The Morris Museum offers exhibits and performances for audiences of all ages. Photo courtesy of Morris Museum.
The Morris Museum, serving audiences from across northern New Jersey and beyond, is reshaping the conversation about creativity and curiosity. A Smithsonian Affiliate, the Museum serves as a cultural hub, presenting exhibits and performances to tens of thousands of visitors each year.
The Morris Museum received a $25,000 technology upgrade grant in FY22 through the Cultural Trust’s Institutional and Financial Stabilization Grants for History and Humanities Organizations program.
An effective online presence is critical for cultural institutions. Websites assert an organization’s identity and vibrancy, promote its programming, and serve as a primary means of communicating with its audiences. A website can also be a key platform for ticketing, fundraising, and — increasingly — program delivery. A well-designed website can serve an organization for years; however, an outdated or poorly designed site can hinder all of these essential functions, and redesigns often come with significant upfront costs. Cultural Trust grants can support the capital expense to create new and upgraded websites, including enhancements for accessibility.
In 2021, the Morris Museum had embraced a new focus on technology in its exhibitions and installations, but its website had not evolved alongside its mission. The museum’s Cultural Trust grant application described the website’s long loading times, outdated appearance, and poor online user performance during times of high activity. Patrons also experienced difficulty buying tickets and making donations online.
The Morris Museum’s Cultural Trust grant supported the engagement of a consultant to rebuild the museum’s website with a focus on improved user experience. The new website, which launched in August 2022, is mobile-friendly, ADA-compliant, and easy for staff to update internally. The site also features a significantly improved online ticketing function. Within the first three months alone, the average load time for each page decreased significantly; meanwhile, the total number of visitors to the site increased by 25%, and the total number of page views increased by 36%.
“This redesign was a massive step forward for the museum,” according to the Morris Museum’s grant report. “[It] has advanced our outreach and accessibility, and therefore our stabilization as an organization.”
Learn more about the Morris Museum: https://morrismuseum.org/
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