Museums typically share a mission of promoting access to cultural heritage.
And access doesn’t always mean entering the physical space of the museum.
Open Access means that the museum is extending a license for the public to use select data and images from their collections in research, publications, and even products that can be sold.
When museums release digital images of works in the public domain for free, usage and re-distribution of these images may grow, expanding awareness of both the objects in the collection and the museum itself.