Business and Employment Tasmania makes three awards to businesswomen each year. Susan Atkinson won a 2011 award for her success and passion in working for Tasmania's cultural and scientific collections and their custodians. Prizes include business coaching, professional development and website assistance.
Sue Atkinson (left) being presented with the 2011 Tasmanian
Woman Entrepreneur Award by Rebecca White.
While undertaking the Museum Practice Diploma (Sue is Tasmania's first graduate), Sue volunteered in a local history group and came to know the collecting organisations in her area. Sue began to feel that by connecting the people in history groups and small museums around Tasmania good things would result for the collections and their visitors.
Over two years Sue established a database, while also talking to Ministers and researching grant support for these under-resourced organisations. News of development of the Historical Atlas of Hobart (1.7MB download) at the University of Tasmania spurred Sue on, as she realised that the mobile phone App could be the perfect promotional tool for Tasmania's collections. At about this time Sue left her career in Education and set up her Museum Consultant business.
It wasn't long before Sue had been awarded Tasmanian Community Funds for three years to help train volunteers in small collecting organisations in aspects of collection management, grant writing, use of computer technology and strategic planning.
Congratulations Sue for your dedication and for reinforcing the role of heritage in Tasmania.