Experience Arts Internship Scheme
BA History and Politics
Tell us a bit about your internship
Hi, I'm Bethan, I'm in my second year studying history and politics and over the summer I interned with The Chamberlain Highbury Trust as part of the Experience Arts program. There we were involved in a lot of activity planning, making materials for those activities, social media materials and promotion to make sure as many people as possible knew about events, and when it came to the events we were there to make sure they ran smoothly. We got a lot of feedback from people to make sure that the next event was as good as it could be in terms of what people want to see of the Trust and how we could cater it to the community. Alongside that we learned a lot about other boarding visages, changing Highbury and the restoration that's going on and how it’s ultimately going to become a hope for this community.
Why did you apply to the Experience Arts internship?
I applied for this internship because I’m really interested in the cultural sector for once I leave university, so I'd like to work in a museum or something like that. Previously I've had experience in museums and kind of roving exhibitions and things like that but I've never had the chance to be involved with a historical site like Highbury and it was really nice to be surrounded by all that history and beauty that they've got there. In terms of my career as well, I wanted to get more experience so I could kind of narrow down what I wanted to do more than just saying "I'd like to be in the cultural sector", which was really helpful, and as well as that I think this shows to future employers that I've got a wide interest in this kind of area and it’s helped me develop a lot of skills that I can talk about in the future interviews.
What did you gain from doing the Experience Arts Internship?
I got lots of skills from this internship like marketing which I've never done before, kind of activity planning and getting feedback for this kind of specific scenario and site, and as well as that I've just had a confidence boost I guess from undertaking this work and realising that I am capable of it and that I can build on these skills in the future and as well off the back of the internship I’m now part of Highbury's Youth Board, which kind of focuses more on like the leadership side of things and kind of like the activities planning, so it's been really helpful in getting a wide skill set under my belt.
What are your top tips for applying to the Experience Arts Internships?
In terms of tips for people who want to do an internship like this I'd say definitely utilise Careers Network, research who you're going to be interning with, just make sure that you feel confident and positive going through the process, but as well I'd say don't be disheartened if you don't get the internship that you want or you don't get it the first time around because I nearly didn't get mine until there was more funding. I was really disheartened by it but then when I got there as a first year the other people were a lot more advanced in their kind of university and career paths than I was, so it's like even if you're not sure that you're up to it or you don't feel really confident just go for it anyway, because you never know what could happen or what you could get, like through this I'm now on this Youth Board for the Highbury Trust and I'm gonna reapply for another internship this year so I'd say just grab all of any opportunities you can, give it a go.