The Charlotte Art League’s redesigned website recently went live, the result of nearly four months of effort by an all-volunteer team. As the committee’s chairperson, I managed the project from concept through launch and handled the majority of the design and development work.

Challenges and Requirements

Building a website for a non-profit like the Charlotte Art League (CAL) presents a different set of challenges than the ones you typically find in the  for-profit world. Volunteer-based staff, low or no budget, and outdated technology require patience and diplomatic skills to successfully bring a web project from dream to reality. An additional factor that requires a different mindset is that the central goal of the organization may not necessarily be simply to sell more widgets.

In the Art League’s case, a number of different committees and initiatives exist that require attention. Obviously, member artists want to sell more art, but activities like community outreach, art education, and studio rentals are all fundamental to the mission as well. The website has to simultaneously address the needs each of these various stakeholders, while remaining true to the organization’s overall mission of enriching the community through the arts.

WordPress to the Rescue

The new site is built in WordPress, using a custom theme I developed for this project. We opted to use WordPress not only because of its power, search engine friendliness, and design flexibility, but also to take advantage of its capabilities as a multi-author content management system — it’s definitely not just for blogs anymore! WordPress’s CMS capabilities were especially attractive because updating the old CAL site was an inefficient, time consuming process. While content could be sourced by any number of sources within CAL, content destined for the website had to be first sent to the web administrator, who then made updates manually. This system created a workflow bottleneck that resulted in an irregular posting schedule, with the site frequently being months out of date.

With the WordPress CMS, authors are now able to log in under their own unique usernames and edit their own content. The level of access can be controlled, so that non-technical users don’t accidentally modify files that affect the site’s operation. Basic word processing functions are provided using a familiar interface, and WordPress saves the revision history of documents — no one has to fear losing or ruining their data.

Keeping It Fresh

Another advantage of WordPress is that the post management functionality that powers WordPress blogs could be adapted to manage CAL’s home page, keeping it constantly up to date with content featuring current events at the gallery. We decided to keep commenting turned on. Even though the site isn’t technically a blog, hosting some stimulating discussion about art is a great way to build community and ongoing engagement with the organization. And thanks to a little bit of PHP tweaking and some help from plugins, the current “post” that constitutes the home page features the “Happening Now at CAL” banner. Archived versions of the post won’t display the banner, adding a subtle cue to distinguish between current and past events.

The Way Forward

Now that the initial phase of the release is complete, work has already begun on the next round of enhancements, including an online gallery offering works for sale as well as individual pages for member artists to display and sell their work.

DISCLOSURE: Since completing the work on the Charlotte Art League (CAL) redesign, I have been offered and accepted a spot on CAL’s Board of Directors, completing the term of a board member who had resigned.

This post is a recording of my thought process as I work on the bio. It’s definitely a thinking-out-loud post, so please excuse the lack of polish. If you know me personally or have read through my blog archives, you know that I have a broad range of interests, talents, and job descriptions. Distilling all that I think, do, and desire into seven words will be quite a challenge – I can tend toward wordiness in my writing. I mean, Twitter is work for me, expressing a complete thought in under 140 characters. But it’s good practice for this exercise. So here goes.

First Draft:

I harness the innate creativity within teams.

Not bad; it captures that fact that I work in and lead groups (web project teams, musical groups)  that have a creative component. Not sure that “harness” is the right word, however. Smacks too much of “tied down” – think sled dogs in the traces, or horse racing. I prefer to think that I do not tie down my team. “Innate creativity” is good, however, since I believe that everybody has creative potential within them; sometimes it just needs to be encouraged to come out.

Second Draft:

I facilitate creativity in teams.

That’s only five words. Do the rules say whether or not that’s OK? More than seven of course is forbidden – that’s the whole point of it being a “7 Word Bio.” But fewer than seven. Hmmm….. Is there a bonus for bringing in in under budget?

Checked the Accidental Creative site. No mention there whether or not fewer than seven words is permitted. So I’ll go with a strict interpretation, and assume that it must be exactly seven words.

Third Draft:

I help people realize their creative potential.

Well, that’s ambitious. Not sure it’s accurate, either. At least not yet. While full-time creativity consulting is something I can see myself evolving towards, I have a ways to go before I can credibly claim that that’s what I do. Were I to attempt to claim that mantle today, I’d be no better than the hordes of  self-proclaimed “social media experts” that keep promoting their businesses spamming me on Twitter.

Fourth Draft:

I explore the connections across many domains.

This is close. Design, music, art, project management – the things I spend my time doing in my professional and private life – all have so many shared characteristics. Concepts of rhythm and structure, for example, that I learn as a musician have visual counterparts in graphic design. I’m a firm believer that innovative thinking springs from the intersections of disparate domains, which this draft describes nicely as well. And as a project manager, I draw upon my broad domain experiences to enhance my understanding of the detailed challenges that my team faces, so even that is addressed.

I’m going to go with this one for now. I’m sure it’ll evolve over time as I grow, but “close enough” is “good enough” for this exercise.