---
title: A blank canvas for showcasing emerging artists
slug: new-american-paintings-digital-platform
type: caseStudy
excerpt: A digital operating system for New American Paintings
canonicalUrl: 'https://www.therefore.ca/clients/new-american-paintings-digital-platform'
---
New American Paintings publishes six regional competitions each year, each culminating in a printed issue showcasing 40 emerging American artists. Thousands of submissions arrive from across the United States, with every entry reviewed by a guest juror before the final selection is made.

The publication operates on a subscription model, with subscribers receiving both the print magazine and digital access. Previously, that digital experience amounted to little more than a page-turning PDF hosted on Issuu. Individual articles couldn't be shared, indexed, or discovered, making the online edition far less valuable than the content it contained.

The underlying technology reflected the same pattern. The public website ran on Drupal 7, while submissions, jury reviews, and subscriptions relied on a patchwork of offline processes and third-party tools. Rather than replacing everything, the rebuild preserved the strengths of the existing platform while modernizing the architecture around it. Drupal remained as the CMS and commerce engine, powering subscriptions, memberships, and payments through Drupal Commerce and Stripe, while a Next.js front end delivers a faster, more flexible experience for both artists and editors.

That foundation supports the entire publishing lifecycle. Artists now create accounts and manage their own profile pages, allowing alumni to update biographies and portfolios without relying on staff. Competition entries are tracked as structured content rather than spreadsheets, giving the NAP team clear operational visibility through dedicated dashboards, while subscribers can independently manage their memberships and payments.

The competition workflow was transformed as well. A dedicated juror portal enables fully blind review, ensuring selections are based solely on the work itself. Built for speed despite the volume of submissions, the interface allows jurors to move rapidly between artists and artworks using keyboard navigation, with shortcuts for selecting, shortlisting, flagging, declining, and disqualifying entries. Persistent state between grid and list views keeps the review process uninterrupted, even during long evaluation sessions.

The biggest change, however, is what readers now experience. What was once a static flipbook has become a structured digital publication where every article has its own URL making it searchable, shareable, and discoverable. 

To mark the launch, issues #182 and #183 were made freely available, introducing longtime readers to the new format. Alongside them came Nova, a new bimonthly digital-only competition series that removes the constraints of print, offers free entry, and gives NAP a way to showcase more artists throughout the year. It's a clear example of how the new platform is enabling the organization to evolve beyond simply replacing its previous website.