An online exhibition, also referred to as a virtual exhibition, online gallery, cyber-exhibition, is an

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

whose venue is

cyberspace Cyberspace is a concept describing a widespread interconnected digital technology. "The expression dates back from the first decade of the diffusion of the internet. It refers to the online world as a world 'apart', as distinct from everyday re ...

Museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...

s and other organizations create online exhibitions for many reasons. For example, an online exhibition may: expand on material presented at, or generate interest in, or create a durable online record of, a physical exhibition; save production costs (insurance, shipping, installation); solve conservation/preservation problems (e.g., handling of fragile or rare objects); reach lots more people: "Access to information is no longer restricted to those who can afford travel and museum visits, but is available to anyone who has access to a computer with an Internet connection. Unlike physical exhibitions, online exhibitions are not restricted by time; they are not forced to open and close but may be available 24 hours a day. In the nonprofit world, many museums,

libraries A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual ...

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

, and other cultural organizations create online exhibitions. A database of such exhibitions is Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web. Online exhibition organizers may use techniques such as marquee text,

display advertisement Digital display advertising is online graphic advertising through banners, text, images, video, and audio. The main purpose of digital display advertising is to post company ads on third-party websites. A display ad is usually interactive (i.e. ...

s, and in-event

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

s to engage patrons. Various guides have been published to help organizations create effective online exhibitions. The earliest museum with a physical existence to create a programme of substantial online exhibitions with high resolution images of artefacts was the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, the first of which, ''The Measurers: a Flemish Image of Mathematics in the Sixteenth Century'' and an exhibition of early photographs, were published on 21 August 1995.An exhibition of early photographs
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Examples of online exhibitions

International Museum of Women The International Museum of Women (IMOW), headquartered in San Francisco, California, is an online museum that covers women's issues worldwide. Since March 2014 it has been part of the Global Fund for Women. Creation and expansion I.M.O.W. w ...

is an online-only museum that does not have a physical building and instead offers online exhibitions about women's issues globally as well as an online community. Online exhibitions include "Imagining Ourselves" (launched 2006) about women's identity, "Women, Power and Politics" (2008), and "Economica: Women and the Global Economy" (2009). *

Tucson LGBTQ Museum The Tucson Gay Museum maintains an extensive collection of archival materials, artifacts and graphic arts relating to the history of LGBT people in the United States, with a focus on the LGBT communities of Tucson, Arizona and Phoenix, Arizona. ...

is an online-only museum that does not have a physical building and instead offers online exhibitions about LGBTQ history. The online photographic, audio, video, text, and other historical exhibitions include exhibits from the 1700s to the present day. The effort began in the summer of 1967 and spanned almost 50 years. *

International New Media Gallery The International New Media Gallery (INMG) is an online museum that specialises in moving image and screen-based art. Founded in 2012, the INMG aims to expand and increase the audience for contemporary culture by exhibiting art outside the physical ...

(INMG) is an online museum specialising in moving image and screen-based art. The INMG is dedicated to exploring current debates and topics in art history: touching on areas such as migration, war, environmental activism and the internet itself. The gallery publishes extensive academic catalogues alongside its exhibitions. It also hosts spaces for discussion and debate, both online and offline. * Virtual Museum of Modern Nigerian Art – the VMMNA is the first of its kind in Africa. Hosted by the

Pan-African University, Lagos Pan-Atlantic University is a private, non-profit educational institution in Lekki, Lagos State. Timeline The university had its origin as the Lagos Business School (LBS), established in 1991. The federal government approved the university as ...

, Nigeria this virtual museum offers a good view of the development on Nigerian Art in the past fifty years.

References

Digital media Exhibitions {{museum-stub