An events-first stage for art and social justice
The Puffin Cultural Forum’s new site puts the current show and what’s on next at center stage. Tickets, livestreams, and proposals from artists are all one click away.
The story
The Challenge
In the Forum’s own words, the old site was outdated, cluttered with unnecessary and disorganized pages, and neither pleasing nor easy to use. For a venue whose lifeblood is what’s happening — the current show, the upcoming events — that was the worst possible failure. The Forum wanted the professional clarity of a fine-art gallery site while staying warm and non-pretentious for the local community it collaborates with, needed easy ticketing and reservations, a prominent mailing-list invitation, and a clear path for artists, teachers, and organizations to propose performances, shows, and collaborations. And accessibility wasn’t negotiable — it was a stated priority from the first conversation.
Our Approach
Offered a faster theme-based option, the Forum deliberately chose the full custom process, UX personas and all, because they wanted it right, not just soon. We built the site events-first: a fully featured calendar with add-ons for virtual and community events, a custom event template where tickets and reservations live beside the details, and livestream embedding so selected programs reach beyond Teaneck. The ongoing show anchors the homepage alongside live Instagram and YouTube feeds; a notification bar keeps hours and visitor policies current; a prominent mailing-list signup grows the community; and dedicated proposal pathways invite artists, teachers, and partner organizations in. Accessibility personas shaped the design throughout, fitting for a gallery whose mission is inclusion.
Why It Worked
A venue’s website is its lobby. We organized everything around the events and lowered every barrier between the community and the stage, including for visitors with disabilities. That made the site an extension of the Forum’s hospitality, not a brochure about it.
The Results
What’s on now and what’s next: unmissable from the first screen
Tickets, reservations, and livestreams handled natively instead of scattered off-site
A working intake channel for the artists and educators who fuel the programming
A warm, professional, accessible design that matches gallery standards without the pretense
They chose the long way on purpose.
Offered a faster theme-based option, the Forum picked the full custom process (UX and accessibility personas included) because the site had to work like the gallery itself: professional, warm, and open to everyone.
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