FringeArts Internship: An Interest for the Arts?
For this semester, I am interning at a Non-Profit called FringeArts. FringeArts is a performance arts non profit organization that focuses on smaller performers in Philly and helps their shows come together.
This experience has taught me a lot about what I want in a future career. For one, I found I am super interested in performance art marketing. I think it’s really interesting and rewarding to follow a performer from start to finish. I think as I look for more jobs in the future, I will look more into performance art. The other thing I learned from this internship was non-profit work may not exactly be the best track for me. While I enjoy the idea of having a helpful approach to business that comes with non profits, I feel the business model isn’t for me.
Another thing I enjoyed about this internship was learning about the comedy and drama community in Philadelphia. I am not from Philadelphia and through this internship, I was able to learn more about the community and culture of Philly. This was really interesting for me as I didn’t realize how much art and culture was in the city.
My supervisor Claire is also someone who made this internship positive. I join the marketing and development meetings every week with a few other staff members and I love how nice and open to taking they are. I really enjoy how accepting and diverse the staff is. We all put our pronouns and preferred names in our emails to make everyone feel comfortable. This really showed me how accepting the organization is. I think this is something everyone should do within companies and organizations; it’s truly helpful and creates such a good influence within the company.
This experience was different than I thought it would be but in a good way. I didn’t expect to be interested in performance art planning and the community in general. I think this internship showed me what I want in the future for my career in advertising. My advice for other students in regards for internships is to apply for everything even if it doesn’t interest you. It could end up being something that clicks with you!
Hi Elizabeth,
Firstly, I want to say this was a great read and a deeper look at Philadelphia’s art and culture. As someone from Philadelphia but not too familiar with the comedy and drama culture, I think you may have piqued my interest in exploring that scene more. I believe that it’s great that you got to find what niche in advertisement you are interested in besides the overall track like Account management. As a person currently at an internship that I didn’t expect to be at, I can say it is both fun and challenging. It’s fun because when you are good at something, it makes your task a piece of cake; it’s challenging because, depending on the company and how fast pace everything is, you can feel like you are tackling a lot. I’m still weighing my opinions on different career paths; I’m interested in being a creative director; it just interests me. Good luck with your future endeavors in your career.
Wow this was so interesting to read, thank you for sharing! I had no idea there was a marketing for comedy and drama in Philadelphia, that really emphasizes how deep the art community is in Philly. Im a model and painter so I was only aware of their music and visual art scene, but i’ll definitely have to look more into that. It goes to show how there is a marketing for anything if you look for it! Best of luck to you!