The Internship Cycle
My internship at BURNAWAY was enlightening in many ways. The original plan for this internship was to
gain experience about development. When
I interviewed with Susannah Darrow, she explained the upcoming plans for the
organization and framed them generally, in the perspective of development. I had expected to hear a lot of about grant
writing. However, the way development was
explained, expanded beyond that.
The development experience I gained was
definitely beneficial. I worked with the
specifics of grant writing; creating final reports, preparing support
materials, and even getting the chance to write one of the grants. Another particularly beneficial aspect of my
internship was that I got to attend a grant writing workshop by The City of
Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs. The
workshop itself, was quite straight-forward, however, the impression it left on
me was that I was now a part of the arts industry. This was more beneficial than the actual content
of what was offered.
Another important development
experience was related to my work with the Emerging Arts Writer Mentorship. I
got to attend the meetings and offer my ideas as they came along. I also made contributions in language and concepts
to the needs statement (a task I undertook on my own) and investigation of
appropriate funding sources.
Overall, what was most beneficial was the experience I had
in the industry itself. Any small arts
organization does not have the luxury of assigning discreet roles to
individuals. Everyone in the
organization must contribute to whatever they are capable of, at least on the
administration side. This internship gave
me the opportunity to complete some editorial work, conduct research and
preparation for board meetings, and general clerical work, even my software and
mechanical knowledge was employed to help the office run smoothly. I met people from different facets of the industry
like editing, design, publishing, and marketing. Some of these connections carried over into
other parts of my life. Someone I had an
informal conversation with at BURNAWAY
is the gallery manager at a nearby space who I met again at an opening.
Arts administration is quite a bit different from
teaching. While there is a fair amount
of administration work in the life of a teacher, administration work is much
less emotionally and physically taxing.
There is the opportunity in administration to make grand plans a reality
because of this added space in one’s energy.
In regards to my future academic work, I do not believe it
will effect my choices for future classes as I only have the one elective, the
review, and thesis left ahead of me. For
me, the internship was an opportunity to practice what I learned in class, to
compare how the academic side of arts administration plays out in real
organizations. In general, I found that
the concepts are the same, but the practice is less intense in organizations
than it is in the classroom. Perhaps
this changes from organization to organization, but my previous work in arts
administration, long ago that it was, was similar to how things operate at BURNAWAY.
Professionally this internship did a great deal for me. On a most basic level, I filled more than one
entire notebook of ideas that the work gave me, avenues to explore, and people
to connect with. So much in fact, that I
do not feel I will ever have enough time to investigate all of them. This internship also revealed to me that
being solely a grant writer is not for me, nor is managing databases for that
matter. I am comfortable with making
these activities part of a job, but I would turn down a job that is exclusively
these tasks. What I do find potentially
exciting about development work is the chance to approach it in the way a
for-profit entity would, as business development. It is a given fact that contributed income is
a very important part of non-profit organizations, but there are many
opportunities to steer that towards earned revenue development. I am not certain how far this concept has
been explored, but it is a on my list of things to investigate on my notebooks.
Another professional direction I am now considering is the
role of marketing. This is related in a
great to deal to the business development concept mentioned above. On my off days I have been reading Michael
Kaiser’s The Cycle and see the importance and the creative opportunities
in marketing. Not just the posting on
Twitter and Facebook, and maintaining an engaging web page, but also the chance
to work with the media, other non-profits and for-profit entities; to make the
organization a part of the community. I
saw first hand how well this could work last weekend at the Living Walls
Conference’s main event. The education
director is a friend of mine, and despite the party atmosphere, he and I had a
long discussion about the nature of people’s involvement in not only the
organization, but also what the organization offers the community. Both of us are hoping for a shift which sees
arts organizations working with the community and vice versa in the near
future. This is a role I would like to
be playing.
Beginning this internship process was
actually quite difficult for me. I was
simultaneously working full time and going to school full time and to make
plans in advance I found difficult.
Consequently, BURNAWAY was
really one of the only options I had if I wanted to keep to my timetable. Furthermore, it coincided with me leaving the
teaching profession, in part because there was no way I could complete the
internship and continue with my teaching job.
Initially I had wanted to work for a larger institution and I was
disappointed in myself when I realized for those opportunities, one needs to be
making applications in February.
However, despite some initial pessimism
this internship turned out to be fantastic.
It gave me four or five unique experiences working in an arts
organization, I met wonderful people not only at BURNAWAY but in other organizations that regularly cooperate with BUNRAWAY, and it gave me insight into the status
of the visual arts community in the Southeast.
There were many engaging experiences and it helped me hone my career
goals through experience of what I like and dislike about arts
administration. It also pointed to areas
I need to improve my skills and inspired a lot of possibilities (see the
segment about more than one entire notebook full of ideas.) Would I recommend this organization in the
future? Yes, with a caveat.
One of the frustrating aspects of the
internship program is the disconnect between the academic side and the
professional side. Previous to the
internship I interviewed with Susannah, we discussed the direction of the organization
and my potential roles while there.
However, this was not nearly enough information to create SMART goals. I am very happy I worked at the internship a
full two weeks before the actual internship class began, otherwise it would
have been very difficult to make any kind of effective goals that adhered to
the parameters of SMART. I do believe
the SMART goals are extremely effective.
Being an educator previously, I have been working with SMART goals and
action plans for more than five years.
They separate the creative and executive side of any action making both
more efficient and effective. But, as I
have found in education, and this internship is not different, attaining all
the goals rarely, if ever happens. I did
a great deal towards completing everything I set out for myself. But circumstances create a situation where
not everything can be completed. In my
case, the language for the web site update, and collating information from
stakeholder surveys.
From an educational standpoint, I thing
it would be advantageous for both professors and students, to begin with a
series of questions the student asks about working the in organization. For example:
How does a small arts organization prioritize its funding sources and
how does it explore new venues for revenue?
Another critique I have is not with the
school or the organization but the nature of how much an organization relies on
cheap or free labor. In my opinion it
does a great disservice to the arts administration industry to see an
organization absolutely require interns just to operate. I am not certain that every organization is
this way, but BURAWAY’s effectiveness
would be greatly reduced if it did not have as many interns as it does paid staff. As a future arts administrator I feel the
value of the industry is undervalued by this practice.
Critiques aside, both BURNAWAY and the internship program is beneficial
for the opportunity it gave me a chance to see how organizations operate, the
people I got to work with, and the level of participation I got to have in the
visual arts community of Atlanta. I
would recommend this organization to anyone who wants a holistic experience in
arts administration and insight into the visual arts community of the
Southeast.
