On a normal day, you will find Lynne Walden preparing for new exhibitions, meeting with artists and discussing their motivation and the inspiration sources behind their work. She enjoys this greatly, and as a farmer’s wife, she is accustomed to living and working with local people. Lynne is the Administration Officer for Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery, located 223 km north of Adelaide.
Even given her business’ regional location, Lynne has been able to develop an understanding of the importance of social media in business, through a scholarship awarded by Australian Businesswomen’s Network for their ‘Social Media – Picture Power’ webinar.
By attending the web-based workshop Lynne gained a better understanding of how to capture the interest of prospective clients from website and social media. She learned the importance of good images, linking images across media platforms and the benefit of using new social platforms such as Pinterest. She learned about many useful web resources to use in raising the online profile of the Gallery. She proclaims,
“The course has allowed me to develop new skills that can be put to use quite easily.” As a result of putting these new skills into practice, she says “there has been a noticeable increase in the number of page views on our website and our Facebook friends continues to increase steadily.”
These fundamental lessons have positively affected a not-for-profit that faces several challenges. The most significant, she says “is funding and much time is spent seeking funding opportunities that align with the strategic direction of the organisation.” Lynne says it is particularly difficult given their regional location. Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery provides a diverse artwork exhibition experience for the area, with the vision of ‘bringing art to the people and people to the arts’. Since 1992 it has supported local artists, as well as promoted interest in art in schools, and establishing holiday activities. All of its activities are done on minimal revenue, and donations are necessary to ensuring the upkeep of the facility and expansion of the permanent collection. Learn more about Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery on their website.
The Power of Pictures and Social Media scholarship was awarded to Lynne Walden on behalf of Port Pirie Regional Art Gallery as part of the Australian Businesswomen’s Network’s Partnership with the Australian Scholarships Foundation (ASF). For details of upcoming scholarships programs, visit the ASF website.
This story was co-authored by Emma Grimley. Emma is studying Bachelor of Arts (Media) and Bachelor of Laws at Macquarie University and is currently completing an internship with the Australian Businesswomen’s Network.
