Luan Gallery

Luan Gallery is County Westmeath’s municipal contemporary art gallery, a flagship cultural space on the banks of the River Shannon in Athlone’s cultural quarter, beside Athlone Castle. Despite its standing, it had no digital home of its own: the gallery redirected to a shared Athlone Arts and Tourism site that carried none of its identity, ran without a security certificate, and gave visitors no clear way to plan a visit, book an event or support the gallery. 

Hello Humans was appointed to not just build a website but to create the gallery’s first true digital home and create a fully accessible website under luangallery.ie that would reflect the gallery’s identity and serve its real objectives: grow physical visitors, enable event and workshop bookings, and build membership. Accessibility was non-negotiable, held to WCAG 2.2 AA under EU legislation and the oversight of Failte Ireland and Just Transition.

• Reflect the gallery’s identity and put the artwork itself centre stage.
• Provide an intuitive way for visitors to discover exhibitions and plan a physical visit.
• Enable direct booking of workshops, events and tours.
• Meet WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards, as required under EU legislation and the oversight of Fáilte Ireland and Just Transition.
• Support the gallery’s growth objectives: visitors, event/workshop bookings and memberships, on a platform its non-technical team could manage themselves.

We approached the Luan Gallery project by combining accessibility-first development with a refreshed, art-led identity design. The goal was ultimately to showcase Luan Gallery’s contemporary art without distraction and reflect, in digital form, their commitment to providing an inclusive experience for all visitors.

• Refreshed brand identity: Rather than competing with exhibitions, the design now acts as a quiet frame that keeps the user’s focus on the artists and their work. Built a new text-based logo and a restrained white-and-black palette, lifted by the magenta, electric blue and orange of the art itself. 
• Flexible exhibition framework: Designed the identity as a container rather than a fixed template, letting each new exhibition stand out while sitting within one coherent gallery system.
• Accessibility-first build: We extended the gallery’s dedication to physical accessibility into the digital experience. The site was built to meet WCAG 2.2 AA standards, delivered with skip-to-content, keyboard navigation, visible focus states, colour contrast, resizable text, alt text and reduced-motion options. All backed by a published accessibility statement and verified through a full pre-launch accessibility audit. 
• Discovery and booking tools: Built a site-wide search and a filterable What’s On system for exhibitions and events, integrated with FareHarbor for direct workshop and event bookings, plus group booking forms.
• Live activity integration: Featured an interactive map, Instagram feed and Google Reviews prominently to bring the gallery’s real-world presence and reputation onto the website.
• Secure, measurable foundation: Migrated from an unsecured shared redirect to a standalone managed WordPress platform, with GA4, Google Tag Manager and Search Console implemented from launch.

• A fully responsive, accessible website built to WCAG 2.2 AA, with a full pre-launch accessibility audit and published accessibility statement. 
• A refreshed brand identity. New logo, palette and content voice, designed to let the gallery’s artwork take centre stage. 
• SEO-structured content and metadata, resulting in improved search engine visibility.
• Thirteen custom-templated sections covering exhibitions, events, studios, residencies, community, shop, membership, opportunities and governance. 
• A smooth checkout process optimized for desktop and mobile users.
• A site-wide search and filterable What’s On system for exhibitions and events. 
• Direct FareHarbor booking integration for visitor workshops, events and tours, as well as group booking forms. 
• Interactive map for UX experience, Instagram feed and Google Reviews integration.
• A secure, standalone platform managed on WordPress, replacing their original unsecured shared redirect.
• Full GDPR compliance, technical SEO and cross-browser, cross-device testing.
• Analytics setup with GA4, Google Tag Manager and Search Console, plus reconnected Google Business Profile and social channels.

The new site re-established Luan Gallery online as a destination in its own right, under its own recognised domain for the first time, with a live, self-managed programme of exhibitions and bookable events and workshops.

Key outcomes since the March 2026 launch include:

• Roughly 11,000 users, 24,000 page views and 13,000 sessions, including around 11,000 first-time visitors.
• Reach led by Ireland (8,900+ active users) but genuinely international, with visitors from the United States (1,100+), Singapore, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and Spain.
• A fast-growing organic-search channel of roughly 1,960 sessions, alongside well-diversified paid and organic social and direct traffic.
• The most-visited pages show visitors actively engaging with the live programme and planning real visits: Home, What’s On, individual exhibitions such as Divergent Lines, and the Opportunities and Visit sections.
• Rising cultural credibility, including press coverage of the Divergent Lines exhibition in The Irish Times, and strong visitor sentiment reflected in Google reviews praising the riverside setting, exhibitions and staff welcome.

A gallery once hidden behind a shared redirect now has its own secure, accessible and measurable platform, a digital extension of the physical gallery itself, turning online curiosity into real visits, bookings and membership.