Fine Arts Career Services

This week I worked on to revise my boss, Tsen Structural’s business card because Stephanie told me that we can only use black and gray ink.  Recently, I was painting different tone of gray in my painting class, so my paintings made me to visualize different tone of our business card in my head.  I created black, gray, medium gray and light gray logos, and used black font for personal and company’s information.  My favorite one was light gray logo.  She told me that I do not need to type in the company name in our business card because the logo contained name of the company already.  However, because the color of logo was light gray, and it was little harder to read the company name than black logo, I added the company name in text part of our business card.  Now I am waiting to hear her feed back.

From our last week, I was really happy to hear that Stephanie turned in our brochures to her prospect client.  She has not told me that she got a job from the client or not.  I hope she will get a project from them.

At my internship, it is often the little things that can make, or break, my day. Last week was filled with those sorts of minute details that finally clicked. Just as an example, let’s take the copy machine. Now, copy machines and I do not have the best history. In fact, it they typically hate me. The huge humming monsters never fail to jam, break, run out of ink or anything that will cripple the one machine which angers everyone the most when it breaks. So, when I needed to make copies last Wednesday, I timidly approached our massive machine in the mailroom cringing in anticipation of an assuredly disastrous fail. My hands had not even touched the copier when I looked at the screen and flashing before my eyes were the words: PAPER JAM. “Why me?” I exasperated, “Are copiers now programmed to sense fear?” Instructions to fix the wretched jam directed me to open drawers, push buttons, pull trays, crank tubes. I knew that each move would be the end, the final straw, and the entire machine would self-destruct before my eyes. But, some how, some miraculous way, I pulled the right tray and voilá—I removed the crumpled paper painlessly from the gripping jaws of the copier-monster! VICTORY!!!

This week I had a range of different tasks and opportunities come my way. Monday morning, my supervisor returned from out of town so I was in a bit of limbo while he was re-organizing after being gone for a week. For the first hour, I continued to work on my research from the last week. Then Mr. M. asked if I would like to attend the “Other Worlds” employee exhibition tour. Of course I jumped on the opportunity! It was a great tour, especially since I know practically nothing about astronomy or astrology…absolutely nothing to be more precise. So while I didn’t learn too much about it, I did learn a lot about the people, objects, and written work documenting its development. I always feel an incredible attachment to anything that is particularly culturally relevant to me, and so I was very excited to see a Hebrew medieval manuscript about astronomy. It attests to Jewish scientific as well as spiritual contributions throughout history, but I shouldn’t get too carried away about it, but it was definitely the highlight of the week. Wednesday I got to do something different than I had ever done before at the HRC: filing! It wasn’t as boring as it sounds. I gained  insight into how the HRC, and more specifically the Art Department, is organized. And later that day, we jumped around the building moving World War I and II era posters into new storage. The posters were unfortunately bigger than I am, so it was difficult for me to help my supervisor carry them. But at least I was of some help opening doors and elevators!

Friday, I filed some more, and we hit some snags with discrepancies in the database and the files. So this filing project has become an ongoing project that I will work on intermittently throughout the semester. On to the weekend..and then back to work on Monday!

Production and planning continues at DiverseArts as we near the beginning of October. Recruitment for new interns and volunteers is underway as the non-profit works to allocate the workload of the coming Fall season. Musical productions this weekend are endorsed by DiverseArts and will be produced by Project Chumbo, an organization that was formed to promote, preserve and encourage New Orleans’ Culture in Austin. We are proudly sponsoring the collaboration of Texas and New Orleans musicians at the premier of Chumbofest. The word Chumbo colloquially derives from an expression that related the relocation of NOLA residents to Texas to “gumbo spilling over into the chili.” The non-profit is donating venue space to the community of NOLA residents in support of community engagement and artistic collaboration between the two groups.

A new gallery exhibit is scheduled to open Friday, October 10^th. I am very excited to curate and organize a new exhibit of paintings by Caroline Martinez at the New East Arts Gallery.  Caroline, a Chicana Austin native, was called to paint after her daughter was diagnosed with cancer ten years ago. Inspired by her faith and a successful recovery Caroline has devoted herself to artistic pursuits with out any formal training. I will meet the artist and visit her studio this week as we plan the show and release an announcement to the media. My director, Harold M., is excited to introduce me to Mrs. Martinez not only praising her as an artist but as a courageous and inspiring woman. It is opportunities like this that make the internship experience invaluable to me.

This week as the past weeks is still all about songwriting. There are so many depths to songwriting and you never quite know how long it is going to take to finish a song. Songwriting pulls from so many different places,  emotions, life experiences, friendships, other peoples experiences. Sometimes it will take 15 minutes to write a song sometimes it can take a year. The cool thing is that inspiration can strike at any moment! Once I was on a trip to Mexico and I saw a little girl playing by herself when all the other kids were playing together and I wrote a song about it. I have written alot of songs right before I fall asleep, or after a change in my life happened or a new relationship started or ended so I always have a notebook and a pen and some type of recorder to just write down ideas or a hook or some catchy lyrics and then go back later on and see if theres something there. Something that songwriting teaches is that you learn alot about yourself, and sometimes you write a song that was really meant for you and not for anyone else. Just like journaling or when people write poetry it can be very healing and it expresses how you feel on a completely different level. Some songs make you want to get up and dance all night long and then others make you cry and draw you in. Its just the way of the artist and how much you can relate to the artist and visa versa. The broader the circumstance the more people can relate and put their own personal stories in that particular song.

This week was really exciting in trying to prepare for the next three shows. The San Jose Taiko show – a Japanese art form using large hand-drums – was this past Sunday and I was able to do the promotional work ahead of time for it. The show sold much better than we thought it was going to, but not nearly enough to fill the performance space.

On Thursday I went to deliver the DVDs of commercials for Broadway’s 101 Dalmatians to two news channels. It was really informative to see the inside of an office for these TV networks – everything goes on in such a small space! Research, marketing, filming, and everything else that goes into a television station was all being done simultaneously in one large office sectioned off only by low cubicles. One of my favorite things about working in the marketing departments is that I get to see places like this while I’m doing promotional work. I also discovered about twenty new places in Austin that I would definitely want to go just by delivering show posters along the popular areas.

This past week has been a bit tedious – but in a ridiculously busy way. I spent a good part of the time putting together “goody bags” – bags full of decorations and promotional supplies – to bring to HEB headquarters. From there, they will be distributed to twenty-five regional HEBs. HEB has agreed to do a store-against-store display competition for our promotion of the musical “Grease”, to get people informed and excited about the show. Our sponsorship with HEB has definitely been a key part of the marketing and operating structure, since they help with everything from large-scale funding to advertising for shows. In exchange, they get to be the only grocery store in the area that’s directly affiliated with the Long Center.

There are still a lot of donation requests rolling in, too. These are requests for ticket donations that come most frequently from schools and charity organizations. We almost always give two tickets to any Long Center Presents performance when asked by one of these organizations if the request is official enough and if we haven’t given to them recently. The chunk out of our inventory does add up, but overall it’s worth the advertising space on silent auction tables and whatnot. It also gets people involved with the Long Center who perhaps had never seen a show there before.

DiverseArts Blog Posting III

The world of non-profit production is not an idle affair. There is always work to be done and money to be raised. This week at DiverseArts I tackled the launch of annual membership drive to raise money for the organization and promote efforts to bring creative new programs to the Austin area. I am processes the initial pitch and generating a statement and pledge card to be sent to all contacts by mail and email. I will meet the deadline in about two weeks time once all preliminary planning concludes.

Every week I send emails and media mailings to promote coming events on the calendar.  I had the pleasure to participate in one such event this week. This Monday a public screening of Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke was conducted in conjunction with DiverseArts, the Austin Public Library and the Texas Performing Arts Center. I arrived early to the venue to set up chairs, projection equipment and concessions in preparation for the event. Thankfully the weather was cooperative and we went forth without contest from the rain clouds in the distance.

An open discussion with former NOLA residents was held after selections from the movie were shown. This forum of discussion was eye opening. Four years after hurricane Katrina many unresolved issues remain unaddressed. Former residents discussed a common problem that many hurricane victims still face. Many people still have no home to return to, the sadness of displacement still haunts their daily lives. Scattered across the country and assimilated into the daily grind, the forgotten refugees of New Orleans face health issues such as post traumatic stress disordered, the need for closure and the constant grief of loss. The pre-production efforts that poured into this event culminated in an engaging and emotional portrait of the human spirit.

The audience stayed longer than originally planned to watch the 2^nd part of this engrossing documentary. The gathering adjourned and people walked to their cars just as lightning began to dance across the sky. One of many crucial steps towards recovery was made as the people of New Orleans congregated to share their stories, weather permitting.

This week at Creative Arts Group we are in the beginning stages of making a record. Right now I am meeting with my mentor and coming up with song ideas, some good and bad, right now we are two so far that are possibilities for the E.P. which is so exciting! The goal is to have about 6-8 songs to choose from and then record a 4 song E.P. out of them. The goal right now is that in about two weeks we will start laying down the “meat and potatoes” as they call it which is a very rough take of what the song will be like and then build the track from there. I am so excited to see what these songs end up sounding like and really understanding the process of what it takes to start from nothing, write songs, record them, and then the final product. Definitely easier said then done but so exciting to say the least.

Last Tuesday, The Blanton held a party for the Museum’s members so that they could have the opportunity to meet the new Director. The party took place in the Michener Gallery building, and my main duty for the evening was helping the members and our guests with the front doors– which are seriously the heaviest doors I have ever had to open! All of the people who came to the party were so excited to be there. Opening the doors for people allowed me to see how enthusiastic all the members were about the event, and it seemed as if everyone had something positive to say as they were leaving. I really enjoyed the evening because the party provided me with an opportunity to get to know several of the Blanton staff members who work in departments that I hadn’t interacted with before. Becoming friends with the people who work here is definitely one of my favorite parts of the internship. Everyone is so nice and I really love being able to say hi to people around the building…it makes me feel like I belong!

That Thursday, the Museum hosted a party for the Art and Art History department faculty and students, so I had the chance to attend a Blanton event as a guest! Being on the other side an event at the Museum was fun and I loved seeing all of my Art History professors outside of the classroom, even if it was a little intimidating. I really felt like the event was a success as it solidified the connection and dialogue between the Museum and Art and Art History department. Attending this party as a guest, and seeing the event from an outside perspective made me proud to be a part of The Blanton Special Events Team!