If you are reading this blog, you are already familiar with the work of this week's Creative Action  Hero -  Molly Dwyer, our webmistress.  About a year ago, before I was a member of the Board of Directors, I attended a board meeting.  Leona Walden, vice president of the board asked if anyone had any ideas about how we could market the Art Center's workshops without spending a lot of money we didn't have.  Being a devout butinsky, I had to put in my two cents.  Our web site was state of the art when it was constructed, but that was ten years before and it seemed to me that we should do something new.  It turns out the board had already thought of this, but found the hefty $16,000 price tag to be out of our reach.  I was asked if I knew anyone who would create something new for a fraction of that cost for the Art Center.  I did. 

I called my friend, Molly Dwyer, PhD;  writer, teacher, workshop leader, graphic artist, actress/director, web designer, a Renaissance Woman and fan of the Art Center.  Molly first got involved in the Art center in 1974.  She worked with our founder, Bill Zacha.  The story goes that Bill wanted Molly to direct the play, "Barefoot in the Park".  It was not a play that Molly had any particular interest in, but she struck a deal with Bill - she would direct "Barefoot in the Park", and if it was a success  she could then direct a second play of her choice.  "The 7th Seal" was the play Molly chose - and then she talked Bill into playing the part of the Knight and Louis Vinciguerra into co-directing with her, and the rest was history.

Since then, Molly has moved back and forth from the coast several times.  Her most recent and, I hope, permanent return was last summer - just in time to help the Art Center.  She asked me what my goals were for the website.  I told her improved workshop sales, color, art, visibility for member artists and the Art Center.  "My ultimate goal is to come up on the first page when anyone googles 'art center'".  She then met with Mike McDonald, director of marketing, and got his approval and input and toured the facility.   Based on our signage and the environment we live in, she chose the colors for our new website.   I hope you have all noticed that wherever possible Molly has used art work from member artists to illustrate the beauty of our location.  All have attributions and wherever possible direct links to the artist's own website. 

In case you were wondering - some days when I google "art center" we are on the first page, but typically we range between pages 1 and 4.  However, we aren't done yet.  As we continue to add more features to our site the more interesting we become to Google.  Look for upcoming features such as:  on-line feed from the John Fisher sculpture project; starting on July 10, On-line Instructor Art Auction; new MendoArt magazine pages; shopping cart sales for our Gift Shop; and more on-line galleries.

Molly has volunteered about 50% of the time it took to develop the site and charged us a pittance for the other 50% which translates to about 25% of the $16,000.00 price tag quoted by another web designer.  Donations from the community have paid for the time Molly has charged us for.  Net cost to the Art Center for our new website - $00,000.00.  Thank you to all our donors.   Our budget for ongoing maintenance of the site has not increased, so if there are any Art Center Citizens out there who appreciate what we are doing on-line, and would like to help defray the costs of website maintenance and continuing development, please consider making a donation to the Art Center for that purpose. 

We owe a huge THANK YOU to Molly.  She is one of the people who works behind the scenes and rarely gets recognition from anyone other than those who work at the Art Center.  You can let her know how much we appreciate what she has done for us by blogging here or going to the contact page (button on home page) and sending her an e-mail.