The online home for the world's museum collections.
collectionshub is a shared, non-commercial portal where museums and cultural institutions publish their collections online, so the public, researchers and educators can discover them in one place. We're onboarding the first institutions now.
- Free for institutions to join
- Use your own system, or a simple Excel
- You decide what goes public
What your collection becomes part of.
This is the actual portal interface, shown with example content. Click through the navigation and scroll inside the window, just like on the live site. The rollout is underway, starting with Collections Hub Australia, and we're looking for the first participating institutions now.
Every object gets a full record.
Each entry shows the object number and title, followed by dating, material and technique, dimensions, classification and credit line. Every record names the museum that holds the object and links back to it. How much detail appears depends on the institution’s own catalogue.
Screens shown with invented museums, objects and makers. Real museums and objects appear here as the first institutions join.
Put your collection where people are looking.
collectionshub runs alongside your own website. Publish once, and your objects become findable far beyond your own site, in front of researchers, teachers and the public.
Reach more people
Your objects appear next to collections from other institutions, in front of people who'd never find your own site on their own.
No new infrastructure
Publish straight from your existing system. It works with common collection software, including MuseumPlus. No collection database yet? A simple Excel sheet works just as well.
You keep control
Your data, your rights statements, your call on what stays private. To update or remove an object later, you send a fresh submission.
Free to join
No licence fee to take part. collectionshub is a shared, non-commercial home for cultural collections.
Check before you send
A free, browser-based checker flags anything off in your data or images, so your records are clean before they go online.
Equal footing
A small regional museum gets the same visibility as the largest institution. The size of your collection doesn't decide who gets found.
Four steps to join.
From first contact to your collection going live, here's the whole path.
Register your institution
Send us your details using the form below. We get in touch and send you the object template and a secure upload link.
Prepare your objects
Export from your collection system, or fill in the Excel template we provide: one row per object, plus a folder of images. No database needed.
Check and hand over
Run your file through our free checker until it's error-free, confirm what you're publishing, then upload it through your secure link.
Go live
Your objects join your country portal, searchable across the network. Everything you submit is published; to change something later, send an updated file.
Be among the first collections to join collectionshub.
We are developing collectionshub with our first partner institutions. Join us now to help shape how collections will be presented, with priority support and founding-member status.
Register your institutionHelp shape the platform
Your feedback helps us define the data structure, the search features and which developments we prioritise.
Priority support
We work directly with you to structure and publish your collection as a priority.
Founding member
Recognised as one of the institutions that contributed to the launch of collectionshub.
Every museum, whatever its size, deserves to be discovered. The visibility of cultural heritage should not depend on the resources an institution can devote to its online presence.
Registration is open to every institution. The launch starts in Switzerland and Australia.
Registration is open to institutions worldwide, and each one contributes to opening its own country portal. The rollout is gradual: Switzerland and Australia lead the way, and further portals launch once enough local institutions have joined the platform. Each country has its own address, such as ch.collectionshub.org for Switzerland or au.collectionshub.org for Australia, all running on shared infrastructure.
Founding institutions
Registration is open to institutions in every country. We onboard the founding institutions in Switzerland and Australia first.
Collections are integrated
You send us your data, as an export or a completed Excel file, and we integrate it into the shared data schema.
The first portals open
The Swiss and Australian portals become accessible to the public.
The network grows
It extends step by step to new countries, at the pace local institutions register.
To start with
Phase 1, founding institutionsPhase 1, founding institutionsThe next countries to follow
Phase 4, planned
Phase 4, planned
Phase 4, planned
Phase 4, plannedYour country is not on the list yet? Register anyway. Every registration contributes to launching its own country portal, and the order the next portals launch in follows how registrations build up in each country.
Your country is not in the first wave? Stay informed.
Switzerland and Australia are the first countries. Wherever you are, the newsletter is how you follow what comes next: new collections online, what other institutions are doing, and the opening of the portal for your country. A few times a year, never more than monthly.
Questions museums ask.
What is collectionshub?
Why publish your collections on collectionshub?
Because your collections can be discovered far beyond your usual audience, at no extra cost for that visibility. collectionshub brings the collections of many institutions together on one portal and promotes it. Every object stays clearly attributed to your institution and links back to your website.
Works held in storage, or simply less visible, become easier to discover for the general public, for researchers and for educators. When someone finds an object online, they can then trace the institution that holds it and come and see the original.
The platform also helps make culture accessible beyond geographical constraints and opening hours. You keep full control of rights, of what is selected and of your data.
Is there a charge for joining collectionshub?
Do you need particular software to publish your collections?
Who keeps control of our data and images?
Where is the data published on collectionshub hosted?
How do we update our collections once they are published?
Is collectionshub meant to replace our own website?
When does collectionshub launch?
collectionshub rolls out gradually, one country at a time. We are starting with Switzerland and Australia, where we are currently working with the founding institutions. Their collections are integrated next, before ch.collectionshub.org and au.collectionshub.org open.
What follows depends on the institutions that join us: the next portals open in the countries with the most registrations. Register your institution to be among the first to take part, or to move the launch in your country forward.
Tell us about your museum.
Register your institution using the form. We then send you the template to fill in, the participation agreement and a practical guide, and we stay with you until your collections are online.
Registering is free and commits you to nothing. You go at your own pace and can stop at any time.
- Compatible with your system, or a simple Excel file
- You keep control of what is published
- Free and non-commercial
Thanks, that's in.
We will get back to you as soon as we can and tell you what happens next.
Give your collections more visibility.
Taking part is free, with or without collection management software. A simple Excel file is enough. A few details are all it takes to start, and we support you from there.