Can we animate a painting from our collection for a campaign?

For a public domain work, usually yes, as long as the animation is clearly presented as an interpretation and not as the work. For a work still in copyright, you need the rights holder's permission, and the artist's moral right of integrity may allow them to object to treatment they consider derogatory. Check loan agreements for borrowed works.

Can AI write our gallery labels in other languages?

It can draft them quickly and consistently, but a specialist should review each language. Attribution terms, titles, dates and materials must keep their exact meaning, which needs a controlled glossary per language. Treat the translated label as a scholarly text, not marketing copy.

Who owns images of public domain works in our collection?

In the EU, faithful reproductions of public domain visual art do not attract new copyright under Article 14 of the DSM Directive, and US courts have reached similar conclusions for exact copies of two-dimensional works. Many museums therefore release such images openly. Photographs of three-dimensional objects can involve creative choices and be treated differently.

AI Content for Museums and Galleries

AI content creation for museums and cultural institutions.

Museums and cultural institutions can use AI to translate interpretation, produce accessible formats and market exhibitions, but they hold a public trust that commercial brands do not. Artworks must never be altered deceptively, image rights depend on each work's copyright status and loan terms, attributions must survive translation exactly, and every fact must meet curatorial standards, because visitors assume a museum is right.

Collection imagery and rights

Not every image of a museum's collection is the museum's to use freely. For public domain works, the EU's Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive (Article 14) says faithful reproductions of visual art gain no new copyright unless they are original creations themselves, and many museums now release such images openly. Works still in copyright need a licence from the artist, estate or a collecting society such as DACS in the UK, ARS in the US or ADAGP in France, and that licence may not cover advertising or alteration. Loans from other institutions or private lenders come with image terms in the loan agreement. Check every work's status before it goes into a generated campaign.

Never alter an artwork deceptively

Generation invites liberties with artworks: animating a portrait, extending a canvas beyond its frame, restoring a damaged fresco, recolouring a faded textile, placing a sculpture in a new setting. Some of these are legitimate creative interpretation, provided they are clearly labelled as such and never presented as the work itself or as its original state. Others cross legal lines. For works in copyright, the artist's moral right of integrity lets them object to derogatory treatment, under section 80 of the UK's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and in France moral rights never expire. Keep reproductions colour-accurate, crops honest, and any reconstruction marked as a hypothesis, approved by the curator responsible.

Interpretation in many languages

Labels, audio guides, apps and exhibition texts are written in a careful register, and their precision is easy to lose in translation. Attribution terms are the clearest example: 'attributed to', 'workshop of', 'circle of', 'follower of' and 'after' each make a different scholarly claim, and translations must keep those distinctions exactly. Titles, dates, materials and names of people and places need a controlled glossary per language, and some institutions keep original-language titles alongside translations. The studio localises text into 30 languages with terminology enforced and dubs audio-guide and film narration with timing preserved, so one exhibition can open with interpretation in the languages its visitors need, checked by a subject specialist before it goes live.

Access and an educational voice

Museums serve visitors who are blind or partially sighted, deaf, neurodivergent, very young or new to the subject, and interpretation should reach all of them. Generation helps produce audio descriptions, captions, Easy Read versions, scripts for sign language videos and family trails alongside the main text, though describing an artwork well is a craft that needs human editing. Public museums' websites also fall under web accessibility law, such as the EU Web Accessibility Directive. Tone matters as much as access. Educational content must be accurate, sourced and free of invented facts, a real risk when language models fill gaps in an artist's biography or an object's provenance. Every claim should trace to the collection record or published scholarship.

Updated 25 September 2026 · General information, not legal advice. Rules change, so check the current text with your legal team before relying on it.