note: I have omitted all specific details such as the location and names of people involved.
I arrived at my internship site at 10:15 am, I was scheduled to begin work at 10:30 so of course on my first day I wanted to make sure I was just a little bit early. As I had not yet received an access code to the building, I had to wait for the girls at the front desk to buzz me in. I introduced myself as the new intern and made my way up the somewhat spiraling staircase to the communal office space. I located the artistic director, heretofore known as ‘AD’ and waved hello. She smiled and promptly set me up with her laptop while she quickly ran off to mediate some confusion regarding rehearsal space “watch whatever you want online, I’ll be back in a moment to move you to your desk and set you up.” Being the eager little intern I am, I immediately logged on to the website, as I had not had access to internet for 2 days due to travel and the pirated home internet finally deciding that it did in fact resent me for stealing it these 9 long months. So I checked to see if the new season had been posted yet, as I knew they had made an announcement the previous week (it has not been posted as we still need to acquire photos for the site, this will be one of my may assignments, which I am thrilled about. It’s been so long since I have done anything with my photography). So back to my first 15 minutes, I perused the website before ‘AD’ came back, moved me 1 seat down from where I was and informed me that by next week I would have a proper desktop to work on but for today I should use her laptop. side note: I have now am the proud owner of an organization email address so its official!
‘AD’ walked me through the building showing me where everything was and how to get in and out, though I still hadn’t received my code yet. When we arrived back in the office space we decided to go grab a cup of coffee to discuss what I wanted to get out of the internship. We discussed my involvement in the social media aspect of the organization, as well as my interest in multi-disciplinary orgs and cross-cultural exchanges. I also mentioned my hopes of one day living abroad. We then headed back to the “office” with a somewhat hazy idea of what my goals were ( I am going to sit down later today and write everything down and then go in on Monday with a more clear cut notion of what I want to do there. As I said in my last post the great thing about this internship is that I get to make it what I want it to be).
As I said before my primary function is going to be working with social media, which I have recently become immersed in. I love it, I find it fascinating the way that it has been utilized as a form of communication and interaction and its potential for Non Profit arts organizations who are working with limited amounts of funds. I have hopped on the social media bandwagon and am enjoying the ride. Linda gave me the access information for all their social media sites, this includes Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, WordPress, Youtube, and Foursquare. I am probably forgetting some but these are the main ones. The reason that some of these sites have more than one link is that the Éist podcast has a few of their own sites. Part of my job will be to better integrate these so that they are easily accessible from the main sites. So I basically sat there looking over all these sites and formulating ideas for improvement. Some things were as simple as adding an events box to the facebook page for faster and easier location of upcoming events. Other will encompass a complete overhaul of the site. The youtube needs the most work and really its just about networking it properly so that it’s a place that people will subscribe to and visit because they know they will be able to locate videos of upcoming artists and shows.
‘AD’ pretty much gave me full reign of the social sites. As I am still new to the organization I don’t feel like I have the authority to respond to all posts on facebook, or to tweet about things yet, simply because I’m not sure exactly what is happening on a day to day basis. But as far as format and new ideas for things to incorporate I feel confident that I can contribute a lot to this organization. There is one other summer intern that will be flying in next week. She is a graphic designer so I will be working closely with her as well.
There are a few other projects that I know for sure I will be working on (no my life will not be strictly social media) as mentioned above I will be photographing things, such as rehearsals, events, and whatever else they may need images for. There is an artist coming in soon who wants to incorporate a performance art aspect to her residency here so I will be working with the team on developing that. I will also be working on the writers festival, which I mentioned previously as well.
Dreaming Eyes of Wonder 