Artreach
Designed and developed a platform for Milieux Institute that connects academic designers and artists to broader communities — increasing public engagement with university research.
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The Problem
The Milieux Institute at Concordia University produces a significant volume of research-creation work — art, design, and technology projects by graduate students and faculty working at the intersection of disciplines. But this work was scattered across personal portfolios, institutional databases, and social media, making it difficult for external audiences to discover or engage with.
The institute needed a centralized platform that could showcase this work to the public while giving creators ownership over their own presence.
What We Built
ArtReach is a curated web platform that connects Milieux's academic creators with broader communities. The platform features:
- Artist profiles — Self-serve pages where researchers and artists manage their own bio, portfolio, and external links
- Artwork gallery — A curated showcase of research-creation projects with rich media documentation
- Authentication system — Creators can log in and maintain their profiles independently
- Curation layer — Institute-level editorial control for featuring and organizing content
- Social integration — Connections to Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn for extending reach beyond the platform
The architecture prioritizes both institutional curation and individual autonomy — the institute controls the editorial layer, while creators control their own content.
Technologies
Next.js, PostgreSQL, cloud storage for media assets, responsive design with mobile-first approach, authentication system, CMS integration.
Outcome
The platform bridged the gap between academic research-creation and public engagement, giving the institute a professional digital presence while making emerging interdisciplinary work accessible to galleries, curators, prospective students, and the broader public. Creators who previously had no centralized portfolio gained a managed, curated presence connected to an established research institution.