Fine Arts Career Services

The beginning of November always seems to be the calm before the storm. Or, the weeks of no immediate assignments with the anxiety and procrastination that accompanies looming deadlines. As the end of the semester approaches I am starting to feel the difficulty of balancing a full-time student schedule with and internship. Dividing time between the two, as well as finding time for work and fun, is proving to be more complicated that I anticipated. I understand now why my friends who previously held internships during the school year were so stressed! Even though this “balancing act” is not ideal, it is challenging me to meet all of these demands and is forcing me to manage my time productively. While I sometimes find myself wishfully thinking back to the beginning of them semester and its blissful ease, I know that the next few weeks, however challenging, are going to make me grow both as an intern and as a student.

People often misunderstand the role of Special Events at The Blanton by thinking that our job is limited to producing large-scale events, like B Scene and Membership Parties. On the contrary, the Special Events staff is responsible for coordinating all of the space usage in the entire museum– from the smallest conference room to the largest gallery.  With so many different rooms and The Blanton’s diverse programs, this can be a challenging job. Every Monday morning the Assistant Special Events Manager, Katy, complies a very detailed list outlining space usage for The Michener Gallery Building and for The Smith Building.  Room, time, catering and department for each event in the next several weeks is complied into a multi-page document.  Doing these comprehensive reports allows us to plan ahead of time, keep everything organized and prevent double booking a space. Once Katy sends out the Event Report, I read through it and update our large shared calendar so that the current and approaching month’s events schedule is clearly visualized. While not all of the events here at The Blanton are large scale, they are still ‘special’ and need attention!! Click here http://www.finearts.utexas.edu/events/index.cfm?calset=bma to check out upcoming events at The Blanton!

You may be surprised to know that working in Special Events involves quite a bit more than glamorous parties and high profile events. A lot of prep work goes into the events themselves, of course, but there is an endless array seemingly minute background details that contribute to the overall support and function of museum events. Many of these tasks lay groundwork for future events, are important because they make sure our information is current, or they improve the department. These jobs are usually time consuming but are not urgent or vital to the success or fail of any specific event. Stephanie and Katy have so much on their plates with important and pressing responsibilities that a lot of my internship focuses on completing background research/tasks for them. Through this, I have the opportunity to see how many levels of work and how much accumulated knowledge goes into creating successful events. I think that one of the reasons that the Special Events department functions so well is because of this emphasis on building a strong foundation of supporting information.

I finished creating a list of potential new clients, and am now working on a list of restaurant recommendations to give to clients who are unfamiliar with Austin and want to go out to lunch or dinner. Writing all of the little blurbs about Austin’s best restaurants is fun and I am relishing the opportunity show my voice through my writing!

This week at The Blanton work continued to hum along at a nicely comfortable pace. We didn’t have any large evening events so I only worked during the day on assembling packets for potential clients and other assignments that Stephanie and Katy gave me. While completing these tasks, I began to think about the nature of the events that we have hosted and produced in the past two months. Compared to former special events experience that I have had, the events here are relatively stress-free proceedings. I am usually given specifically out lined duties like greeting guests, meeting musicians at the loading dock, or ensuring that no one brings food and drinks into the galleries. The main reason for this calmness I think, is that I am working with the venue as opposed to working for the individual or group who rents the Museum to host parties.  Therefore my job is limited to working with the space and not controlling the ins and outs of the event.

When we do hold events specifically for The Blanton and represent both the client and the venue, a cool collectiveness still reigns.  One reason for this control is that the main focus of The Blanton, and this its events is always art. The inherently static nature of the art at the Museum means that we are not continually running around making sure the Petrobelli Altarpiece is in the right place at the right time. Another factor in the calmness of our parties is our guests. Aside from BScene, which is usually very lively, our guests are generally older, relaxed, and here to experience our wonderful collection.

Side note:  This week I cleared a very serious paper jam and made double-sided, stapled copies!!

The rush that was September is over and it seems that everything is calming down at The Blanton Special Events, at least for the time being! Our Veronese exhibit is finally open, BScene’s first Thursday came and went like clockwork and everybody has now had the opportunity to meet our new Director. Even though we don’t have a ton of events this week we are still working hard preparing for the weeks and months ahead. Right now I’m working on putting together a list of Austin businesses that might be interested in hosting an event at the museum so that we can send them a packet with information pertaining to renting the Museum

A significant part of special events that we produce at The Blanton are private events. Different organizations, groups businesses from the Austin area rent out different areas of the museums for parties, conferences, speaking series and much more. The general atmosphere of these events is usually a little bit different than those sponsored by The University or The Blanton. Many of the guests at private events are experiencing The Blanton for the first time are unfamiliar with the building and are unaware of what to expect. A lot of first time guests are surprised at the quality of The Blanton’s collection and facilities. Introducing people to the Museum and being a part of their experience is really exciting! One common thread that runs between both private and public events is punctuality. With out fail we always have guests arriving nearly 30 minutes early— we’re lucky to have such prompt and dedicated Blanton supporters!

Another week of interning at the Blanton has flown by! I can’t believe that October is already here—August and the beginning of my internship really seems like it was yesterday, not a over a month ago. This week, exciting things have been happening at The Blanton. Our newest, and incredibly special, exhibit Paolo Veronese’s The Petrobelli Altarpiece opened. This exhibit is so exciting because for the first time in over 200 years four fragments of an altarpiece created by Veronese in a small Italian town are being reunited. The Blanton’s own Head of An Angel by Veronse was identified as the Head of St. Michael, the central figure in the Altarpiece

To kick off this amazing exhibit, The Blanton held a party for the museums Director’s Circle level of membership. Mr. G. who was responsible for restoring the altarpiece flew in from Ontario to attend. Ned, our Director, and Jonathan, Curarot of Prints, Drawings and European paintings at The Blanton, spoke about the altarpiece’s extraordinary journey that has culminated in this exhibit. We provided our patrons with an opportunity to be some of the first Austinites experience this beautiful work of art. An important part of our job in Special Events is to create events that celebrate the new exhibits that open at the Museum. Producing events for our members and patrons is essential so that we can thank them for supporting The Blanton.

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!!!

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!

I have just completed my first full two weeks at The Blanton! I spent the Wednesday after Labor Day creating a spreadsheet detailing the past Blanton Staff Holiday Parties.  To create the spreadsheets, I needed to find the files from each party and extract all of the information on expenditures from them.  Maintaining thorough files on events is incredibly important.  Individual files that we keep from events are filled with correspondence with the companies we hire for catering, decorations, rentals, entertainment, and more.  Invoices detailing the price of the individual items, when the bill was paid and correspondence are especially important to keep for future reference.  You never know when a client or a vendor might have a question or a selective memory, and having an easily accessible hard copy of important papers is vital for a quick and correct response.  At the Blanton our files are kept in individual folders for each event and then put in files according to the month when the event took place. When I interned for an event planning company in New York last summer, we had binders for each event with different dividers for catering, music, etc… I can’t believe that I just wrote an entire post about filing…but it really is that important!

Hi! My name is Cile Scott—I am a senior Art History student and the newest Special Events Intern at The Blanton Museum. Working in a museum has been a dream of mine since I began to think seriously about my future and I am so excited to be a part of The Blanton. Work finally began this week after months and months of anticipation. I applied for the internship program last spring while I was studying in Aix-en-Provence, France for the semester. Needless to say the interview process was a little difficult over Skype’s patchy cross-Atlantic connection, but thankfully Stephanie, the Special Events Manager, and Katie the Assistant Events Manager were not discouraged and offered me the position!

My first week working at The Blanton as an official intern (I even have my very own very official nametag!) flew by. I spent Monday learning ropes and getting acquainted with the cubicle that I will be sharing with the other intern Meghan. My next working day was the morning of the school year’s first staff meeting! I know that his probably sounds really dorky, but participating in the meeting was thrilling. Ned, The Blanton’s new director, was really inspirational as he led the meeting and spoke about the museum’s new strategic campaign and his expectations for the year. A good part of the meeting was devoted to brainstorming The Blanton’s core values. Not only was I, a lowly intern, invited to contribute, but it was also amazing to see how everyone around me was truly passionate about working at the Blanton. This positive atmosphere has made me even more excited about the semester to come and all of its wonderful possibilities!