LibGuides: Visual Art and Design: Resources

Visual Art and Design Databases

Searching in databases is a great way to ensure you're getting the best possible search results. Try these visual art and design databases to find resources that are most relevant to your discipline.

Art & Architecture Source (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Art research database covering a broad range of subjects from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design. Includes full-text articles, indexing and abstracts.
Art Index Retrospective, 1929-1984 (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Contains selective full text as well as abstracts and indexes to art literature covering fine, decorative, and commercial art.
Informit Humanities and Social Sciences Collection This link opens in a new window
Covers subjects in art and design. Dedicated content from and about Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and South East Asia. Some full-text
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Archival access to scholarly journals published on art and design.

Other design and visual resources

Artstor This link opens in a new window
Provides millions of digital images in the arts, architecture, humanities and sciences with an accessible suite of software tools.
Grove Art Online This link opens in a new window
Encyclopedic entries, biographies, signatures, articles, reference tools and images for all types of visual art. Coverage ranges from prehistory to the present day.
3 user licence

British Library - free image collection on Flickr
Over 1,000,000 scanned images in the Public Domain, making them free to reuse & remix.
Openverse
Find images across the Internet that are under a creative commons copyright licence.
ArtCyclopedia
Links to over 9,000 artists' pages and digital images of their works.

The five sites listed below are all safe to use for non-attribution images. These sites also offer a choice in the size of the image to download. There are many other sites available; however, you must provide appropriate credit for images. If you cannot find the owner of the image, please do not use the images. Please be aware that gallery site images are not free sites for images.

Free Images
Images published on Free images are linked to the Public Domain CC0 license, which means that all the images may be used for private and for commercial purposes.
Free Range Stock
Provides quality stock photos for commercial and non-commercial use, for free. Images on the site are either shot by Freerange Stock, drawn from Freerange archives, or contributed by a talented community of photographers.
Pexels
Pexels provides high quality and completely free stock photos licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. All photos are nicely tagged, searchable and also easy to discover through our discover pages.
Pixabay
Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
Unsplash
Unsplash is a platform fueled by a community that has generously gifted hundreds of thousands of their own photos.

Art Through Time
Explores connections in Western and non-Western art, illuminating the breadth, complexity and beauty of works produced around the world and at different periods of time.13 half-hour programs.

ClickView This link opens in a new window
Streaming video solution offering access to thousands of educational videos and resources covering a broad range of topics, as well as TV programs recorded in the last 14 days from free-to-air digital channels.
Kanopy Video Streaming This link opens in a new window
Streaming films, documentaries and training videos. New releases daily from producers including: Madman Entertainment, Roadshow Films, BBC, ABC, NFSA, Roland Collection, Psychotherapy.net and Symptom Media.

Adam Matthew Digital Collection This link opens in a new window
Digital archival content for the social sciences and humanities. The collection covers a multitude of topics ranging from Medieval manuscripts and Victorian moving images to ephemera from the 1960s and confidential government documents. Access to several themed collections: The American West, Defining Gender, 1450-1910, Empire Online, India, Raj and Empire, Mass Observation Online, Mass Observation Update, Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700, Medieval Family Life, The Grand Tour, Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History, Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954, America, Asia and the Pacific and China, Trade, Politics and Culture
ANZ Newsstand (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Full text of major Australian and New Zealand newspapers. Includes regional and rural radio transcripts and news from current affairs television programs such as the ABC 7.30 Report.

Australian Historic Newspapers (Trove)
Australian newspaper archives 1803 - 2007
Indigenous Archives Collective
The Indigenous Archives Collective connects people working with Indigenous knowledge sources in galleries, libraries, archives and museums.

Professional Associations

It can be valuable to build your career prospects and networks by connecting with professional associations. You might like to engage with these visual arts and design groups as a student, or even throughout your career.

National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA)
The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) leads advocacy, policy and action for a contemporary Australian arts sector that's ambitious and fair.
Design Institute of Australia (DIA)
DIA represents Australian design and designers both domestically and internationally.

Let us know what you want

Is there anything more you would like us to include in this guide? Let us know by going to our Feedback page and we will do our very best to add the resources you want.

Did you know that there are many great textbooks and resources that are available for free?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are defined by UNESCO as

“… teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions....”

The following textbooks are examples of resources that are 100% free and available for you to use during your degree and beyond!

Interpreting Art by Sam Rose
ISBN: 9781800081772
Publication Date: 2022
Video Game Art Reader by Tiffany Funk
ISBN: 9781943208357
Publication Date: 2022

For information about OER's, please see our guide.

Merlot
Includes a range of freely available courses, texts and learning exercises. Search by discipline to find relevant resources.
edX
Includes courses from Australian and international universities, plus lecture notes, reading lists, open access textbooks and other related course materials.
Academic Earth
Academic Earth was launched on the premise that everyone deserves access to a world-class education. It includes links to a range of freely available tertiary level courses.

Dictionaries & Encyclopaedias

Useful resources for understanding your topic and finding the right keywords to use in your searching.

A Dictionary of Modern Design (2 ed.) by Woodham, Jonathan
Publication Date: 2016
A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art by Ian Chilvers; John Glaves-Smith
Publication Date: 2015

Your Subject Librarians

This guide has been created by University of Newcastle Librarians who work with your schools to make sure you have access to the resources you need. The Librarians supporting visual art and design are:

Teaching Liaison Librarian

Jessica Davis

Research Liaison Librarian

Currently recruiting, please see our Liaison Librarian page for alternative contacts.