Thanks to funding through Arts Council England and North of Tyne Combined Authority, we were thrilled to be able to offer two 'Working in Events' internships to North of Tyne residents to help deliver the 2023 festival.
JonJoe Clennell Working in Events Intern 2023
I've been asked to share my experience of working as part of the Moving Parts Arts Team on their 2023 Newcastle Puppetry Festival. I've previously worked on a wide range of events, and here are the reasons why I think the Newcastle Puppetry Festival team, and the event as a whole is one of the best projects I've ever been involved in.
Even though the Intern joins the team a week before the festival is due to begin, one of the things that stood out to me as a major positive early on, was the amount of important tasks and responsibilities I was asked to carry out as part of the role. This helped me to settle in and I gained alot of self belief by the amount of trust shown in me by my line Manager, Becky, and the Artistic Director, Kerrin. For example, the second day of the internship was the media day, my responsibilities on the day were to escort the photographers and press around the Wor Seahorse Workshop, as well as identifying the participants and artists that were willing to be interviewed, while also making sure that the photographers took the appropriate photographs. I received some positive feedback at the end of the day, this gave me a lot of confidence, which I was able to take forward into the festival.
One of my many highlights was working with Kerrin on at least three days of the festival schedule, this was valuable, hands on experience for me as I hope to have a long term career in event management. I learnt the specific terms that the Arts & Culture industry use when getting their tech equipment in and out of venues.
Here are some of my other highlights. My time on box office, the Puppet Olympics and Quiz, and getting up close to the Joe 5 puppets after the show, but I have to say that my number one highlight was having the opportunity to work on a sound check in the Art Centre tech box with Louise, the Technical Manager, checking the sound levels on the microphones before one of the shows. This has always been an ambition of mine. Moving Parts Arts is without doubt, one of the most inclusive companies I've ever worked with, and I would highly recommend the Internship to anyone that has an interest in pursuing a career in the industry. I think that organisations like this can play a vital role in today's society to help bring people together. Thank you to Moving Parts Arts for this opportunity, and I would like to wish the company every success in the future.
Georgia Blyth
Working in Events Intern 2023
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working alongside the team as Events Intern. Coming into the festival I didn’t have much experience working within the arts events sphere, but I now have a much better understanding of what goes into the production of an art event, and have gained great insight into everything involved behind the scenes.
I learnt a lot during my time working at Newcastle Puppetry Festival, and I particularly enjoyed how I was able to gain both hands on experience as well as talking to and shadowing others in their roles. Learning about technical theatre was something I was especially keen for, and I’m glad I was able to take time to focus on this with technicians.
Not only did working during the busy festival period allow me to develop numerous skills such as people management, audience evaluation and box office experience, I also found being involved in the pre festival planning and post festival evaluation to be highly informative. In addition to learning new skills and acquiring knowledge of the different aspects of event production, I greatly enjoyed watching the shows, all of which were very impressive.
Something that became evident to me during this internship is the importance of being able to think creatively to solve unexpected problems that may arise to ensure the smooth delivery of an event, and I now feel much more confident in my ability to do so.
I have finished this internship with a newfound appreciation for puppetry, feeling inspired, and in a better place moving forward within this field. Thank you to everyone who made my time enjoyable!
We hope to be able to offer more internships to North East residents in the future. Sign up to our mailing list to stay up to date!
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