Fine Arts Career Services

I’ve secured my internship for the Fall semester at the Long Center for Performing Arts!  I couldn’t be more excited because I actually made a goal for myself last year that included trying to obtain work at this venue–and now I’ve achieved that goal.  Last semester I had an internship at Art Alliance Austin which was beneficial to my future career in that it opened my eyes to the local non-profit art world.  At the Art Alliance, I was one of four interns working for an organization run by only two full-time staff!  All of their administrative assistance came from numerous volunteer boards and committees.  At the Long Center, I will be exposed to a much different type of non-profit organization.  The capital campaign for the Long Center generated over $77 million, they have numerous departments consisting of full-time staff and interns, and they have close relationships with the Austin Lyric Opera, Ballet Austin and the Austin Symphony to name a few.  Already I’ve been offered two free tickets to a play on behalf of my Supervisor, which I’m rather excited about. I simply can’t wait to see what else the Long Center has to offer!

This week I am finishing up a few letters of inquiry for future grant possibilities.  Andrew has been very helpful in showing me how to put together the information in the letter and tailoring our projects and goals to each grant request.  We have found recently that the reason our funding is lacking greatly is our lack of a developed education program.  Many of the foundations undercut our grants and it is presumably because we haven’t had the manpower or funding to initiate such a project.  This is a problem Andrew is trying to sort out through these new funding avenues.

By the end of my term at the Long Center, Andrew wants me to have completed a letter of inquiry by compiling the necessary information for review.  On Friday we will sit down together and look everything over before sending everything off to the foundations.

Andrew seems convinced we will be declined by both of the foundations for which I am requesting funds.  He thinks they will see us and deny us for several years before finally agreeing - apparently this is how the system works.  Perhaps we are too young of an organization or even too big, but it’s great to know that even if my requests are denied in the future, I helped the Long Center get one step closer to their ultimate fiscal goals.

Recently I helped out with the marketing of a big event that’s coming up for the Long Center - the Ralph Lauren shopping event at the Domain.  We’ve partnered with the manager of the store and arranged a huge party in which a certain percentage of all purchases will go to the Long Center.

I again partnered up with Jenna to go meet Lisa, the manager and fashion guru at Ralph Lauren.  She welcomed us and looked at all the fancy red tissue-lined invitations we had stuffed for the over 1,000 invited guests.  She was very pleased with the results and told us we’d done a great job and she appreciated our help with the event.  It was good to get that positive feedback on that task Jenna and I had labored over for several working days.

We worked with the event coordinator at the Long Center to get details on the event: catering, music and prizes.  I was very excited by it all and I hope to be able to help out at the event if I can.  I think I realized I like the organizational aspect of event coordinating and planning, it may be something I would like to pursue.

Last week I was able to work with another intern, Jenna, on the Cirque Dreams show before Thanksgiving.  We went to several newspaper offices and talked to them about our advertisements and gave them some tickets to the show.  Jenna and I visited several other places that support the Long Center and talked to them about their involvement with the Cirque Dreams marketing and we expressed our interest in further developing those relationships.  I enjoyed being able to get out of the office and talk to some organizations who share the passion for the Long Center’s mission: bringing the performing arts to all citizens and making sure their experience is wonderful.

For the upcoming show we were able to help with a display at Lakeline Mall that showcased the costumes of some of the performers.  Jenna and I were able to use some creative ability to make the show look appealing and intriguing to its target audience: families.  When we took down the display we were approached by several people asking about the costumes and we were able to personally tell them about the upcoming performances.

The Long Center staffe even had the opportunity to meet a few members of the cast.  Jenna and I met several Russians who were contortionists.  That was interesting.  I enjoyed being able to meet the performers and see them without their make-up or the costumes we had displayed at the mall.

I’m enjoying how dynamic this internship has been!

Thursday morning I was able to meet Annie in north Austin at her internship site.  I got a tour of the radio station and was able to meet the DJ she works under, Brian Beck.  It was interesting to see all the radio stations in the building were simply small rooms with walls lined with CDs.  I suppose I imagined a lot larger of a space for radio shows.  Most of the work space was production, where Annie worked specifically.  She showed me the room where she prepares spots for Brian’s show, and even let me listen to some of the production she had done.  I watched her edit a wav file for a spot she would create, and she showed me how to add music.

Annie has actually recorded several spots that have aired live on KGSR, which I thought was awesome.  I enjoyed seeing how involved she was in the organization and the impact she was having on the community just by being an intern!  She has also had the opportunity to see shows for free, so we have both enjoyed the Fine Arts Internship perks!

I got Thanksgiving week off, which was a helpful break. This week, I’m doing more of the same at my internship. Lots of cataloging artifacts. Printing images. I had to go outside with a large heavy ladder and take down the old CAH banners, that was kind of scary (and there are 8 more, but some are enclosed in construction gates, so I’ll have to figure out a way around that). Oh! I forgot! We are no longer the CAH. We are now the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Dolph Briscoe is a former governor of Texas. I don’t know exactly what this means for the center except that I know I’ll be involved in a making lot of new signage. This week I get to decorate our door for the center’s annual holiday door decorating contest. It is a nice, creative break from the tediousness of cataloging. I’ll continue working at DBCAH through some of the Christmas break, into next semester and through the summer.

As it turns out I will not be at the Cantanker Holiday Hipster Snowball a week from this Saturday, however that shouldn’t stop YOU from going! Here’s the information (again): 

On Saturday December 13th Cantanker Magazine we will host our Holiday Hipster Snow-Ball, benefiting Cantanker ‘s community out-reach programs, exhibitions and annual publications.  This is going to be a joyous amalgamation of all things hipster with a dash of holiday flare. Live performances, mixed media installations and a make-your-own ornament craft table will make this a night to remember. We are pleased to be hosting this event at the new collaborative art space Co-Lab in East Austin. Details follow.

What: Cantanker’s Holiday Hipster Snow-Ball Party and Fundraiser, www.cantanker.com

When: Saturday, December 13, 2008, 8-11 PM

Cost: This is a free event - with donations encouraged - There will be a raffle for two Holiday Hipster Gift Baskets - must be present to win.

Where: Co-Lab, 613 Allen St, Austin, TX 78702, www.colabspace.org

Why: To promote local performance artists, to raise funds for the publication and its programs and to throw a bash that is uniquely Austin.

Who: Cantanker staff invites local installation and performance artists for a public evening event.

Participating Artists - Scott Stark, Sean Ripple, Will Sellari, Bunnyphonic, Christopher Brown, Jennifer Remenchik, Josh Y’Barbo, Vincent Martinez, Jennifer Mitchell, Paul Moncus, live shows by Blood Thirsty Youth, Space Invader Orchestra, No Mas Bodas and M.C Eats 

Special Thanks to our Volunteers: Mark Rosen, Michelle Lee, Betsy Evans, Victoria Heckenlaible, Elizabeth Roman, and Nisa Maso.

Contact: Christina Hiett, Event Coordinator Cantanker, 512.695.7832, christinah3@yahoo.com

Hopefully you’ll be able to stop by and spread the holiday spirit with fellow Austin artists and art-lovers. 

In other news, I have not been working all too much (comparatively speaking), especially on the Snow-Ball simply because all of our hard work landed us ahead of schedule. I have been working on my next set of tasks, however, which has been pretty educational. I am working on researching the websites of other art publications, specifically the way in which the public can interact both with the publication and with one another. There are also a few funding opportunities that I have been looking into as our growing presence gives us a great shot at actually attaining funding outside of the city of Austin. Finally, I will be working on the distribution plan for the magazine over the break. Organizing it into regions will make distribution that much easier as we will be able to divide and conquer. 

There is definitely  a lot going on right now and after the Snow-Ball we will be in full gear as the next issue will be dropping in February! This semester has no doubt been a crazy one but I can easily say that I have witnessed the magazine grow immensely and it is truly rewarding to know I had a hand in that. 

These last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic. All the gala invitations finally came in, so we had to stuff and seal thousands (literally). The invitations turned out great. They look very “cool” which is fitting because the theme of the gala is the “Essence of Cool”. All of last week we had assembly lines going to get the invitations out on time.

            Tomorrow is the move in date, so everyone has been packing everything up. We had to make sure all the files and past exhibition programs are cohesive, and ready to transfer to the new offices. I have been making last minute copies so we do not lose anything important. Altogether the Development and Membership office in the Art Building looks pretty barren with boxes everywhere. As of Friday everyone is going to have a new place to work.

            My last big activity I am working is tonight. I am helping out at the advisory board meeting. This will be neat to see because I helped prepare for the last one in the office, but have never seen everything in action. After today, the next couple of weeks will I probably just help to get everything organized in the new Smith Building.

Ahh…the semester is almost over! I feel like it was only yesterday that I walked into Mexic-Arte for the first day at my internship and I can hardly believe how far I’ve come with working here these past few months! I’ve learned a whole lot more about the exhibition process and how to go about the physical aspects of setting up for a huge event such as Dia de los Muertos as well as how to communicate effectively with members/artists in the workspace. These are definitely skills that I will take with me when I enter into the art world someday with my own business! But enough about the future…I am now going to talk about what’s been going on recently!

The Creando Fuerza opening two weeks ago (November 22, 2008) was a huge success! A lot of the printmakers were there representing their respective workshops and Ernesto de Soto, one of the first Mexican Americans to become a master printer, gave a talk about printmaking and his journey throughout the realm of this art form. Eva and I were even honored by Sylvia during the night with a book about Mexican printmaking! It is an awesome exhibit and will be up through March, so stop by if you have the chance to do so!

Also, this weekend we are getting ready for a different type of event at Mexic-Arte called Bazaar Arte, which is a two day event from 12-9 pm both Saturday, December 6 and Sunday, December 7. There will be art for sale from the Creando Fuerza exhibit and from local Austin artists, food, music and prizes!!! I am helping out by volunteering 3 hours on both days as well as putting together an inventory price list spreadsheet for all of the prints going on sale. This information will help us keep track of which prints we have sold and which ones we haven’t, so that’s a good thing. Yep, so that’s what I’ve been up to this week. I hope that all of my other internships down the road are as fruitful as the one here at Mexic-Arte has been. Viva el arte!

So I didn’t get to write a blog last week, because I was in New York for Thanksgiving! Even though I grew up in New Jersey, I always forget how many people live in that area. Traffic was nuts!

Because of the holiday, we didn’t do any work on the mural this past weekend.  However, the weekend before that, we got started on painting the details. On Friday, Beth, Jacqueline and I met at the school and drew the silhouettes on the first wall. The school provided us with a really nice opaque projector that will save us a lot of time. Previously, we had planned on printing the silhouettes on transparencies, and projecting those onto butcher paper. We were then going to cut out the figures on the paper, and trace them onto the wall. But now that we have an opaque projector, we don’t have to print the silhouettes onto transparencies. We can print them on regular paper, and project them directly onto the wall. 

The next day, Mark (the Student Guild historian and fellow intern) had decided to meet the volunteers at the ART building. We were planning on going down to the school to work on the mural, and then taking people around to the East Austin Studio Tour. Not only would this give people the opportunity to paint, but they would then be able to go and experience another aspect of the Austin art “community.”

Well… I overestimated the weekend sleeping habits of college students! Because this was going to be a full day, we decided to start at 10 a.m. instead of 11. Because it was early, no one showed up at the art building! However, we did have 3 volunteers show come to the school a little later.  They didn’t live near UT, so it was easier for them to just come straight to the school instead of meeting us at the ART building.

We tried to repaint the red wall. But this time, the paint did something funny and started bubbling up. So Mark and I scraped off the bubbly/bumpy parts so it wouldn’t become permanent. Lesson learned: it’s hard to paint a wall red!

Because of the studio tour, I didn’t finish as much as I would have liked. However, with school almost over, Beth and I will have more full weekdays to devote to painting.

Although my internship will continue until the mural is finished, this is my final blog for the internship class. I’ve learned quite a bit about the art of mural painting. At first, I thought it was going to be this huge, daunting project, but I learned that if you break it down into smaller sections, it becomes much more manageable.

More importantly, I learned that it’s important to know about the habits and preferences of your target volunteer base. Because I was trying to recruit college-age volunteers, I was more successful when I set up a meeting place that was easy to find and close to campus. I also recruited more volunteers when the meeting time was later in the day. I learned that a few of the volunteers who relied on me for a ride back to campus didn’t think that painting would take so long during the day. In the future, I’ll be sure to make extra clear how many hours we plan on being at the school, or make arrangements for the volunteers to work for only a couple of hours instead of 4.

One thing that has made this experience so rewarding for me is being able to see the reactions of the school’s employees. Not many people are lucky enough to have an internship where they feel like they are really making a difference in the lives of the people they work for. Even though most of the figures aren’t painted, teachers have told us that even just the background colors have made the hallway much happier environment. They always have words of encouragement for us, and it feels good helping them out with a dream they’ve had for a while.

I’ll close this blog with an anecdote that made me smile.  One of the employees told us that one day, she saw a girl with learning disabilities walking down the hall. As she passed each wall, she made the hand sign for the color we had painted it. Red, yellow, orange, blue, green… Even though this wall is far from finished, it is already proving to be a learning opportunity for the students. Hopefully they will enjoy it for many years to come.