From Brush Strokes to Bitmaps and Broadcasts, Bell Atlantic Joins National Gallery of Art to Bring Picasso to the World

From Brush Strokes to Bitmaps and Broadcasts, Bell Atlantic Joins
National Gallery of Art
to Bring Picasso to the World

Innovative High-Tech Outreach to Schools and Art Lovers
Expands Audience for Exhibition

March 21, 1997

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Teachers, students, art enthusiasts
and the simply
curious can enjoy unprecedented access to the early works of Pablo
Picasso over the next four months as Bell Atlantic and the National
Gallery of Art join forces to project the vibrant exhibition, Picasso:
The Early Years, 1892-1906, beyond the Gallery's walls.

While hundreds of thousands of visitors will experience the works of
the young Picasso during visits to the Gallery's dramatic East
Building beginning March 30, many others will visit the exhibit on the
World Wide Web, in classrooms everywhere and via television.

They'll be able to pull down curriculum study guides from the
Internet, read through the exhibition brochure on the artist and his
times, check the times and dates for special exhibition events at the
Gallery and enhance their in-person visits to the show. They can use
the site to preview the exhibition before visiting the Gallery or
review what they saw after attending.

Bell Atlantic's regional advertising campaign promoting the exhibit
boldly asserts that "Picasso opens in the National Gallery of
Art...and young minds open across the country." The company will
live
up to that promise using the latest technologies.

"Bell Atlantic is proud to sponsor such an interesting and important
exhibition," said Patrick C.G.
Coulter, Bell Atlantic vice
president-corporate communications. "Our challenge was finding
creative ways to put technology to work so that Picasso's work could
be enjoyed in classrooms and homes worldwide, reaching audiences well
beyond the walls of the Gallery."

Students can embark on a tour of the exhibit during an interactive
distance learning program designed for schools in Washington, D.C.;
Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, northern Virginia and parts of West
Virginia. The interactive lecture-demonstration is a first of its kind
for an exhibition at the National Gallery. Others may be staged this
spring in other areas.

Interactive computer quiz sites will be installed that allow visitors
to test their knowledge of Picasso and his work after touring the
exhibition.

The distance learning lecture, scheduled for late May, is a
collaborative effort involving Bell Atlantic, the Gallery's education
staff, Maryland Public Television, WETA-TV in Washington and schools
throughout the area.

This "virtual field trip" will link hundreds of classrooms
equipped
with two-way interactive distance learning equipment, a live student
audience at the Gallery and hundreds more classes "connected"
via the
Internet, phone lines and faxes, and the two television stations'
broadcast networks. In addition, the hour-long program will be taped
and edited down to a 30-minute show to be aired in June and July on
public television.

Gallery visitors can stop at four customized computer stations
designed by Bell Atlantic Creative Services to reinforce the
impressions and impact of the exhibition. The software offers two
Picasso quizzes. In one, the player acts as the curator of the show
and must click and drag images from the artist's Blue, Rose and
classical periods to arrange them on the right walls of the virtual
museum. In the other, they must match works with the years they were
created and with historical events from those years.

The National Gallery's dynamic new web site, http://www.nga.gov, is
the hub of information on the exhibition and the artist. It is
accessible through an index posted on a Bell Atlantic web page,
http://www.BellAtlantic.com/Picasso.

A key element of the site is an education section that lists teacher
aids available from the Gallery, special family educational events,
and study guides of some of Picasso's works which can be downloaded
for use in the classroom. The exhibition brochure, also posted on the
site, provides background on the young Picasso for teacher and student
reference.

Bell Atlantic Corp. (NYSE: BEL) is
at the forefront of the new
communications, entertainment and information industry. In the
mid-Atlantic region, the company is the premier provider of local
telecommunications and advanced services. Globally, it is one of the
largest investors in the high-growth wireless communication
marketplace. Bell Atlantic also owns a substantial interest in
Telecom Corporation of New Zealand and is actively developing
high-growth national and international business opportunities in all
phases of the industry.

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