Last week the Walker Art Center launched a brand new website. It’s a pretty nice looking site and I definitely encourage you to drop by. The site reminds you of a newspaper and features stories not only from the Center, but also from other sources. Seb Chan has talked with the people behind the new site:
Nate Solas (NS): One idea for the homepage was to split it into “local, onsite” and “the world”. A lot of the inspiration started there, playing with the idea that we’re a physical museum in the frozen north, but online we’re “floating content”. We wanted to ground people who care (local love) but not require that you know where/who we are. “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”.
I like this concept very much, and it actually reflects some of the thinking behind our very own site. We are indeed a physical museum with exhibitions and objects, but online we represent much more than the physical museum. We want the online presence to complement the physical one, but it should also be able to stand alone.
It’s great to see that other museums are moving in this direction also. And if this indeed constitutes a paradigm shift, I for one am proud to have contributed