- Organization Name:
- The Pitt Meadows Museum
- Describe your creative piece – what is it and what has it been used for, and why is it innovative?
- Focusing on kids and creativity, we knew we wanted to create something special for our new website. We wanted our online presence to be accessible, to showcase our buildings and collections, and most importantly to spark interest in what the museum has to offer without giving away too much information: our intention is always to bring people to our actual buildings. The site would have to provide clear and concise information as far as our location, hours of operation and phone numbers, while still maintaining an aspect of the sparkle and creativity that we cherish here at the Museum. To achieve these goals, on a limited budget of time and funds, we had to get creative. What we came up with is innovative in its combined use of technology and aesthetics. Using very basic html, and very advanced skills in creating Photoshop art,the site manifests a sense of interaction and exploration when viewed and is simple enough that even a young child could access it.
- What issue or problem were you working to address with this piece?
- The biggest issue we were working to resolve when we started this project is simply not having our own in-house website. Our community is supportive and we were featured on the City of Pitt Meadows' Site but we needed our own space and creative control in order to properly disseminate information. We were (and still are) trying to reach a wider audience of people to advertise our programs, introduce our facilities and services and also to be visible to other small museums as an example of the kind of ideas and actions that are really successful in our field. Ultimately, our main goal is, again, to increase visitation to our Museum and to encourage enthusiasm and curiosity towards Museums, Academic Institutions and education as a whole.
- How has your submission successfully impacted your organization’s ability to solve this issue/problem?
- If our main problem was not having a website at all, then we solved it: We now have a website that comes up first on a Google Query of “The Pitt Meadows Museum”! We have established a web presence that is true to what the Museum is about and that is built in a way that is for the most part timeless (and for areas that are date-sensitive, fairly easy to change or modify.) Perhaps the most valuable application of creating our own website was in our new ability to place links to our self. Now, when people access the city’s website, along with information about the Museum they are given the direct link. Our website is also always mentioned when we advertise through our local print media as well as on the sites of other museums. To sum it all up, Adobe has helped us to achieve our always-evolving goals of having a greater presence both on the web and in our community, of being more accessible and of further dissemination of information and knowledge in an enjoyable way.
