Irish Museum of Modern Art

The Irish are proud of their rolling hills and booming business. The people at the Irish Museum of Modern Art are also proud of their museum, so proud that the first thing that meets you is a quotation by art critic Peter Plagens in Newsweek: "This museum is one of the most beautiful in the world". Once this statement has faded away, a new one emerges by his colleague from BBC. "A powerhouse of modern - focussing on the very best of homegrown and international post-war art", states Tim Marlow from BBC.

The Museum is housed in the 17th century building, once the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and later a home for retired soldiers. This magnificent building was restored by the Government in 1984 and opened as the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 1991. The museum has some 1,650 works and upcoming exhibitions include new works acquired by the museum since 2003, as well as American artist Georgia O'Keefe, Shahzia Sikander of Pakistan, Spanish Joan Miró and American Alexander Calder. Art enthusiasts are lucky to have access to such a broad palette of exhibitions in Dublin.

Does the website fulfil its promises of presenting a powerhouse of modern art? Yes, in many respects it does. Loads of information and activities clearly signal that this is a museum where high-quality exhibitions take place.

User-friendliness
Visit and Contact IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) are easily identified, so that visitors are orientated about opening hours, prices, location, café, bookshop and gardens. The museum clearly distinguishes between own collections and exhibitions of art on loan. Basic information is given up-front. The site has a lot of services including search engine, events calendar, print link (print version should as a minimum remove the many links and let the printed page be as 'clean' as possible), and even "Low Graphics Version".

Navigation
Considering the amount of information and links on the front page it work surprisingly well. There is a left navigation menu, a bottom menu, a top menu and an extra vertical menu ('What's New, Events Calendar, Mailing List, Send a Postcard and Low Graphics version). Perhaps not an optimal navigation solution, but it works.

The site involves quite a bit of scrolling. Instead of making webpages approximately the length of a screen, links have been made to information further down on the page. At times I would have preferred more pages with less information on each.

Content
The quality and detail of content is generally very good. Pictures often have detailed mouseovers and there are many layers of information depending on visitors' needs and interests.

Perhaps some of the information is thought of from an organizational point of view rather than being user-orientated. With a museum, website and staff of this size it should be possible to give us some stories rather than 'politically correct' aims and goals of the museum and the various programmes. Who has lived in the former coach houses after they have been converted to artist's residences? What advantages did this have for the artist, the museum and the visitors? We are also curious to know about the National Programme, not the usual formalities and visions, but who participates, what do they do, and so on. We want stories about people and art - and what art does to us.

Updating
Everything is on schedule - and uncertainties are clearly stated (Exhibition on Recent Acquisitions, the start date April 3 is to be confirmed). Perhaps the two statements from art critics need to be changed. They are from 2000.

Aesthetics
Some pages are very well balanced with pictures and text complementing each other, for instance "National Programme" and "Artists' Residency Programme", others are a bit messy with too much text without headings and pictures of different sizes. Also the many links at the tops of pages are disturbing.

The many blues give the site a sense of quality and seriousness and the pale orange (not gold) lettering ensures that we don't get the feeling that this is a royal website. The website is traditional in its look despite the fact that modern art is on the agenda at the museum. Should the website design reflect modernity or should it rather be more subdued and let the art transcend conformity? IMMA has chosen the last path, which is a legitimate position. When the website is subdued in its design, then I believe the art should be more visible and overwhelm us.

Creativity
The site has lots of good features, such as the events calendar, permanent collection database and serves those with older computers or slow connections with a "text only version". Another fun feature is "Send an IMMA Postcard" to a friend, which supports efforts to create a community feeling around the IMMA.  Maybe it is a reading from a community perspective that IMMA's website lacks.  Otherwise this is a thoroughly competent, sober and enjoyable website.

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Related Information
Irish Museum of Modern Art, http://www.imma.ie/en/index.htm