The release of version 3.0 of Arches was announced (and celebrated) at a press event that took place in New York on May 5, 2015, at the office of World Monuments Fund, on the 24th floor of the Empire State Building. Members of the cultural heritage community and the press attended the event, which focused on current uses of Arches and on the potential impact that it could have on the conservation of cultural heritage worldwide.
Opening remarks were delivered by Bonnie Burnham, President of World Monuments Fund, and Tim Whalen, Director of the Getty Conservation Institute. Bonnie Burnham discussed the benefits of cultural heritage inventories, while Tim Whalen outlined the history behind the development of the Arches system. Watch the video:
A customization of Arches v3.0 was deployed by the City of Los Angeles in February 2015, giving policymakers, property owners, developers, and the general public information about significant historic resources in their community. Janet Hansen, Deputy Manager of the City of Los Angeles Office of Historic Resources, discussed the use of Arches for HistoricPlacesLA.org, the Los Angeles Historic Resources Inventory. In addition to describing how the HistoricPlacesLA.org system works, Hansen also touched upon how the data is being used by the City to inform planning and policy decisions. Watch the video:
Arches is also currently in use by the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) Cultural Heritage Initiatives for Syria and Iraq through a cooperative agreement between ASOR and the U.S. Department of State. The initiatives are designed to document damage, promote global awareness, and plan emergency and post-conflict responses for the cultural heritage of Syria and Iraq. The ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiatives make use of available satellite imagery, news reports and social media, as well as on-the-ground informants to monitor and document impacts to heritage places in Syria and Iraq. Scott Branting, ASOR Director of Geospatial Initiatives, discussed how they have used Arches to compile those assessments within a comprehensive inventory that includes archaeological sites, historic buildings, museums, libraries, and archives. Watch the video here:
Dennis Wuthrich, CEO and Founder of Farallon Geographics, Inc., the firm contracted by the GCI and WMF to develop Arches, explained how Arches leverages new semantic and geospatial technologies to create a system that better manages cultural heritage inventory data. Watch the video:
