Last Day

Yesterday was my last day as an intern at ProMusica. Julia and the staff took me out for lunch, and it was a fun time! After lunch Julia and I met with Dayna from the Columbus Museum of Art to coordinate the Stop! Look! Listen! events (ProMusica performances at the CMA) that will take place in the fall and spring. We talked about the theme of the performances, what times the performance space would be available for rehearsal, and discussed a brief schedule for the musicians. Julia and I then went to Starbucks to meet up with Julia Castor (turns out we were all involved with the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestras when I was back in high school). Julia C. just got a teaching job at New Albany High School so we met with her to talk about all the educational outreach opportunities ProMusica offers. It was really nice to catch up and talk about school and what has going on in our lives for the past few years. One major thing I have learned while interning at ProMusica is that it's very important to keep in contact with colleagues and maintain personal connections! I look forward to maintaining contacts with the ProMusica staff and furthering my professional networking connections!

Week 10

I'm wrapping up my final two weeks of interning! I'm going to miss talking to the staff here; they're so much fun! Hopefully I can come back and say Helloo soon!

Last week I continued to wrap up a few minor projects I've been working on. I know I had a nice chat with Julia about organization structure among other things...we continued to do some filing. I spent quite some time looking through Julia's arts advocacy articles and documents about the advantages of art/music in education-HOORAY:)

I continued to tweak the concert program for the October Stop! Look! Listen! event. So far I've found some sea songs/shanties arranged for string quartet, some programmatic works by Debussy and Ravel, and an arrangement of Under the Sea for string quartet. Putting a program together has been a fun challenge and it pushes me to stay up to date on repertoire outside of the two instruments I play.

Julia is beginning to meet with teachers (some first year music teachers!) this week about ProMusica Education events/opportunities for the upcoming school year, so I got to assemble the folders of information that she gives them. I had already updated several of these documents, so assembling them into folders wasn't too much of a task; I just had to duke it out with the printer a couple times. Ha ha.

Julia informed me of an arts advocacy website: www.dana.org

On this site are many articles about the DANA organization and how it advocates arts and science. Very informative stuff!!

Week 9

My favorite part of the week was going to another meeting with Julia. This meeting was with 2 ladies from the Ohio Department of Education. Julia and I met with them to present a general educational strategic plan and talk about the outreach program's planned for this coming season. We were just trying to bounce ideas off of each other as we looked for ways to reach out to a broader range of audiences, specifically students. After the meeting I came back to the office and helped Julia with filing in her office because the internet service provider wasn't operating properly. I also created a registration form for another one of ProMusica's education programs-Musicians in the Schools. ProMusica will send a musician to any Columbus school up to four times during the school year. The musicians will lead sectionals or host master classes, or whatever the school teacher would find most helpful. This is a great way of introducing professional musicians into the classroom. In the past, Julia handled all these bookings through emails and phone calls. I created a form that can be put on ProMusica's website so teachers may go there and request to have a musician come to their school.



This week Julia asked for my help in selecting repertoire for one of the Stop! Look! Listen! programs in the fall. For this particular event, a string quartet will be performing at the Columbus Museum of Art (they also partner with Franklin Park Conservatory, Columbus Zoo, and most recently Columbus Metropolitan Libraries to give performances at these exciting venues). The idea is that families with elementary aged children Stop at the museum, Look at the featured exhibition (in this instance, the magnificent blown glass by Dale Chihuly), and Listen to ProMusica musicians perform. Julia showed me an article about Dale Chihuly. It states that he gained much of his inspiration for the sea and its forms, how it moves, and creatures in the sea. So we are looking for string quartet repertoire that can be tied to those types of themes. We are looking for quartet arrangements of sea shanties, etc. Debussy's La Mer and Ravel's string quartet in F major have also been thrown into the mix of suggestions. There is a substantial amount of repertoire to consider, and it's exciting to be a part of the selection process.



On Friday I went to Staples and picked up an office supply order for Juli! I also began to design a student subscription poster. I asked Ashley (Event and Communications Manager) for jpeg files to be placed on the poster and went from there. Students may purchase 6 tickets (a year's subscription) for $25. Students need posters that they can hopefully hang up in their schools and surrounding communities to promote this great deal!


Earlier in the week I observed Julia plan out the entire Education calendar for the upcoming season. She nailed down every possible date (dates to send out reminder emails about events, dates to get programs off to the printer, dates to update and prepare mailing lists, etc) that is possible to determine at this point in the summer. After doing this for four years, Julia was very aware of when to place every last detail on the calendar. I also updated the Student Advisory Board handbooks that will be passed out at the first meeting in September. I typed up a rough season schedule for the SAB, updated their application for membership form, and member contact information form.

Week 8

Short week this week because of the holiday! HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY :)

On Monday, I worked on editing text for the education/outreach tab on ProMusica's website. The dates and event descriptions need updated for the 2009-2010 season. After all of the revisions are set, we will work on pasting them into the actual website.

I also attended an ACE meeting with Julia in the afternoon -- all about social media and networking. Here we briefly presented the results of the survey I put together, and different arts organizations talked about how they use the various networking tools available. Before the meeting I printed out materials to be handed out, such as the conversation prism (www.theconversationprism.com) on 11x17 paper -- I may have finally figured out how to use the copier/printer!!

On Wednesday, I continued to work on editing the website text. I also started to look into creating RSS feed (really simple syndication, or rich site summary) for podcasting with Julia. We are still trying to figure this out!

The office was out of copy paper, so Joe and I ventured to Staples to buy some until he places the big office supply order on Monday (today). We also exchanged ink cartridges from the printers.

Week 7

This week I learned much about website design and podcasting. I attended a staff meeting where we met with the designer of ProMusica's website. The staff is interested in modifying the layout, updating content, and adding a page where user's can donate to the organization online. I learned the difference between modifying the layout of a website versus modifying the design, as well as a little bit about graphics and all the images that are contained on the website. I even understood a little of the html-code talk that was going on, it brought back memories of Visual Basic programming class freshman year! The staff wants to be able to make ProMusica's "post-concert INSIGHT" or casual conversations (Tim Russell leads a discussion after each concert for audience members) available to download via web syndication.



I finished updating the audio archives last week, and this week I burned CDs of each concert this past season for Dr. Russell (music conductor). I also made labels for every concert to be inserted in each CD.



I am still helping Julia edit the educational strategic plan. We are continually looking at ProMusica's strengths and considering how we can formulate new opportunities/generate new ideas based off of what we are already good at (yes, I ended in a preposition).



We are also preparing the harpsichord schedule (similar to how I prepared the grand piano moving schedule a few weeks ago) so we can figure out when the harpsichord needs to be transported before each performance during this next season.

Week 6

This past week was one of my favorite weeks at ProMusica thus far. On Monday, the Education Committee (consisting of Dr. Tim Russell, Music Director; Janet Chen, Executive Director; Julia Hare, Education and Operations Director; and several music educators from around the Columbus area) met from about 9am-4pm to have a strategic planning meeting. I ordered food for breakfast and lunch, and I picked up all the food from Giant Eagle for lunch before I went in on Monday (salad, sandwiches, fruit, water, and dessert). The morning was spent analyzing the education mission statement. The committee addressed its strengths and touched on its competive advantage by beginning a SWOT analysis. Then the committee looked at audiences it is currently serving well versus audiences it has the potential to serve. For the rest of the morning, the committee assembled its sustainable funding model; they determined what funding methods are successful and can be counted on in the future (such as funds from foundations/corporations and participants that cover the cost of certain programs). I learned the importance of recognizing an organization's strengths; from there it is easier to generate ideas for reaching new target audiences.

After lunch the committee delve into each of the education/outreach programs. There were about 18 programs, and each was evaluated based on its fundability, marketability, and educational value. Assessing each program individually stimulated ideas for new spins on existing programs, and in a couple cases, new programs entirely. The committee really ran with the idea of trying to create a Youth Ensemble/Orchestra that operates throughout the school year, and I think they will begin this project with an "Honor Orchestra Weekend" where high school students prepare for an ensemble that rehearses for only 1 weekend and has a Sunday afternoon concert.

On Wednesday, I picked up the End-of-Season awards from Reed Arts and Village Trophy. I spent the first part of the afternoon. I also began to update the audio archives by importing recordings from the 2008-2009 season. Later in the afternoon I went to the Annual Board Meeting and End-of-Season reception which were held in another location in downtown Columbus. The board members discussed the financial status of the organization and the funding allocations from Greater Columbus Art Council. They also held nominations of board members for the next year, and the Music Director and Executive Director gave encouraging annual reports.

On Friday I finished updating the audio archives and wrote up a summary of my networking survey:

Networking Survey Summary

June 2009

I received 10 responses to this survey.

Question #1 asked Ohio arts organization administrators how they used different types of social networking, giving the options of “For Work”, “Personal Use”, “Heard of it, but don’t use it”, and “Never heard of it”. It is safe to say that most people surveyed use Facebook for work and/or personal use; 70% use Facebook for work and 70% use it for personal use. 60% of surveyors have heard of Myspace but do not use it. 50% have heard of Twitter but don’t use it, and 40% use Twitter for work purposes. 60% of people use LinkedIn in their workplace. Plaxo, Wordpress, Live Journal, Flicker, and Animoto are not used much in the work place or for personal use, and practically no one has heard of Animoto.

Question #2 asks how each networking tool is used within an organization, providing the options “Someone in my organization speaks for the organization as a whole”, “I use it to speak for myself as a member of the organization”, or “This is not a part of my organization/workplace”. 100% of people do not use Snapfish, Animoto, or Live Journal at all in their workplace, and at least 70% do not use Myspace, Ning, or Blogger in their workplace. A majority (80%) of administrators surveyed claim that someone within their organization uses Facebook to represent their organization, while 50% of administrators surveyed say that they personally use LinkedIn to speak for themselves as a member of the organization.

Question #3 asks about the roadblocks or issues an organization faces when implementing these networking tools. Organizations are realizing that there are so many networking tools from which to choose and different target audiences are using different networking tools. It is mentioned there is the issue of choosing networking tools within an organization and then having to seek approval from the appropriate personnel within the workplace, such as having to go through the Communications Manager.

Question #4 asks about the benefits of these networking tools. The survey indicates that one of the greatest benefits is being able to reach specific audiences. It is easy to quickly get in touch with or quickly get word out to the next generation (especially college and high school students) by utilizing these different types of communication.

Question #5 asks administrators if they have additional ideas for the June ACE agenda. Podcasting and Cleveland Arts Summit are mentioned, and there is a request for more social networking data, such as statistics showing what works or what people pay attention to most. I will have to look into this more…

General Summary:

From my own perspective, it seems that Facebook is used most by a variety of age groups, ranging from high-school students to retired adults. Myspace seems to reach a certain age group—middle-school students to young adults—and Twitter seems to reach college graduates to young adults most frequently. Obviously there are several networking tools from which to choose, and that limits how people will choose to use them and how frequently they will use them. The challenge of balancing personal and professional use is also an issue. Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter share similar features, and most people do not use all three of these tools.

Week 5

On Monday, I called the members of the Student Advisory Board (20 college/HS students) and informed them that the Annual Picnic/Social would be rescheduled for next Monday, June 15 due to inclement weather. I also went (off site!) to Reed Arts and Village Trophy to have the End-of-Season awards assembled. I was finally able to print out all the different components--plaque wordings, and framed inscriptions--with much help from Joe (Ticketing Manager). When I returned I began to look at the results of my networking survey; so far I have received 8 responses. I am finding that pretty much everyone uses facebook whether it be for office work or personal use or both, and most people find it difficult to use many of the different networking tools (myspace, twitter, blogger, snapfish, etc.) because there is such a plethora from which to choose. A couple respondents have also mentioned communicating within their organization (having to consult the Communications Manager, for example) about which networking tools to use as a roadblock. I will continue to compile these results as more are received.

Almost everyone in the office is writing his/her end of the year report, so it's pretty quiet. We are getting ready to send out one final mass mailing before the end of the fiscal year asking for any last minute donations.

On Wednesday, I filed some recordings away in the secret "Archives" room. :) I edited Julia's end of the year report on all of the Education and Outreach programs that ProMusica has put on this past season. I learned a lot about just how many programs Julia is in charge of, and only began to understand the magnitude of organizing all the resources and funds for such projects. I was then sent on another shopping assignment to purchase supplies(markers, presentation post-its) for the Educational Strategic Planning meeting which is happening on Monday, June 15. I am in charge of ordering/picking up/purchasing all the food for lunch on Monday, any chance I get to go to Giant Eagle-I'm in! When I came back from Staples, I began to assemble the last award for a guest conductor which is going to presented at the Annual Board meeting on Wednesday, June 17. For this award, I went to Target and purchased a triple photo frame, placed two pictures of the guest conductor in it, and with Julia's help, came up with an inscription to commemorate the event for the third photo space in between the two pictures. I really like working on artsy projects like this one. Putting the awards together and compiling the End of Season Reception invitations has been very fun for me.

Also on Wednesday, I prepared some of the index cards for brainstorming in the meeting on June 15 by labeling index cards with each of the programs outlined in Julia's Education report, such as Education Forums, Open Rehearsals (for senior citizens, complete with large print programs), and Stop! Look! Listen! (Sunday afternoon concert series at the Columbus Museum of Art and Columbus Metropolitan Libraries). I'm pretty excited to see what all I learn in this all-day meeting on Monday!