State of
the Arts/State of a Website 2017
In 2017, time will be my most valuable commodity. Taking care of my
mother with the help of my husband is a precious job that needs more attention
as she travels through the journey of her life. We all must choose how to use
our energies, both physical and mental. We wasted so much emotion on the
election last year, and I would not like that to happen in 2017. So I see an efficient
website as a vital part of my life.
The San Diego Visual Arts Network still favors a front page layout to
include as much information as possible about events and projects in the
region. We know that many sites focus on just a few current events, but as we
represent 2500 resources in San Diego, this just seems too restricted for us.
In 2016, we added an automated scrolling featured event feature on the
home page which is now fully illustrated and can also be seen on a new featured
event page. We added a voting app for
our New Contemporaries Exhibitions that can be utilized by other organizations
as well. You have to be present to vote for an artist which helps eliminate
stuffing the voting box, a concern for everyone in this election year. We made
it easier for everyone listing on our calendar to add images which no longer
have to be online.
Website design has changed constantly and we at SDVAN continue to evolve
the website. We are lucky to have the help of Anand Bora of Determinant Studios when we
make any changes on the site that involve coding. This has become a valuable
relationship because it is so important to respect and trust a good partner for
website re-designs. You need good communication and valuable input to help sort
out new direction and solve glitches. Working
with this creative company in India brings some time change challenges, but
this continues to be a very rewarding and successful relationship for us. Mr.
Bora came to San Diego for the first time in 2017 and established some
relationships with artists for projects and we applaud these collaborations. .
A little know fact is that SDVAN started over 13 years ago with code written in
India.
The same evolving nature is true of email and event companies. We are
lucky to have found John Campbell whose newly launch Smorgborg is a development of his
Campbell Network which has supported us for years . Still in beta testing, we
so lucky to be already using this new system that eliminates the need to
maintain multiple mailing lists on different platforms. Smorgborg will be
launching all sorts of new features in the coming months. When we add back end
mailing list improvements, it frees us to work on other projects, and that is
vital.
We are also grateful to continue our relationship with IMhosted. When the site goes down as
all sites do occasionally, they are quick and efficient in helping us to stay
visible. Their generous support keeps our cost down and our spirit high.
We are very involved with the North County Arts Network. We see this new
organization as a pilot for other regions which could eventually join together
to form a much needed SD County Arts Council. The NCAN website needs to focus
on aiding collaborations, which is the most important job of a council. These
collaborations are what bring a community together. Watch for a newly launched
NCAN site in 2017 which will be an exceptional venue for sharing and promoting
our interconnectivity.
