NJPAC
CLIENT
Situation Interactive
TECHNOLOGIES
WordPress, PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, Ticketmaster API
YEAR
2019
EXTERNAL URL
NJPAC was the largest-scale performing arts build in my career — a full platform for an institution that runs hundreds of events per season across multiple venues, with arts education programs, donor pathways, group sales, and bilingual content all competing for attention. The custom WordPress theme included a comprehensive design system, deep Ticketmaster API integration, and a bespoke hero slider that remains one of the most technically ambitious UI components I have ever built. Where individual show sites like Anastasia or Beetlejuice focused on a single production, NJPAC demanded architecture that could hold an entire institution.
Ran development from concept through launch at Situation Interactive.
Background
New Jersey’s anchor cultural institution needed a digital experience to match its scale.
The New Jersey Performing Arts Center — opened in 1997 in downtown Newark — is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States, hosting performances across Prudential Hall (2,868 seats), the Victoria Theater (511 seats), and multiple event and education spaces. With over 12 million visitors since opening, NJPAC serves as both the state’s premier arts venue and a catalyst for economic development in Newark. The existing website had fallen behind the organization’s ambitions — event discovery was cumbersome, the design felt dated against peer institutions, and the ticketing integration created friction between browsing and purchasing. Situation Interactive was engaged to redesign and rebuild the entire digital platform from the ground up.
The scope was institutional-grade: hundreds of events per season across multiple venues, arts education programs, donor pathways, group sales, venue rentals, and bilingual English/Spanish content — all funneling toward ticket conversion.
Implementation
A comprehensive design system, deep ticketing integration, and a slider built to set the standard.
I led development on a custom WordPress theme built to support the full complexity of a major performing arts institution. The design system was one of the most comprehensive I have worked on — a modular library of reusable components covering event cards, venue maps, program grids, donor CTAs, calendar views, and editorial layouts, all governed by consistent spacing, typography, and color tokens. Every component was built responsive-first and stress-tested across the full range of content scenarios the CMS would produce. The Ticketmaster API integration connected event listings directly to the purchasing flow, with deep links routing visitors from any event card or detail page straight into the ticketing platform with the correct show, date, and venue pre-selected — eliminating the dead-end search experience that had plagued the previous site.
The homepage hero slider was a standout piece of engineering — a custom-built carousel with layered animations, staggered content transitions, and precise timing controls that delivered the visual impact the design demanded without sacrificing performance or accessibility. It remains one of the most intricate slider implementations I have ever built, and one of the UI components I am most proud of across my entire career.
Results
A digital platform built for institutional scale — still in production years later.
The redesigned njpac.org launched as the primary digital touchpoint for one of America’s most visited performing arts centers, serving as the gateway between audiences and hundreds of annual performances, education programs, and community events. The Ticketmaster integration streamlined the path from event discovery to ticket purchase, reducing the friction that had previously cost conversions on mobile and desktop alike. The design system gave NJPAC’s content team the tools to build and manage pages independently — new seasons, special programming, fundraising campaigns, and venue rental promotions all flow through the same component library independently.
NJPAC remains a personal favorite — the kind of build where ambitious design, deep integration work, and institutional scale all converge. The platform continues to serve NJPAC in production today.
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