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After finding that the websites of
Cleveland's Jewish organizations offered little or
no content on their history (click
here) the question arose "Do the websites of
Cleveland's major cultural organizations do a better
job in this regard?"
In October 2007 we wrote "A few do share their long and
distinguished histories on the web, but most say
little." Today (May 2010) there has been
considerable improvement, as we note below. We list
the institutions in the order of their founding.
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Western Reserve Historical Society
(founded 1867)
The WRHS is Northeast Ohio's oldest major cultural institution. Their website was redesigned in April 2008,
still with no
history. Then late in June 2008 it added a long, informative, well written
page on its history with a timeline and lists of buildings acquired and past lay and
professional leaders. Kudos to WRHS! When it acquires some images and is made more easily found.
the WRHS History web page will be the one of the best. |
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Cleveland Museum of Art
(founded 1913)
The CMA's website is new (as of May 2010) and amazing. It offers essential
information plus a large sample of the collection, and is
customizable for registered users. The web site tour will help visitors
enjoy the site.
User-friendly, but unfriendly to search engines and to websites that want to
link to interior pages. White on black text
is not easy to read.
The
History page (select "About", then "History and Mission") is generous in its text and supplemented by
20 captioned photos - oddly, unrelated to the text and shown in no logical order. When we created this page in 2007, the CMA had no
online history. Now we think it has one of the best. |
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Cleveland Play House
(founded 1915)
A
History page is informative. But its 536 words of 8 pt solid text in
wide lines, with no white space and no images, make it unappealing. But at
the bottom of the page there are links to three pdf documents which, in
total, do a fine job telling the Play House story. Perhaps some day they
will be integrated and shown better. But oddly (as of May 2010) none of these pages - in fact no
page on the website, not even a news release - mentions one of the biggest steps in their 95 year
history - their April 2009 decision to move downtown to Playhouse Square.
more on the PD pages.... |
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Cleveland Orchestra (founded 1918)
The Cleveland Orchestra is proud of its history. Pictures from
its past hang in the Green Room and the nearby halls of Severance Hall.
Concert programs have photos of past conductors and the names of
past presidents of the Musical Arts Association.But their website's
History page is a dull text-only page. Rewritten in October 2009, it has
a list of music directors and some on its glorious past.
Much of the page is about recent alliances and the current season. But read
in conjunction with the
Severance Hall page, their history is done well. In
our view, with some images, more on their past leaders and on the Blossom
Festival, it would be far better.
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Cleveland Institute of Music
(founded 1920)
In May 2010 we find a crisp new website - though sadly with small
fuzzy-looking - Times New Roman
- serif font. Happily they retained their history pages which in 2007 were perhaps the best virtual history
of a Cleveland cultural organization.
Click here.
Written for their newsletter during their 75th anniversary year (1995-96),
they show how print materials can be effectively
re-used on the web.
Extensive text, many images and due respect shown to those who helped
shape the CIM. The pages have been updated since that time but need more, for
they end with no mention of the Fred A. Lennon Education Building and Mixon Hall,
which
opened in 2007, nor Joel Smirnoff, named president in 2008. |
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