Calling All Volunteers!

After doing a final update of the event calendar, I have found that my future is looking busier by the day! I will be volunteering more and more as the need for community help grows. Even though Wednesday is my last day as an intern I will probably continue writing in my blog as well as having the new intern start a new one also. I hope that the future intern(s) will have as good of an experience here as I did. Looking back, the summer went by very quickly! It seems just last week I came in here for an interview. And this morning I walked in and realized that the Lorna Simpson exhibition is done with. I remember sending out hundreds and hundreds of flyers for the show and today, I had to disassemble the Lorna Simpson information folders. It was kind of sad. I helped build the amount of visitors! But, as much work as it was-it went really smooth; and I hope they continue that way. This is definitely an environment I could get used to. I just wish I could get done with school sooner! Until Wednesday,

Leighann

In Preparation For The Real World

As Lori prepared me for my new job as the evening receptionist, I found that the hardest part will be learning who to transfer calls to, and what buttons to push (there are so many!). It won't be hard, but it will be a nice change of pace for me since I have worked at my other job for 5 years. I will be able to answer questions about the Institute, about classes, exhibitions, etc. It has been such a help to have been an intern to familiarize myself with what happens here internally and getting to know the people who make this place work. I finished updating our calendar of events on the Kalamazoo Arts Council website-check it out!-and there are plenty events in the near future! Working here has made me so eager to graduate from WMU and start a career-or at least start another college career that will later lead me to a real career. I only hope that I can have a job at a place as good as the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.

Until next time,

Leighann

The end is near

My last day as an intern will be next Wednesday. I'm sad, however, this doesn't mean that they won't see me here anymore! I was offered the evening receptionist job for events held after hours. I am so excited! Today was also my first day using the copy machine, it's way high tech. I have found myself doing a lot more actual work than I expected. I couldn't have asked for a better internship. It wasn't fetching coffee, or making copies, it was much more than that. All of my projects gave me the real experience of what really goes on here. There's many minute details and little things that add up to be great things to help out the KIA. I'm glad to be able to continue working here.

-Leighann

Welcome to the Staff

Today I updated all of the future events for the KIA to the Kalamazoo Arts Council's website. It was a very long list, but surprisingly it didn't take as long as I thought it would. I was fired up from my coffee this morning, so that made me extra productive. I also was offered a job as an evening receptionist here by Tom, and I will be working the events held here after hours and on weekends. I am so excited. It will give me another great mark on my resume as well as some extra cash in my wallet! Not only will I further my experience here, I will also get more familiar with the environment in order to plan for my future. I am so excited that I was offered this job; not only is it convenient and flexible, but I am one step closer on the right path for advancement in the art world. Check out the KIA website for upcoming events and also the Kalamazoo Arts Council's website and maybe I'll see you here!

Leighann

Call of Duty

My time here at the KIA has been nothing shy of wonderful. Paul has assigned me tasks and allowed me to finish them with extremely reasonable guidelines and the freedom to complete them the way that I deem best. I feel that as my mentor, he has put a lot of faith and trust in me to fulfill my duties as an intern, and in return, I could do nothing but my best.

After fixing the problems with the blog, I have successfully created a new blog with photos, links, and my experiences-thanks to Gabi and Laura (whom I got the format from. They both did a wonderful job with the first blog and I hope now it will only be uphill from there.

My overall project was to distribute rack cards advertising the latest exhibition Lorna Simpson. I sent out tons of e-mails and distributed over 6,500 cards around the area. The exhibition is awesome. There is such a variety of works to look at and each one allows the viewer to be entranced by the thought provoking images. I hope that by advertising as much as we did, we will bring in more new visitors to the exhibition and for future shows. There's only 21 more days to see it! Admission is free!

Until next time,

Leighann

Victory is mine!

This is my first post as the summer intern here at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. I'm at a loss of words yet I have so much to say. First, I'll start out with 'Don't let the computer own you'. I found out that Blogger won't upload images through Safari. Safari, being the only browser on the Mac at the time, wasn't making my job easy. I re-downloaded Firefox onto the computer and to much avail and 2 hours later, it works now! I can start a new blog with new images and I owe it all to those who interned before me-and Paul of course. How sweet it is.

Signing off,
Leighann