Art Museums Magazine Goes Digital

Awaiting the re-opening of Harvard’s Fogg Museum in 2014, Harvard recently launched a digital version of its Art Museums magazine, “Index,” to provide users with updates on the renovation as well as unique daily content.

Jennifer Aubin, an Art Museums spokesperson, said a digital version of “Index” has been on the mind of Art Museums staff for some time.

With its launch, the magazine will essentially combine the efforts of three other publications: the magazine “Next,” which provides information about monetary gifts, the printed museum calendar, and a blog started last summer.

The goal of the publication is “to be able to tell our story and share stories with various audiences, [to] get them engaged,” Aubin stated.

The Harvard Art Museums have been connected online through Facebook for a couple of years, but the addition of a dedicated online magazine adds more features, Aubin said.

With a tiled graphic design, “Index” website displays media and articles chronologically; posts are tagged and easily navigated by subject; and Twitter integration adds additional communication with the staff.

Art Museums Creative Director Steven Waldron, who helped design the magazine, explained that the concept of time played a key role in the aesthetic inspiration.

The landing page of the site cycles through 365 colors, a different one for each day of the year.

Additionally, Waldron said the content is arranged from top to bottom to give a “feeling of ever expanding, ever growing,” creating a virtual index of content.

Between July 18—when the website officially went live—and September 30, “Index” attracted over 6,500 unique visitors and exceeded 10,000 visits in total. Aubin added that the articles detailing information on the renovations have been the most popular.

“We have a pretty big audience we are trying to reach and get them to understand what our activities are,” said Aubin.

From interviews of construction workers to posts of amusing “look-a-like” photographs of staff members and artifacts, the magazine offers many views into the inner workings of the museum.

Aubin, who herself writes news-related announcements for the site, said her favorite thing about it is that “it represents the many voices and projects that happen and exist at the Harvard Art Museums.”

A tri-annual print edition of “Index” will accompany the website and encourage readers to access supplemental information on the website through the use of a smartphone-based technology called Layar.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: Oct. 7, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the Harvard Art Museums’ new digital magazine. In fact, it is “Index,” not “The Index.”