Artists Workshop Website Release 3, February 1, 2007
Acting Webmaster: James Semark
MySpace Webmaster: Len Beste
Sponsor: Cary Loren
Blues Scholar at Large: John Sinclair
Guidelines:
We are using this webpage to provide some general guidelines on how the website will be used. The basic rule of thumb is this: We recognize that everything under the sun cannot be presented under the Detroit Artists Workshop website. Instead, we will try to create the foundation, history, roots -- whatever we think it will take to provide a solid support network for our art -- and your art as well. If all goes as expected, we should receive a lot of enthusiam, and a lot of new art will appear.
We will try to represent a flavor of the new art as it occurs, but we will also encourage artists to build their own websites, where their material is totally under their own control. We will do this in the spirit of the original Artists Workshop Press, which was setup exactly for that purpose, to provide a means so that artists can publish material under their own control. As a result, we will link into a large number of websites, a "mega-site," already in evidence on our Links page. So, we wish you well, and -- good surfing!
Release history:
Release 3: the focus of this website is no longer the 2004 reunion, but continuance of the Detroit Artists Workshop under a new mission statement (i.e., community empowerment through cultural experience). The original web pages have been overhauled and fine-tuned in anticipation of more content. Although the physical Workshop has been dormant since the reunion festival, this website has taken on a life of its own, receiving hits from surfers all over the globe. Through the efforts of Len Beste, we've added a MySpace website as the permanent forum page and we hope it will be used by interested parties the world over.
Also, due to our statistics showing hits from all over the world, we've added a web search engine service to the site, with a site map. We recognize that the majority of high-end web users are searchers rather than surfers, and to accomodate them, we've made the site search-friendly.
Release 2: of course, removing the frame-based design removed the fire from many of the pages, and I went searching for other techniques to present the pages in an attention-getting manner. In particular, I began using pop-up browser windows in lieu of the frames. I'm glad to see this works for everybody. I will continue developing creative ways of presenting content, while keeping a sense of dignity as required by the historical character of this site.
The original (Release 1) website was a frame-based design, where the right side scrolled down and the left side (with links and images) stayed in one place. However, this seemed to cause compatibility problems in some versions of the Internet Explorer browser. Of particular concern were people like C&G Newspapers, trying to promote the 40th anniversary celebration, then complaining to me that they can't see my website in their browser. After that, I contacted my web hosting tech support, and they suggested that the multi-file "frame" configuration of many pages in the website (particularly the home page) might be incompatible with some versions of Explorer. Eventually, John Sinclair complained about the same thing, so he became the guinea pig -- I gave him the URL for the reunion pics page (a flat HTML file, no frames) and asked him if he could see that, and he replied that he could. So, I bit the bullet and did a complete overhaul of the website (it's not rational to ask people to upgrade their browser just to see my website). Top
Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due:
Detroit Artists Workshop Logo: Gary Grimshaw
Background Graphics: