Before I began volunteering I knew little about web development.
It was my weakest subject in university and when I came to Tees Valley Arts in hopes of getting some work experience I was tasked with simply updating old posts and pages on their WordPress website.
This quickly spiralled into me combing through the synology server seeking out old newspaper articles and PowerPoint presentations to flesh out the “Projects Archive” page by figuring out if “Black Spot” was a part of “Articulate” and hunting down artists blogs to find a picture to put next to their name.
Now two years later and I have recreated this website’s WordPress theme twice over: once using Beans and now using Understrap.
I now not only handle all the technical side of this website but also the hosting, porting and maintenance of seven others (for everyone from charities to boro council).
This position quite literally grew around me as I learned and explored new possibilities and I was always quite hopeful that it would grow into a full time job.
However despite all the enjoyment and new skills I have got out of volunteering with Tees Valley Arts (including the free train tickets to Redcar beach after we moved from Middlesbrough) new opportunities await.
Thus I leave Tees Valley Arts with it’s shiny new website (with the dark mode and text to speech that were both a pain in the neck to figure out) and hope that it doesn’t all collapse as soon as I leave.
If it doesn’t work out with my new potential employers I look forward to returning and hopefully turning this volunteer position into a full time job.
After all, I never quite finished updating all of the old posts and pages…
Until we meet again “Projects Archive” page, my mortal enemy.