If you visit a museum and see a painting on the wall that catches your attention, do you ever want to know more about it? Chances are you want to know more than the bit of information on the card affixed to the wall next to the picture. That little card probably tells you who painted the picture, maybe when, where and the medium.

But you want to know more. Who was the artist? What did he think about? What did the artist want to accomplish with his work? What did others think about him? Was he at the height of his creativity with this work or just at the beginning of his career?

The questions are endless and the little card is silent.

To find out more, you would have to find someone on the museum staff or go to a book or nowadays, go to the Internet.

To make it easy for you to find out more about art and artists, the Amarillo Museum of Art has embarked on the Marcus Project, which aims to bring images, audio and video information to the viewer via computers and the Internet.

The museum plans to document its permanent collection and current exhibits and turn that information into educational materials, said Jacob Breeden, curator of education.

He completed his first round of training in September, learning to use specialized software, called Pachyderm, which offers layers of information to viewers in media-rich form.

Breeden expects the first interactive feature on the www.amarilloart.org Web site to be available near the end of November.

"It will relate to Four Artists -- Four Directions, the current featured exhibition," he said.

The art museum's participation in the project is through the Edward and Betty Marcus Digital Education Project for Art Museums.

Some other museums participating in the project are the Dallas Museum of Art, the Kimbell Art Museum and the Nasher Sculpture Center. Project members can share content they develop independently.

On the professional side, the Marcus Project offers the opportunity to create a research library using the resources of all Texas art museums, Breeden said.

On the education side, Breeden said he hopes educators will use programming developed through the Marcus Project to enhance fine arts education.

For lay viewers, project work will allow him to add interactive content, high resolution images, audio and video and the museum's Web site.

Don't misunderstand. Breeden doesn't want Internet accessibility to keep people from visiting the museum. Rather, he believes technology can enhance and extend the museum experience. Maybe one can look at exhibits before a visit, then visit them in person, then maybe answer questions that arose during a visit through use of the museum's Web site, he said.

The New Media Consortium, an Austin-based group of more than 200 universities, museums, research centers and foundations manages the entire project for the Marcus Foundation.

Dr. Larry Johnson, chief executive officer of the consortium, said people see art in museums, but every exhibit is put together based on information such as letters from the artist and books that are available to the curators, but not generally available to people who are not art historians or curators.

"The Internet lets them share that information and adds useful context to the work," Johnson said.

It answers such questions as who were the artist's friends? What influenced him? What was happening in the world?, he said.

The vast majority of museums are embracing the concept of using the Internet to add content, he said.

However, some are also using the Internet to connect people socially, Johnson said.

It can be used to connect people who might be potential donors, docents or volunteers, he said.