Challenge
Continuing our collaborative relationship with Axis, fuse8 were called upon to celebrate the North East’s many great galleries, exhibitions and artists, in the form of a new website and iPhone application.
From Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art in the south of the region, to Queen's Hall Arts in the heart of Northumberland, North East England is home to a fantastically rich range of exhibitions and installations, as well as internationally recognised works to see throughout the entire region.
Insight
With such a large number of galleries, exhibitions and other arty destinations around the North East, it became apparent that a majority of people would be accessing content on the move from their mobile devices.
This made it essential that when people looked to find mobile content, that content was up to date and relevant. By using an Umbraco CMS that fed both the website and the mobile application, content was updated instantly, ensuring that users only saw the most up to date information, regardless of platform.
Work
Built on the successful template we had previously used for Art in Yorkshire, Art in Sheffield, and Ways of Looking; Contemporary Art North East’s content was delivered via an Umbraco CMS. This robust CMS platform enabled us to deliver on the concept of “create once, publish everywhere”. Site content, in the form of text, pictures, video and even audio, was held in the CMS, and was pushed through to both the website and the iOS app, without having to change, edit or format the content differently for each platform.
The Contemporary Art North East iPhone app, developed by Axis and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in collaboration with fuse8, was funded by Arts Council England North East and supported by the visual arts sector in the North East.
Results
Contemporary Art North East began on 17th June 2011 with Cloud Nylon: The Jewellery of Nora Fok, held at Shipley Art Gallery, and since then the app has been downloaded over 1,000 times. People have been using the app to leave comments and engage with the art community whilst visiting galleries and art installations at many venues across the region. Contemporary Art North East ends on 20th September 2012 with LEO - Artist in Residence, at Visual Arts in Rural Communities.