Name of Student: Meredith
Pathway Programme: Pathways to Arts, Culture and Heritage (2024 cohort)
Internship Role: Festival Assistant
Internship Employer: Kensington & Chelsea Art Week
Summary of Organisation: Kensington + Chelsea Art Week was founded in 2018 with a public consultation by a group of volunteering arts industry professionals. We are an independent, not-for-profit cultural festival and a placemaking organisation. Since its inception, the festival continues to shine a spotlight on the area’s unexpected and unique cultural variety across a multitude of studios and galleries, museums, exhibition spaces and businesses. It attracts local and international audiences to 150+ events and installations throughout the borough.
Please briefly outline the project/tasks/responsibilities you worked on during your Professional Pathways internship:
“I completed a variety of tasks during my internship to help with the management, organisation and promotion of the festival. One of my tasks was to help with the distribution of promotional materials, which involved visiting different venues and liaising with their staff to put up posters and guides in their windows. This also included distributing poems for the Poetry Corner Trail. I also created two in-app walks for the Poetry and Art Trails, which required me to travel the borough and take photographs of installations, followed by writing directions and engaging content to be used in the app. The final part of my internship involved collecting visitor feedback. To do this, I attended events during the Art Week and interviewed visitors. I also observed installations on the Art Trail, documenting the public’s reactions to them. Finally, all the information I gained was collated into a report reflecting on how the festival could be improved in future years.”
How do you think this experience will impact on your employability as you enter the job market as a recent graduate?
“Whilst I have learnt some things about the arts industry from my degree, the only way to fully understand this is to get hands-on experience. Taking part in the programme was a real insight into how these companies actually work. Because I worked for a fairly small company, I was doing important tasks which reflected what it would be like to work there permanently. I hope this experience will set me apart from other candidates, as there is so much I can talk about, from my understanding of marketing and the training days, to the experience of working in a fast-paced, self-motivated role in London. Furthermore, I hope my participation in the programme will demonstrate my initiative to employers- through working to get a place on the programme, I have both gained experience and made connections with people in the industry, which I would not have had the opportunity to do otherwise.”
Given the Professional Pathways internship is 35 hours in total, what advice would you give to other students to ensure they gain as much as possible from the experience?
“Something which I learnt from my internship was that it is important to establish what project(s) you will be focusing on before the internship starts. In my experience, there was a fair amount of flexibility, meaning I was allowed to choose certain things I wanted to focus on the most. However, when I got to the first day, due to the nature of the role and the fact that things can go wrong in a festival, other tasks had come up which my manager wanted me to help sort. It was my responsibility to manage my own time and ensure these things were sorted before I moved on to other tasks I was more interested in. Therefore, I set myself deadlines and goals for each day to ensure I had time within the 35 hours to both complete the issues my manager wanted me to solve, and experience all the elements of the festival that I felt would be most useful for my own work experience. On the other hand, if there is less flexibility in your role, but you feel the tasks given to you do not cover the full 35 hours, the best thing you can do is do your own research on the company and suggest other things you can get involved in. After all, you are there for your own benefit, so take any opportunity you can to learn more about the sector you want to go into and enhance your employability!”
Why would you recommend the Professional Pathways programme to other students?
“The Professional Pathways Programme offers industry experience that you will not find anywhere else. I have always known I wanted to go into the Arts, Culture and Heritage sector, but getting paid work experience externally is almost impossible, especially if you don’t already have connections. Therefore, the opportunity that this programme has given me to get my foot in the door is invaluable. Whilst you get an internship with one company, you hear talks from a wide range of companies within the industry in the four days of training. This is information you can’t find online- I learnt so much about both the different roles available in the sector, and the way things are run. All of the companies who come to give talks are very friendly and welcoming, making it a great opportunity to ask questions. The training is so helpful to take forwards into your internship, and helps you feel a little less like you’re going in blind! Also, doing an internship with an external company whilst being supported by the university is a unique experience, and means that you really do get the choice of the best companies to work with, and have people who can step in if anything goes wrong. Overall, I think the programme is an unmissable opportunity to kick start your career and I would highly recommend it to anyone.“