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The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is considered by many to be one of the most important art museums in the world, especially in the realm of modern art and architectural design.

The museum’s focus has always been to develop and collect modernist art. Today, MoMA’s massive collection includes works of architecture and design, drawings, painting, sculpture, photography, prints, illustrated books, film, and electronic media. There is also an incorporated library with more than 300,000 items related to modern art and artists, including primary source materials on the history of modern art.

Prospective visitors, students, scholars and modern art lovers share a need for information regarding the collections, visiting hours, current and future exhibitions, and research resources. The MoMA website provides extensive information on the museum’s collections. Information for visitors includes opening hours, guidelines for access to different areas, tips for touring the museum and current ticket prices. Museum tickets are sold by phone through Ticketmaster and online via Ticketweb. Guides to educational and research resources are provided as well.

MoMA.org is a well-designed but surprisingly conservative website. It is easy to navigate and gives the visitor quick access to essential information. The MoMA site offers a calendar of events and exhibitions, information about current and upcoming exhibitions, and an opportunity to browse MoMA’s world-class modern art and architecture collections. Internet visitors can learn important information about real-world visits to the museum. There is a description of MoMA’s history and purpose, as well as complete coverage of the museum’s education and research resources.

Anyone who is interested in the collections and exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art can benefit from the site. Prospective visitors to the New York area who want to see this important and famous museum will find what they need to know. Students and researchers who need more information about modern art or modern art history will discover many helpful resources.

MoMA.org is organized in a fairly traditional, with major headings in a left-hand column. Choices for navigation include a Calendar of Events, Exhibitions Schedule, The Collection, Visit MoMA, About MoMA, Education, International Program, and Research Resources. Visitors can also browse Publications, learn how to Support MoMA and shop in the Online Store.

Exceptional features of the MoMA site include the easy accessibility of a wide range of information on the front page. Regardless of your purpose for visiting MoMA.org, you should be able to navigate directly to pages of interest from the home page.

Website visitors are also able to browse the museum’s collection online. Items from the museum’s collection are available for viewing from anywhere in the world. Quick browsing can be accomplished by viewing six items per page. Visitors can also focus on single items, where they will find multiple pictures and text descriptions. For some items, views from several different perspectives are offered.

The MoMA site also has several online sections that focus on specific projects of the museum. For example, users can follow a link to a section of the site devoted to the conservation work on Picasso’s painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (1907).

MoMA.org is good, but not perfect. For The Museum of Modern Art, the site seemed a little plain. Considering the museum’s focus on modern art and cutting-edge design, the website’s design seemed somewhat dated and a tad conservative. However, this may serve to make modern art more accessible to those who might otherwise not be interested.

Another shortcoming in the current site is that when browsing the collection, several images were not available. Thus, the promise of being able to browse MoMA’s complete collection was not completely fulfilled. A surprising number of items were accompanied by an “Image Not Available” box instead of a photograph. Of course, if you plan to visit the museum in person, this is only gratification delayed. But for those who will likely never travel to New York, a photo of each item is essential.

Overall, the MoMA site provides everything needed for visitors, students, researchers and modern art lovers. MoMA.org is a complete resource destination for The Museum of Modern Art. The design is clean and fast, albeit a bit traditional. A little bit of updating or a creative face lift would certainly not be out of the question.

Our rating: recommended resource, 4.5 out of 5