WebsitesArden Craft Shop Museum
When I first arrived at the Arden Craft Shop Museum in Arden, DE, the museum had a neat, modest website on WordPress. Soon after, however, WordPress began charging for an "ad-free upgrade," and we decided that if we were going to pay for a website, we wanted one with a more traditional feel and one that would be easier to manage than the options presented by the blog-based WordPress platform. I designed the new website, www.ardencraftshopmuseum.com, on Weebly and have trained a few volunteers on how to help me maintain it. Free the Museum Begun as a session proposal for the Small Museum Association 2014 Conference, Free the Museum is a website I run that is dedicated to locating, investigating, and explaining free resources–such as Weebly and GIMP–that museums and other historical institutions can easily learn to use. The website features how-to information for learning about website design tools, links to pages where free (and safe) software can be downloaded, myth-busting for those interested in website creation, and comparisons of competing resources so that readers can quickly identify which resources meet their needs. To visit my website, navigate to www.freethemuseum.net. Newlin Grist Mill From 2013-2014, I served as the Woodfin Fellow at Newlin Grist Mill, where I designed, planned, and implemented a new website. The site launched in March 2014 and can be seen at www.newlingristmill.org. Sustaining Places From January 2012 to May 2013, I worked as the webmaster for the Sustaining Places grant awarded to the University of Delaware Museum Studies Program and the Tri-State Coalition of Historic Places. The site changed hands in May 2013, but it will continue to be a great resource for small museums. Check out www.sustainingplaces.com. |
© Kelsey Ransick, 2015