Internally, galleries can use the technology behind sites like YouTube and Vimeo as a quick way to catalog and feature their video art collections on their own websites. A gallery could host its videos on YouTube or Vimeo and then use the embedding feature to encode the video directly into a webpage. There’s no need for complicated coding and customizing of a video player when someone else has done all the work for you. Security is a concern for galleries that don’t want their video art to be taken off a site and distributed without authorization. While the low-quality and limited “artistic” value of online video cannot compare with the impact of an installation or a gallery setting, galleries should still take steps to ensure that their content is protected. One idea is to select only excerpts or short clips from video pieces and bookend them with information about an exhibition, a gallery, or an artist. Brief samples of a video piece can only create more interest about the artist and the gallery itself. Galleries should not ignore video content as a way to build gallery awareness and Web traffic. Gallery tours, artist video interviews, documentaries, commentary, event footage—all are content ideas that can be realized and distributed with online video. Galleries can generate their own video pieces, feature them as content on their own website, and distribute them throughout the Internet via YouTube, Vimeo, and other video sites. The galleries can also reach out to art blogs and other online media to spread the word about the new pieces and videos. On sites like iTunes, the videos can be paired together with gallery podcasts as excellent multimedia packages for gallerygoers to download to their mobile devices.
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