James Connolly Development

With nearly two decades of experience working in museums, galleries, archives, educational, and private collections, I help organizations bring order, clarity, and accessibility to their collections. My background means I understand the unique challenges of cataloging, managing, and caring for objects—whether you’re stewarding a large institutional collection or a specialized private archive.

Using Claris FileMaker Pro, I design and implement custom databases that make collections easier to catalog, search, and share. From object records, research, and provenance details to images, loans, condition reports, insurance reports, and conservation notes, I create systems that are tailored to your specific needs while remaining intuitive for staff and researchers to use.

Services include:

• Designing custom FileMaker Pro databases that follow professional cataloging standards and significantly streamline all cataloging and collections management processes
• Converting and migrating legacy records into modern systems
• Developing fast workflows for cataloging, digitization, and metadata entry with professional standards
• Integrating databases with imaging and digital asset management tools
• Training staff and providing ongoing support
• Streamlining access for researchers, staff, or the public
• Building advanced Excel and PDF exporting tools, and centralizing all collections-related document creation, such as loan forms, condition reports, licensing contracts, gift agreements, and others into one system

My goal is to bridge the gap between cultural collection expertise and technical solutions—helping you preserve, organize, and share your collection with confidence. As evidenced in the use cases below, my tools centralize all aspects of collections management, empowering collections to reach their ideal outcomes.

I offer discounts to non-for-profit and educational institutions, making advanced systems more affordable to non-commercial entities. Contact me for more information.

Are you looking to learn Claris FileMaker Pro or get the most out of your existing FileMaker solution? I’m here to help.

All of my FileMaker solutions come with comprehensive video tutorials and user manuals, which can be supplemented with training tailored to your team’s specific needs.

I teach advanced software, programming languages, and software development to beginner and advanced students the college level, where I have received faculty excellence awards for the effectiveness of my instruction. With a deep understanding of the FileMaker platform and extensive experience teaching audiences of all skill levels, I can help you and your team gain the knowledge and confidence needed to fully leverage your FileMaker solutions.

No two projects are the same. I craft solutions that reflect each client’s specific goals, procedures, and legacy tools. After meeting with clients to learn their needs and practices, I construct efficient systems that streamline workflows, saving significant time and money.

Over the years, I’ve partnered with a wide range of clients — from art estates and academic institutions to galleries and art appraisers — to design and maintain custom FileMaker Pro systems that streamline their operations and empower their teams.

The Roger Brown Study Collection (RBSC) was a house museum and special collection of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago that preserved the artist Roger Brown's objects and archives.

As Collection Manager of the RBSC, I developed and maintained interconnected FileMaker solutions that supported all aspects of operations—education, research, licensing, and collection management. I built custom tools that enabled staff and visitors to catalog and access information in new ways, including:

• A visual search interface for intuitively locating unlabeled objects on floor and elevation plans
• A self-guided tour app accessible through any smartphone for visitors to navigate the hundreds of objects on display
• Automated image importing, and intuitive cataloging, research, and location-tracking systems that accelerated accurate data entry
• Efficent interfaces that allowed staff to manage, track, compile research on, and form connections between over 3,400 museum objects, 260 individuals, 1,950 works on paper, 5,400 archival documents, 3,100 photographs, 1,200 books, and 300 vinyl records
• UX/UI that allowed users to intuitively navigate all above items and export images or professional PDF reports for research, loans, and management purposes

When the RBSC was sold in 2024, these FileMaker solutions were instrumental in assessing, relocating, and transferring the collectionand were included in the acquisition.

Management of the Roger Brown Estate was also streamlined through intuitive user interfaces that enabled expedited comprehensive data entry. In a short period of time, more than 1,000 artworks were linked to thousands of related sketchbook pages, tagged with over 400 subjects and themes, connected to exhibition histories, and paired with powerful reporting features for checklists, image licensing, and valuation tracking. Staff could generate detailed reports of single artworks or groups of artworks through subjects and themes, exhibitions, or custom collections at the click of a button.

The Estate of Bertrand Goldberg contains more than 8,000 architectural drawings, photographs, and related materials spanning 184 major projects. I developed a custom FileMaker solution to streamline data entry, organization, and access, creating a robust data infrastructure tailored to architectural practices.

The system imported digitized files into their corresponding project records, with custom layouts to efficiently categorize thousands of architectural drawings by:

• Stage of work — planning, concept, schematic, design development, design study, construction drawing
• Field of work — architectural, civil, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, structural
• Drawing content — number of bedrooms, aerials, charts/diagrams, elevations, furniture, interiors, perspectives, location plans, sections, site plans, and more
• Drawing scale(s)
• Date

Leveraging FileMaker’s powerful scripting and user interface tools, I built a search and browsing system that requires no entry of search terms. Users can explore all 184 projects and 8,000+ materials intuitively, locating drawings of extreme specificity within a few clicks. Results can be saved into custom collections, managed through a user dashboard, and exported as PDFs or images.

This solution transformed the estate’s archive into a fully accessible, searchable, and user-friendly resource.

The Estate of Eugene von Bruenchenhein comprised over 8,300 works—photographs, paintings, sculptures, drawings, found objects, and audio recordings. I was hired to organize, catalog, and document the collection, while improving accessibility for professional management.

I built a custom FileMaker solution to streamline this process. The system included workflows to:

• Digitize thousands of photographs at publication-level resolution.
• Downscale images for optimized browsing speed and automatically import them into their corresponding records.
• Track and quickly update all object information, including location, movement, loan, sales, gift, condition, and conservation.
• Quickly classify works using dozens of custom terms tailored to von Bruenchenhein’s practice.

With powerful search and reporting tools, the collection became more accessible than ever.

A little over a year after my hiring, the Kohler Art Foundation acquired the estate in a major acquisition covered by Artforum, ARTnews, and other leading publications. The FileMaker database was essential in enabling the collection to be fully assessed, appraised, conditioned, and tracked as it transitioned to its permanent home.