Canada’s Theatre Museum
Sparked sets the digital stage for the museum’s first permanent home.
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About the Client
Since 1991, Canada’s Theatre Museum has been dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of the nation’s performing arts. For decades, they shared this history through pop-up exhibits and collections. Now, they are embarking on a historic transformation: moving into their first permanent physical exhibition space in 2025, located within the iconic Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre in Toronto.
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The Challenge
With a permanent physical home on the horizon, the Museum needed a digital presence that matched the prestige of their new location. Their existing website failed to tell their story effectively and didn’t represent their brand’s evolution. Internally, the team was struggling with a “clunky” backend built on a rigid block editor, making it difficult to manage their vast library of content. They needed a bilingual, accessible, and visually stunning platform to showcase their extensive archives.
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The Solution
We began by developing a comprehensive website architecture designed to house the Museum’s significant digital assets, including the “Legend Library” video series and the “Whittaker Collection” of set and costume designs.
Our creative team crafted a modern design aesthetic that serves as a digital stage for these artifacts, ensuring the visual experience is as inspiring as a night at the theatre. We also refined the website copy to better articulate their value proposition to donors and visitors.
For development, we moved away from their restrictive legacy setup to a flexible WordPress environment using the Elementor page builder. This empowered their team with an easy-to-use backend for managing exhibitions and events. We implemented full bilingual capabilities (English and French), ensured AODA accessibility compliance, and integrated seamless donation functionality to support their fundraising goals.
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The Results
The new website offers an immersive way to explore Canada’s theatrical history online, while providing a robust foundation for the Museum’s growth. Sparked continues to support the Museum with secure website hosting and ongoing maintenance.
“Working with the Canada Theatre Museum team was a dream. They had a vision, and we were thrilled to help them refine it and bring it to life.”