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Tilsner Artists' Cooperative
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| Above: The Tilsner homepage |
The Tilsner Artists' Cooperative, found at tilsner.net, is a residential artists' community located in a renovated warehouse in the heart of St. Paul, Minnesota's historic Lowertown district, skirted by the Farmer's Market, Mississippi River, and downtown St. Paul.
At first encounter, the Tilsner Artists' Cooperative had no website. In the past, a resident web designer had built a site for the Coop but had since moved out of the building. As a result, the site became out of date and the domain name was allowed to expire.
The initial site nigelparry.net created pro bono for the Tilsner was a standard HTML site similarly dependent on an overworked webmaster for maintainance. Considerable interest in the website from the artists resident in the building's 66 studio units resulted in discussion, positive votes in the relevant meetings that govern Cooperative life, and budgeting for a new website.
In early 2003, nigelparry.net created a new feature-rich website that included an easy-to-use content management system. This upgrade made the process of handing on the site far easier and avoided a reoccurrence of the community's previous experience.
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| Above: The Tilsner homepage. Categories on the left include general information and Tilsner News, as well as a list of sections maintained by current residents. The entire site or specific sections are searchable via a search tool on the top left of the site. On the right, a random image of the Tilsner building is delivered to visitors, one of 9. The logo was developed by Nigel Parry and resident illustrator Bill Birawer. |
For artists who already have their own website but either have limited time to maintain it or don't have the skills, the new tilsner.net site has a solution. The website incorporates a syndication function that allows artists to generate a webfeed from their section of tilsner.net that automatically updates headlines on their external website immediately when they add a new article to tilsner.net.
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| Above: An artist's homepage on the Tilsner website. Articles at the top of the page are the most recent added by the artist. On the global homepage of the Tilsner website, material from all sections and artists are displayed chronologically. |
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| Above: An article page within an artist's section on the website. The pop-up box shows the site's E-mail This function in action. |
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| Above: The directions page on the site. The About the Tilsner section index page sorts alphabetically rather than chronologically. Each page on the site has a printable version automatically generated. Key pages such as this directions page, which offer information frequently requested, were included in the permanent graphical navigation that appears at the top of the page on each site. |
MULTIMEDIA INTRODUCTION TO THE TILSNER WEBSITE
Visitors who arrive at tilsner.net are greeted with an optional multimedia advert for the Coop. A series of fast-loading animated screens tells a photo story.
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| Above: The FlashTM cartoon begins with a frame of a bus pulling to a stop. A woman is sitting in the backseat. |
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| Above: She is experiencing regret at missed opportunities: "Why did I set my dream to simmer?" |
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| Above: The thought bubbles continue: "I never found space in my life for art." |
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| Above: "It all feels too far away, too late..." The shot widens out, showing the vague outline of a building in the background. |
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| Above: The bus fades away, leaving only the building visible, which becomes brightly colored. |
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| Above: The shot pans up the building and comes to a stop. All along the answer to the woman's regret was nearby: "THE TILSNER ARTISTS COOPERATIVE: WHERE ART LIVES THE DREAM." |
View/download a full size JPG of the Tilsner.net homepage as of 18 December 2003. [412K]
Visit tilsner.net
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