The Woodson Art Museum’s mission is to “enhance lives through art.” My role as the marketing and communication manager is to ensure that all our resources and communication channels are accessible and efficient for everyone. One of the recent goals we’ve had is to build a new website that aids in our mission.
As soon as the dust settled after a successful opening weekend of Birds in Art 2024, the Woodson staff took on another big project. Upgrading the Museum’s website was a topic of conversation for several months, and the hunt for the right website designer began back in May. Once we made our selection, we met virtually with our website design firm weekly to ensure progress.
Screenshots of one of our virtual meetings.
Together, we spent countless hours breaking down every page of the current website and strategizing on how to create a better user experience. We had conversations about the new website’s tone and voice, design and theme, how we want the pages to interact with one another, how we can organize information to make it easier to find, and how to maintain all of this once the new site is launched.
Last week, we met some of that project team in person. A photographer and videographer flew to Wausau to spend a day with us, where they saw the Museum, learned about what we do, and shot content for the new website. This media day was an “all hands on deck” project and required the collaboration of everyone on staff.
A behind the scenes look at the media day.
When this project began, it felt like a daunting task. There were so many decisions to make and lots of critical thinking to do. The website design team has helped us every step of the way, and our internal project team has been able to learn so much in the last few months. With the anticipated launch of the new site next Spring, there’s still a ton of work ahead. Though, knowing that it will further the Museum’s mission and all those impacted by it makes it worthwhile.
