It’s been a long time coming and, after a great deal of hard work, it is finally live – our new Guelph Arts Council (GAC) website at http://www.guelpharts.ca. A work-in-progress, the site will continue to grow to address the needs of our members and our arts and culture community.
The newly designed site will serve as the place to go for events, arts opportunities, showcasing of our artist members, creative spaces, advocacy and more. The site has a responsive design layout that, in addition to looking modern and uncluttered, meets AODA accessibility requirements.
“The GAC vision – to champion Guelph’s creative community – has been an integral piece in the design of the new site,” shares Cynthia Kinnunen, GAC board member. “That old site worked hard for ten years and had a lot of information on it but we heard from members repeatedly that they wanted a website that was easy to navigate and not cluttered. We also wanted to ensure that we’re building relevance and encouraging involvement of a younger demographic and demonstrating our support of all artistic disciplines.”
The newly designed guelpharts.ca will act as the organization’s main platform for sharing events, artist opportunities and updates pertaining to the arts community and GAC members. With an updated membership structure as well – making it very accessible to become a community member for $5, an artist member for $30 or organizational member for $50 – the overarching goal is to engage the broader community with the arts and to provide support to artists themselves.
Artist members specifically have the opportunity to profile themselves in an artist member directory, selecting up to six images to display and share links to a variety of online platforms, including YouTube, SoundCloud, Etsy and more. Social media links are also provided on profile pages.
Our member newsletter has now gone digital, too, to help maximize our limited resources, to be environmentally conscious, and to keep us as accessible as possible in an increasingly online world. Arts Blast, our new e-newsletter, will be emailed bi-weekly and provide highlights of selected activities in our arts community, sharing funding and volunteer opportunities, as well as linking to the events calendar.
We would like to extend huge thank you to the team at Digital Chaos, GAC board volunteers and staff for bringing the new guelpharts.ca to life! We welcome your feedback on the site and will continue to add content and features over time.
By Noelle Lalonde
