The Jewish Artists Initiative (JAI) is an artist-run organization committed to fostering visual art by Jewish artists and promoting dialogue about Jewish identity and related issues among members of the arts community. JAI was originally conceived by the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles in partnership with the University of Southern California Casden Institute and the USC Roski School of Fine Arts. Their website allows users to view all JAI artists and their works, past and present exhibitions, a calendar of events, a listing and description of JAI events, as well as news, discussions, and opportunities for artists.

Challenge:

The Board of Trustees of the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles was awarded a 2008 Cutting Edge Grant of $250,000 to fund the Jewish Artists Initiative: The Quest for Transformational Jewish Art, for three years.

This generous grant will fund an expanded dialogue between Jewish artists from Los Angeles and Tel Aviv as well as create opportunities for selected artists from each city to become artists-in-residence.

This not-for-profit association website was initially built on top of a technology which had lost its open source supporters and was in dire need of an upgrade. The platform had become obselete and there was a growing concern regarding security.

Solution:

Promet understood that the Drupal platform had long been utilized for not-for profit associations, coops and initiatives. By examining the existing site functionality and structure, we identified the necessary modules to replace existing site functionality, while at the same time, adding new capapbilities.

We moved the entire site over to the Drupal Content Management System, and created functionality which mimicked or improved on the old site’s sections. We moved over all the content, including the template and CSS files.

While retaining their site design, the JAI now has many advanced features that other not-for profit associations often use. It has a secure site which is supported by a vibrant community and is hosted in a secure environment.

Promet transformed an existing site without changing the core design, yet implemented a powerful content management system to support the site. Now the JAI is happy with their website, one that can continue to scale as the orgnaization grows.