Arts & Culture

College of Visual and Performing Arts’ new website features fresh design, increased functionalities, broader and deeper content

Monday, April 12, 2010, By Erica Blust

With 48 undergraduate and graduate programs, hundreds of events in any given semester, 250 faculty, 3,500 students and more than 22,000 active alumni, Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) relies heavily on its website to connect and communicate with prospective and current students, alumni, parents and friends in the Syracuse community and around the globe. To better meet the needs of its audiences, the college has announced the launch of a new website.

“The new vpa.syr.edu is much more than a fresh new design that reflects the college’s recent rebranding initiative,” says VPA Dean Ann Clarke. “It features a host of increased functionalities and broader, deeper content.”

New functionality includes:
• a reorganized navigation for simpler and faster access of desired information;
• student blogs designed to give prospective students a more personal connection to current students, their coursework and activities;
• one central calendar that can be searched by date, event type or program; and
• the ability to connect/share site content with hundreds of social media outlets.

Broader and deeper content includes:
• showcases of student work featuring images, audio and video;
• vintage SU video posts each week via “Throwback Thursdays”; and
• an improved section for alumni, featuring alumni network information and career resources as well as a variety of opportunities for involvement in the college.

The progressive new look of the site reflects the busy and vibrant VPA community; it was designed by Studio Blue of Chicago under the leadership of Clarke. Studio Blue had previously worked with VPA on a complete rebranding of the college, including new mission, vision and values statements, and new verbal and visual branding tools, including a new logo and color palette, all of which are featured throughout the site.

The site was developed by Mathematic Arts of Milwaukee. Studio Mercury of Brooklyn, N.Y, took the photos and videos used on the main pages of the site.

For more information about the VPA website, contact Erica Blust, director of communications, at (315) 443-5891 or esblust@syr.edu. The college has also created a blog for users to post comments at http://vpaweb.blogspot.com/.