Acquiring art for your home is something that can be both adventurous and daunting. Filling your home with beautiful art pieces will undoubtedly make your spaces more dynamic and interesting. It’s a process that takes time and patience. Best described as a labor of love. But, trust me, you will feel crushed when you find an art piece that you fall completely in love, only to be blown away by an exorbitant price tag. But not to worry. Did you know that you can access free art for your home for free? Yes, I said for free. Right now there are over three million piece of art available for you to use as you see fit.
What is the Public Domain?
The public domain is a collection of works that are not protected by intellectual property rights. Fun fact: you can access free art for your home that is in the public domain freely to copy, modify, sell and distribute. What’s more, is that you don’t need permission or to pay the original creator. Did you know that many of the art pieces selling right now on Etsy today are from the public domain? Talk about a side hustle!
Included in the public domain are books, music, art, photographs, films, and scientific discoveries that are no longer protected by intellectual property law.
Where Can You Find Free Art Online?
Museums, art galleries and libraries are the best sources for free printable art. Now, don’t get me wrong it will take some time to sift through to find just the right piece. Also, when you do find the right piece, it may need to some clean up. A great place to start looking for free art is A Home Is Announced. Categorized and curated by genre, theme and color this shop makes starting the process easy. Also, linked below is a list of some other sources to help in art research.
- The Met Collection
- Wikimedia Commons
- National Gallery of Art
- Raw Pixel
- Smithsonian Open Access
- John J. Audubon’s Birds of America
- Public Domain Review
- Old Book Illustrations
- The British Library
- Art Institute of Chicago
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Harvard Art Museums
- The Getty
- Library of Congress
- National Gallery of Art
- New York Public Library
- Yale University Art Gallery
- Picryl
What can you do with your found art
Once you have your art selected, you can download a high resolution copy right to your computer. You are free to print it, upload to your devices, curate a gallery wall and even sell it. There so many ways to style your home and having access to free art for your home is so clutch. Hanging beautiful artwork is a key component in having a unique and stylish home. Happy hunting!
MoWow! Did not know this! Great post! Thank you!
ahouseonguilfordI actually just learned this myself. I was blown away to learn all this information about free art. I found some really cool pieces.