Introduction
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (RMG) is a public art museum in Oshawa and is the largest gallery in Durham Region with a five galleries of changing exhibitions.
We had the pleasure of working with their marketing team to create a new online presence where the surrounding public and artists can easily find what they are looking for, apply for residencies and take part in public events igniting a vibrant art community.
Another need was to create educational websites for adults and kids for featured travelling exhibitions that RMG was involved in creating.
Key considerations
Adhering to AODA standards was a priority for the project in order RMG to be as inclusive as possible. This did not mean we would strip down visual impact and cutting-edge interactive tools for art lovers. Our experts ensured both can coexist in the site gracefully.
The final product created for RMG featured a completely AODA compliant site with full screen-reader support, context clues,
proper contrast, text size adjusters, and a myriad of other accessibility functions. The platform was able to organize RMG’s
large amount of content into easily digestible chunks for their front-end users, while providing a simple and intuitive content management system.
Our team also ensured that the platform was completely device agnostic, functioning perfectly for their customers who check the site at home, or those walking through the gallery with a tablet.
Results
RMG was able to maximize the ROI on their project grant, achieving all of their goals in the process. Their new platform has prepared them for the future, complying with all upcoming AODA laws, managing content in an expandable way, and supporting the devices their audience is using on a daily basis.
Frequently updated events calendar was another key feature that helped users and administration easily market and inform the events happening real-time.
Travelling exhibition website for Jock MacDonald’s “Evolving Form” featured a custom Javascript Drawing tool created after in-depth research which allowed users to post their art work, share with other users and create a community engagement. It became a very popular piece and ended up being installed on in-gallery Kiosks as well.
