Pita Develops Virtual Hall of Fame Web Site

From its inception in 1994, the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame (CWHF) has honored the achievements of Connecticut women, preserved their stories, educated the public and worked to inspire women and girls statewide.

Connecticut’s heroines and their stories are now more visible than ever on the Hall of Fame’s new web site, cwhf.org, which also offers expanded educational resources for visitors of all ages.

The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame’s new interactive website was made possible thanks to generous grants from the Seedlings Foundation, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving’s Koopman share of the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund, the Travelers Foundation, AT&T Connecticut, the Unilever United States Foundation, Inc., and the New Alliance Foundation, Inc.

Designed in partnership with Rocky Hill, Conn.-based The Pita Group, the website’s Virtual Hall boasts a breadth of features typically found in traditional museum settings. For example, when visitors reach the homepage, they are greeted by CWHF founding President Geena Clonan who emerges from the Educational Programming Wing to deliver a welcome message. The walls of the Virtual Hall feature two famous paintings by CWHF Inductee Helen Frankenthaler: Nature Abhors a Vacuum in the foyer and Mountains and Sea in the Inductee Rotunda.

CWHF Inductees’ histories remain the cornerstone of the organization’s online presence and form the foundation of all its educational resources. When entering the Virtual Hall, visitors can use an information kiosk to visit Inductee Portrait Galleries themed by area of achievement and access expanded biographical information as well as relevant links and multi-media resources. For the very first time, Inductee Tribute Films, premiered at each Induction Ceremony and used as educational tools throughout the year, are a part of the Inductee profiles. Many of these pieces have never before been shared with the wider public.

“Launching the Virtual Hall is our response to the increasing demand for web-based, interactive, educational content and it makes our resources available to all those interested in our mission,” said Katherine Wiltshire, executive director of the CWHF. “Now, visitors can delve far more deeply into our archives and truly experience and absorb the remarkable stories of the women we’ve honored over the last 18 years and continue to celebrate every day.”

The CWHF has spent the last 18 months updating and re-purposing its educational materials for use on the web. One of the key programs available in the Virtual Hall is an Interactive Timeline that contextualizes Inductee stories and links Inductee accomplishments by time period. The 14 sites on the Connecticut Women’s Heritage Trail have been geographically linked through an interactive map of the state. Lesson plans, classroom activities, and primary source materials from Connecticut Women Across the Curriculum Throughout the Year are now available for download. 2011 also marks the re-structuring of the Ella Tambussi Grasso Center for Women in Politics to create a brand new college grant program for young women, the Ella T. Grasso Leadership in Action Grant Program.

“For years, the Hall’s website has been an educational tool, receiving more than 100,000 individual hits each year and attracting local, national, and international researchers, teachers, and students,” said Wiltshire. “We’ve been very proud of that history but knew we had much, much more to offer our audience.”

A special new feature of the Virtual Hall is the CWHF Rose Garden, made possible by the generosity of 41 Founding Members. Visitors can purchase a rose in the Rose Garden and share the story of a woman who has touched their lives. This is the Hall’s way of honoring women’s daily contributions that too often go unrecognized. Each story will be archived and will serve as an inspiration to future visitors to the Virtual Hall. The Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame is an educational outreach organization whose mission is to honor publicly the achievement of Connecticut women, preserve their stories, educate the public and inspire the continued achievements of women and girls. Founded in 1994 in Hartford, Connecticut, the Hall fills the void that traditional curricula still fail to address and today stands as the state’s premier source for women’s history with 96 Inductees. These women’s lives and accomplishments are celebrated and documented through a wide spectrum of innovative statewide programs offered free of charge to Connecticut citizens.