Web Critique: MCA, threewalls

Museum of Contemporary Art (www.mcachicago.org)
It's rare to see a homepage that uses Flash but doesn't take forever to load or make you sit through an intro to get to the rest of the content of the site. The fancy Flashiness also serves a purpose: it switches from the new Buckminster Fuller exhibit to highlights from the MCA collection and back again. This is a good way to provide links to two different parts of the site in one space, preventing the homepage from getting too crowded.

I clicked on the Buckminster Fuller exhibit info because I read an article about him a few months ago and he seemed like an interesting guy. The page for the exhibit is incredibly comprehensive--everything you'd want to know related to the exhibit is right here. I'm really glad I could read about Fuller and definitions of key concepts in his work before visiting the museum on Tuesday. I'm curious to see if this info is also incorporated into the exhibit at the museum, or if people who visit the site get all this extra stuff.

I also checked out the teacher resources section of the site. It's pretty basic design-wise and there seems to be an issue with formatting bulleted lists, but there are some good lesson plans and ideas there, not just for art class but other classes as well.

www.three-walls.org
I think something is wrong with the hosting for this site. I typed in the address and got a "This page cannot be found" message, but then I googled "three-walls" and clicked on the link with the exact same URL, and I was able to get there. So...they might want to get that cleared up.

This organization seems to do some great things for artists in Chicago, especially thinktank, which is an opportunity for CPS teachers to get some new ideas from working artists. But how do you participate? There is no link to sign up or request more information on the page that describes this program.

I hate to be all super-critical of their site, but I was really confused by the whole Calendar section. The main page for it has very little information about what's coming up--just people's names and nothing about what the event will be about. Then, in the subcategories under Calendar, they list a bunch of other events that aren't listed on the main calendar page, but the dates for many of them have passed. So I'm left scratching my head about what's actually happening and when. They don't seem to have a ton of events going on; one comprehensive page probably would work better than subcategorizing.

Their bookstore sounds cool and Quimbys-esque. Also, they make it easy to become a member and donate money. And their blog seems fairly active. See, I'm not 100% mean.