The project
The web is a wonderful tool of cultural mediation. Current technologies make it possible to give the general public access to vast art collections.
Number of works of art contributed per museum
K+A was asked by FRAME, the French Regional & American Museums Exchange, a unique bilateral organization of 24 museums in France and the United States, to created a web site for more than 200 collections containing several thousand works of art. The purpose of the site was to make the general public aware of FRAME's activities — organizing temporary exhibitions of French and American art and promoting art education activities at the member museums — as well as raise awareness of the museum's collections and activities.
Our approach
Detail of concept map of the website
To build a fluid navigation of the site, K+A designed various "entry points" to browse the collections: by period, techniques, topics, exhibitions, new acquisitions. For example, contextual links between the exhibitions and the collections, between collections and works of art, between works of art and galleries, multiply the possible paths within the site to enrich the user experience.
The solution
We began by defining the structure of the site. The site had to be bilingual, and easy for a French- or English-speaking visitor to understand and navigate. While all the FRAME museums focus on fine arts, there were important differences between the French and American members. One FRAME member was one city but not necessarily one museum, and many museums had many different collection. The American museums, which are all private institutions, have a large number of collections from different periods and different parts of the world, serving as a cultural focus for their respective regions. The French museums, which are all public institutions, are more focused on European painting and sculpture, and needed to be presented in combination with other museums part of the same city network. Many of the FRAME museums have their own websites, but some of the French museums are represented on the web only as a page on the website of for their city.
Detail from home page
What was common was that all the FRAME museums were presenting and conserving works of art, and it is the art work and artists that interest the general public. The information architecture features a triangular relationship for each work of art: part of a museum's collection, part of a transversal gallery of art from the same period and/or medium, and part of an exhibition.
Stats: Number of Visits per day since launch
The importance of this architecture became clear once we were able to analyze the user statistics for the site during its first year of operation. Most visitors reach the website through search, and most of the search is for artists or works of art. Once a work of art is found, it is easy for the visitor to find information about the museum or exhibition where the work is featured, or to visit a gallery of similar work from all the FRAME museums.
Screenshot of Musée de Grenoble page
K+A delivered a complete solution including consulting, design, editorial assistance and a sophisticated CMS, customized with our technological partner EURODOC. FLASH animations were developed to enchance browsing by country and city, and to view the transversal galleries in different ways. Specialized functions were developed to present works of art, permanent collections, virtual or physical exhibitions with their various stages and their contributing museums, new acquisitions, current events, education projects, and museum publications. The metadata for the works of art was designed to be re-usable in accordance with exchange standards such as Dublin Core format and the Open File Initiative (OAI) protocol for Metadata Harvesting.
K+A also provided on-going webmaster services for FRAME, updating the content of the site with current calendar information, press release, and exhibition links. We also facilitate communication among the member museums concerning how they can use the site to promote their own activities.
The result
The www.framemuseums.org site was launched in late 2006. It presents paintings, sculptures and remarkable objects from all periods, from pre-history to contemporary art, along with up to date informatoin about FRAME exhibitions and education programs. The site dissolves the physical barriers separating the museums.