BETHANY, CONN.- The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation today announced the launch of its new website. The new site represents a significant advance in functionality and greatly expands the content available digitally from the Foundation. Founded in 1971 by Josef Albers, the not-for-profit organization is devoted to preserving and promoting the aesthetic and philosophical principles by which Josef and Anni Albers lived.

The new website helps fulfill the mission of the Foundation by creating access from anywhere in the world to seldom-seen archival texts, images and videos from the Alberses’ personal life, professional artistic and teaching careers. The launch represents a milestone in the Foundation’s work to foster the mission of the artists and provide the opportunity for a wider public to have access to the experience of the Alberses’ artistic legacy. For a complete list of new features.

During their lives, Josef and Anni Albers were advocates of the belief that art and design should be made universally accessible to everyone in ways that reached beyond the intellectualization of art. With this ideal in mind, the Foundation is also transforming the design, and expanding the presence and functionality of its separate website Albers By Design: The Josef and Anni Albers Design Shop, which will be linked to the Foundation’s main site. Through product collaborations with a number of high-caliber manufacturers and prominent retailers, the Foundation is pleased to make available a range of home and design products inspired by the art and designs of Josef and Anni Albers. In addition to those currently available, the Foundation is developing new products that will be added to the shop website. The new Albers By Design site will go live later in 2014.

“The Foundation has an incredible wealth of information among its archives at its location in Bethany, Connecticut” said Brenda Danilowitz, Chief Curator of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, who spearheaded the effort to redesign the website. “Over the past two years we have worked intensely to gather information – from chronologies of the Alberses’ life to original audio, transcripts and texts – so that we could provide a digital resource for scholars, students and the curious public. We are thrilled that guests to the website will now have broader access to information, some of which has been seldom seen by the public and have the opportunity to experience the Alberses’ contribution to 20th century art in a much clearer and more comprehensive manner.”

For the first time, visitors to the new website are able to access audio of lectures by Josef Albers and view original texts from the artist’s lessons during his time at the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College and Yale University. More than 300 images of works by both Josef and Anni Albers are now available from the Foundation’s archives, as well as an updated and expanded bibliography.

The new website is also a comprehensive resource for biographical information on Josef and Anni Albers, as well as the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation news, upcoming exhibitions and events, lectures by Executive Director, Nicholas Fox Weber, press coverage, information for collectors, and the Foundation’s collaborations with other organizations.

The Foundation worked with Daphne Geismar on the enhanced design, organization and content of the new site. Geismar works closely with curators, artists, editors and publication managers to create designs that are sensitive to the unique subject matter of every project. In addition to the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Geismar works with art institutions across the country including the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and Yale University Art Gallery.

RANGER, a full-service digital studio founded in 2011 and located in Brooklyn, NY, produced the development and technical aspects of the new site. RANGER brings deep expertise to every stage of a digital project, from initial strategic planning throughout visual design and system architecture.

“At the start of the project, I talked with the staff of the Foundation, read books on the artists as well as documents from the archives, and explored the Foundation’s buildings and grounds to learn about the role of the Foundation and its resources,” said designer Daphne Geismar. “Throughout the project I kept in mind that Executive Director, Nicholas Fox Weber, had requested a website that was a haven: serene, clear and quite. I believe that we were successful in creating a site befitting the Alberses’ modern, simple and playful aesthetic that allows the user to look briefly and engage deeply. ”