Neue Galerie : Website and Database Integration

Neue Galerie New York, a museum devoted to early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design, has relied on Control Group to oversee its technology systems since its inception in 2001. Now in its third iteration, the Neue Galerie website was recently re-written by Control Group to realize the design vision of Pentagram, and to take advantage of the latest technologies.

The museum itself is a multifaceted organization comprising a design shop, bookstore, events and membership program and two restaurants, in addition to their leading permanent collection and exhibition schedule. To extend the innovative, modern spirit of the museum to its online presence, Pentagram created a sleek, clear presentation which belies the complex, dynamic underpinnings of the website.

Control Group completely re-architected the site, selecting Drupal as the CMS, allowing the museum to reliably self-administer all content in all sections of the application. By implementing advanced e-commerce tools, order processing and fulfillment has been streamlined, allowing the museum to present a broad range of their design shop and bookstore inventory. The museum’s collection and samples from current and past exhibitions are featured in a section including provenance information – a meaningful innovation in the museum community. In a custom built integration, the collection data is dynamically synchronized with the museum’s art management database.

Improving the museum’s presence on the web, Control Group created and executed a comprehensive SEO strategy, expanding the reach of both informational and e-commerce data. In the months since launch, site metrics have markedly improved and the site has enjoyed 100% uptime.