap, and our strategic collaborations and support for the community.

Long term:

Improved data management to support effective heritage conservation and management

Medium term:

Increased use of data and heritage standards for more effective management of heritage data

Arches software improved and maintained by the community

Short term:

Arches adopted and effectively used by the heritage field

Increased support of Arches by others (e.g., IT service providers; ontology experts; funders)

Increased activity of the Arches open source community

Arches recognized as model heritage data management system by standard setters and heritage organizations


Project History

Arches grew out of a collaboration between the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund to address the widespread need within the international heritage field for low-cost digital inventories that are on the one hand, easy to use and are customizable and, on the other, take advantage of the latest technologies to allow for creating and managing heritage information in all its richness and diversity. The GCI and WMF jointly developed Arches through version 3.0 and laid the groundwork to create infrastructure for its open source community.

Since then, the GCI has continued to spearhead successive software development efforts, including releasing Arches Collector, a mobile data collection app, expanding the capabilities of Arches to support management of heritage conservation scientific data, and further build resources for the Arches community.

Page updated: August 2020