The walls of the Wonder Fair Gallery, 803½ Massachusetts St., can’t talk, but they do send messages. The textual art of Chicagoan Matthew Hoffman adorns the cozy gallery’s white walls and hardwood floors. One section shows gravestones with sardonic, hand-carved epitaphs of the long-gone, such as “My only regret is that I can no longer Google myself with my morning coffee.”

The pieces satirize our generation’s ties to Internet culture, and our other infatuation: cynical irony. It’s ironic, then, that across the room through shelves of for-sale artwork and handmade crafts, sits Wonder Fair curator Jason Barr on a MacBook, scaling the web. He’s sending a message that transcends the gallery’s walls into the Twitterverse:

If @VICE_VBStv or the @VICEMAG crew come to Lawrence for the Scion Garage Fest, gotta hit up the @AsteroidHeadArt home gallery @WonderFair!

His tweet is directed to VICE Magazine, an indie culture rag whose staff is rumored to visit Lawrence for an upcoming music event in October. Barr and the Wonder Fair are part of a growing number of artists and event organizers that use Twitter to expand and connect Lawrence’s evolving arts scene.

Barr has used Twitter for two years, and between Wonder Fair and his personal account, boasts about 1,000 followers who receive short updates about his work and responses to followers’ comments. Barr says moreso than Facebook, Twitter offers a quick, streamlined way to find out what’s going on downtown and meet interested people. “On Facebook I have so much stuff that it’s really hard to sift through,” he says. “But Twitter sort of jumped the shark over everything.”

One of the people Barrr follows on Twitter is Zach Hangauer, founder of Range Life Records, a local label releasing music by artists like Fourth of July and Suzannah Johannes. During an interview (arranged on Twitter) at his downtown apartment, Hanaguar says using Twitter keeps his label accessible to community fans. “As long as you have cultural contributors and interested people taking Twitter seriously, it’s a great way to converse locally,” he says. Amid boxes of records and band posters in his apartment, Hangauer can search “Fourth of July” to see what Twitter users are saying about his label’s artist, or even respond to a Jayplay writer’s interview requests.

In some ways, Hangauer says these live conversations on Twitter provide a pulse of cultural happenings downtown — a void long empty in Lawrence. “With Twitter it feels like there’s a synergy again, like you can dependably connect with people. It’s a good nucleus,” he says.

Social media experts in Lawrence agree. Last month, Hangauer and Barr spoke at the Lawrence Social Media Club, a weekly meeting of area enthusiasts. With Tricia Rock and Brent Carter, founders of area art blog The Rathaus, they discussed the ways interactive media affects local culture.

Ben Smith, social media consultant and club founder, says Lawrence’s small-town size enables online connections to jump over into real-life relationships, cultivating communities and promoting events. That’s a valuable commodity if you’re an artist or musician, Smith says. Rarely are the words “artist” and “entrepreneurial” uttered in the same breath, but Barr believes creatives know how to sell to survive. “Whether a car or painting, you have to equally care about what your making and successfully market it,” he says.

That marketable opportunity occurred last month during Lawrence’s initial Final Fridays art walk downtown. Just 10 days before its first event, the Twitter account “FFLawrence” began posting updates, replying to community members, and getting shout-outs and links from Range Life, Wonder Fair and The Rathaus. By the night of the event, a buzzing online conversation emerged, connecting those at the buzzing real-life event downtown. Though Final Fridays’ online efforts could have been better organized, Hangauer says the enthusiasm of savvy startups in the arts scene made it possible. Final Fridays’ Twitter account now gains about 80 new followers each week. Slowly, yet somehow surely, Lawrence’s arts and music scenes are forging new ground online, in less than 140 characters.