The world's public photography archives are at your fingertips with Flickr's new online project: The Commons. So far, participating organizations include the The Library of Congress, Brooklyn Museum, Smithsonian Institution and the New York Public Library, to name only a few. Visitors are invited to enjoy unprecedented access to publicly-held collections and to add their own contributions by adding tags or leaving comments. Click on one of my favorites from the Brooklyn Museum above to see what others are saying about it. Pretty cool, eh?

According to the National Endowment for the Arts, female artists earn less than male artists—surprise! According to the recently released study, “Women Artists: 1990-2005,” an increasing number of women are taking on more traditionally male artist occupations, but still earn less than male artists. This study further examined female artist employment trends that were featured in the May 2008 report, “Artists in the Workforce: 1990-2005.”

According to the study, women artists who work full-year, full-time earn 75 cents for every dollar made by men artists. On the whole, women workers earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. Other findings: Women make up just less than half of all artists nationwide (46 percent), yet are underrepresented in many artist professions; women have achieved a greater presence in some artist occupations, such as photography; women artists are as likely to be married as female workers in general, but less likely to have children; and female artists cluster in low-population states.

Find the full details at www.nea.gov.

Enjoy!

In continuation of Anne’s post about creativity and how activities such as reading warm up our creative muscles, I thought I’d share a link to a like-minded new blog. The Portland Museum of Art (in Maine) has launched its first blog, On Reading Online (www.portlandmuseum.org/about/blog). The PMA folks created this forum in celebration of National Book Month and their (just-closed) photography exhibition, “André Kertész: On Reading,” to share thoughts and ideas about books and reading.

And speaking of books and reading, another good recent read has been “Shadow of the Wind” (2001), by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It's a beautifully written—sometimes even chill-inducing—ode to books, with a “DaVinci Code”-esque twist. This is a novel that makes you stop and consider all of the reasons you love to read, and remember those certain books that have made their own special mark in your life.

Take some time this weekend to nurture your creative side. How will you unwind?