Creating a Virtual Home for Art Educators
The National Art Education Association needed a Web site to convey the benefits of membership to potential members and to deliver value to current members. They wanted a Web site to serve as a virtual home to their audiences—a place where they could learn, share and connect, not just about NAEA but about their shared profession.
To create a dynamic online experience, Collaborative engaged directly with arts educators to learn what they needed in their professional development and to advance their careers. We also worked with NAEA to understand their organizational capacity and identified opportunities to build that capacity. We helped NAEA select and train a Web master. We delivered training and documentation that went beyond technical know-how and included recommendations on keeping content fresh, talking points around the site launch and identified ongoing outreach opportunities. We did more than simply deliver a Web site; we positioned NAEA for ongoing success.
The end-result is a premier, award-winning Web site that is as fresh now as it was when it launched in 2008. Features of the site include a monthly mentor blog, through which seasoned educators share ideas with and facilitate discussion among others in the NAEA community. Site visitors can read featured lesson plans while members can browse a library of lesson plans and submit their own. Members can also create an online gallery of their students’ work. There is a searchable membership directory complete with social networking opportunities. This is more than a Web site—it is the virtual home NAEA envisioned.


