Issue XXV, February 10th 2012.
Hello to all Russian Avant-garde Gallery visitors and subscribers!
NEW RELEASE!
Finally, I am so happy to announce the completion of all the changes and reprogramming of the Russian Avant-garde Gallery website!
Today the new and much improved website is going LIVE!
The timing has moved and moved - and now it seems everything is done just in time to celebrate Tatiana Kofyan's birthday at the end of this month!
What Has Been Done
A Whole Different Concept - Full Reprogramming
During the last year I have worked on the total overhaul and full reprogramming of this website, from several different angles.
First, the original goal was to reprogram the whole website and change it from the static HTML to database-oriented platform. For the uninitiated, as I was myself a year and a bit ago, this means that the information is now organized in neat tables at the "backstage", which allows many automatic functions and scripts.
The main reason for the necessity for this change was the amount of information accumulated already, and we have just began to really get going! I could no longer deal with this much information manually, programming it all myself as I go along and add more information. I could no longer keep up with all the changes and updates manually, and needed to automate as much as was possible, in order to not waste time I could invest in more information added each month and some required functions.
Freshen Up the Design
As you may see, the website design has been changed and refreshed, as well. It felt right to change it all at once, as long as I was changing everything else.
In addition to the way the site looks, I have also made changes in the functionality, aiming for less scrolling, and more user-friendly interface. Most pages are designed now as multi-tabbed, where the information is organized according to types, in different tabs. This opens a second dimension to the pages: horizontal as well as vertical, and I hope it will make the work on the site easier and more intuitive than before, spreading everything in front of the viewer at once.
Also, the recommended books and other things pertaining to the artists are now brought in one of the tabs, to place them close to the visitor at his convenience and eliminate the extra browsing and clicking.
New modules for those unfamiliar with Russian Avant-garde
The Russian Avant-garde Gallery has been at the outset intended to bring information for people who knew nothing about it. However, it was developed at the onset by my mother, who knew everything about it, and not by myself, who did not. And I was led in her dream, in her path, not really thinking about what people who knew nothing about it needed to know first and foremost.
As I started to study the statistics of the site viewing over the previous couple of years I noticed that many of my visitors who obviously searched to learn about Russian Avant-garde are not finding here an answer, and began asking myself why. I came to realize that the website is built for people who know, who can find their way around, who come again and again to study materials they are familiar with.
And so I created a new introductory module for people who know nothing about Russian Avant-garde and called in so: Introduction for Those New to Russian Avant-garde. Here I attempt to break the phenomenon into little pieces and give a short explanation about it, step by step. The Introduction includes an interactive Timeline to put into order the different Movements and Groups, and linking to a list of Groups, which is relevant to all the texts and biographies.
The pages for these Groups are results of extensive research, brought in the way I would have liked to see them myself, with a few exceptions. So far this groups list numbers over 45 different groupings, from the Wanderers to the official Union of Soviet Artists, from all over Europe in the 19th-20th century. There will be many more, but the making of them takes time.
Also planned is a similarly extensive list of all the abbreviations used and institutions alluded to in all the texts and biographies, they will be made in a similar manner.
Membership site
Another reason for the changes was the necessity to expand the team from the single person (myself) to several, which required additional funding for the website. Careful consideration has brought me to the realization, that the answer lies with some small and symbolic degree of involvement of my faithful and interested visitors receiving all the fruits of this labor, until different venues planned render this no longer necessary. However, to develop them - first the expansion of the team is vital.
And so after over a decade of operation and now the reprogramming and total upgrading of the Russian Avant-garde Gallery, it has become a membership site, with access to different levels of information distinguishing between 3 groups of visitors.
This is explained in detail on the Membership page, which you may read here, I do not want to make the Newsletter too long.
As a special thank you to all of you, my loyal subscribers, for all your patience and support, I would like to give you all the first 3 months of access to the restricted areas totally free. You shall receive your complimentary Quarterly Gift Membership later today in a separate e-mail.
Also, please understand, this is a short term measure, to break the magic cycle and get this site to deliver everything you may want and need here at one place, so that it may generate the financial support from other origins. I expect the membership phase to last for a couple of years, thus limiting the contribution of a single member to a modest sum. The length of the period really depends on the willingness of the members to participate in this effort.
Once the website generates more from other origins - it will immediately revert to being free for all.
Why it took so long
At first, I began working on totally changing the whole concept of this website, to turn it from static html-based manually input separate individual pages to dynamic Joomla-powered database-operated platform. However, I am a novice at this sort of thinking, and so turned to find a programmer to help me make the application I needed.
A programmer soon presented himself with seemingly just what was required, but this alliance proved wrong. The work dragged on and on for months, and it has finally become apparent that the programmer will not be able to complete it satisfactorily.
In the meantime my side of work meant translating every bit of information into databases and creating them, finding just the right program to suit our needs and find the programmers who can help me make the website exactly the way it should look and feel; make the new graphic design which would work on the new platform. And finally, upload the thousands of works into the new system.
I turned to search for a different programmer, and found one, in India, on recommendation from my hosting company. Pushkar has almost instantly found all the weak places in the program and offered to reprogram it anew instead of fixing something so full of holes. Most of his excellent and dedicated work was done on credit, but is now complete.
For my end it meant to redo again all the databases, working for a different platform, and there were many surprises, time- and effort-consuming, as I was not at all aware of all the facets of a working system such as this one. Luckily for me - Pushkar knew exactly what he was doing, though he listened very carefully to all my endless requirements and met them superbly. God knows I probably drove him to distraction with my endless questions and drive to make the functionality the best that I understand.
The improvements are continuous
The opening of this website does not signify that all is done. Improvements will continue, and any feedback from you will also be thankfully taken into consideration.
There are many plans yet to put into motion, as soon as I can compensate the programmer and expand my team. There are also many little things that I already know I want to improve and add, but they are not critical at this point in order to make the site work live. I expect there would be some bugs - please point them out to me if you stumble on one, and it will be immediately repaired.
The integration between the system and the forum is one of the planned improvements, which is still not done, because of information security issues, a field alien to me but well-known to Pushkar, for which I am profoundly thankful. The expansion of the exhibitions and shows section is another section with improvements planned, and so on.
And the development of the artists section, halted due to tall the work for the reprogramming, is beginning anew. Expect new artists again and the announcements about them - and hopefully at a faster rate. Work has already begun on this part, as well. And once I have some help in this area - the pace will certainly pick up.
To sum up
The amount of work done is staggering and the obstacles encountered on the way are mostly conquered.
I thank you all again for your trust and patience and ask to you go and try everything out, and alert me if anything is broken, non-functional or not as you expected. Please let me know what your thoughts and whishes are, your feedback is important and deeply appreciated.
Vera Kofyan |
