Internships at the DeVos Institute

Hands-on Experience for Aspiring Arts Management Professionals

Program Dates:

Spring 2015:

Program Dates: January—May 2015

Application Deadline: Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Summer 2015:

Program Dates: May—August 2015

Application Deadline: Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Fall 2015:

Program Dates: September—December 2015

Application Deadline: Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Full-time and part-time opportunities available.

How to Apply:

Please send a brief cover letter and resume to Syrah Gunning at sgunning@umd.edu. Work samples are optional, but encouraged. Following the application deadlines, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until positions are filled.

“My internship with the DeVos Institute was instrumental in my professional development. As an intern, I received training and insight into the field of arts management that continues to be invaluable as I build my career. I would highly recommend the program to any aspiring arts administrator who is looking for an incredible organization with countless opportunities to build useful skills and knowledge.”

Mary Katherine Clark

Assistant Manager, Corporate and Foundation Relations

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—Washington, D.C.

DeVos Institute Intern, Fall 2012

Interning with the DeVos Institute

As a leading provider of arts management training worldwide, the DeVos Institute and its leadership offer valuable, hands-on experience for aspiring arts managers. Interns gain practical skills in event management, research, evaluation, reporting, and business communications by supporting the Institute’s domestic and international training programs and consulting engagements for over 800 arts organizations around the globe. Interns also gain an expansive understanding of the arts industry by working with a wide range of arts and cultural organizations and industry professionals who serve as Institute advisors.Internships are full-time (40 hours per week) or part-time (15-30 hours per week) unpaid opportunities that are intended to complement a student’s academic program of study, during or shortly following an undergraduate or graduate program. Interns have the opportunity to attend special events, including presentations with domestic and international delegations that visit the Institute. Upon acceptance into the program, Interns develop a personalized schedule with their program manager based on their availability. A transportation subsidy will be provided at a rate of $6/day. Applicants must be currently enrolled sophomores, juniors, or seniors in undergraduate programs, Master’s candidates, or have completed a degree within the past two years. Internships may be completed for academic credit through the Intern’s current college or university.

To apply, please send a brief cover letter and resume to Syrah Gunning at sgunning@umd.edu.

Available Internship Positions

DeVos Institute Interns should be expert problem solvers, comfortable working in a fast-paced environment, comfortable using Microsoft Excel, and have strong writing and analytic skills. The Institute seeks applicants for the following positions:

Program Management

The DeVos Institute’s Capacity Building programs provide training and support for executive, artistic, and board leadership in arts communities’ worldwide including cities such as Detroit, Grand Rapids, Miami, New York City, and San José, and internationally in Ireland, Croatia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vietnam. In each city, these two-year programs provide tailored assistance to a cohort of 10-20 organizations through seminars, online master classes, and one-on-one consultations. Interns gain valuable experience in event planning, vendor coordination, travel management, and program management, both through in person and online activities. These positions are ideal for individuals interested in event management, hospitality and tourism, and program management.

Marketing

Marketing Interns will support the Director of External Relations on the Institute’s marketing efforts. Interns gain experience in press management, copy writing, and website design by supporting the development of the Institute’s new website. Interns will gain a broad understanding of arts management by translating successful arts management strategies from hundreds of organizations worldwide to the field at large. These positions are ideal for individuals with an interest in marketing, public relations, and/or website development. Experience in basic HTML or graphic design are welcome, but not required.

Development (Fundraising)

Development Interns will support the Institute’s fundraising efforts primarily aimed at corporate and foundation funders. Interns gain experience in grant writing for corporations and foundations, program evaluation, and prospecting. Interns will gain a broad understanding of arts management by tracking the progress of hundreds of organizations worldwide and translating for funders. These positions are ideal for individuals with an interest in fundraising, grant writing, and program evaluation. Competitive candidates will demonstrate strong writing skills and an attention to detail.

Consulting

Consulting Interns support the DeVos Institute’s engagements with both domestic and international arts organizations through research, data analysis, planning, content drafting, and travel management. Consulting projects differ per client and include a wide array of practical research such as financial analysis, industry research on comparable organizations, event management, affinity marketing, and prospecting. This position is ideal for candidates with an interest in financial analysis and trends facing arts organizations. Competitive candidates should have an attention to detail, research and analysis experience, and a strong working knowledge of Excel.

Research and Development

The Research and Development Intern will support the Director of Training, Research, and Development in an array of projects related to producing and evaluating the Institute’s programs. Interns gain experience researching macro-level trends in the field at large, summarizing program evaluation data, tracking participants’ success stories, and maintaining a library of content. The Intern will also support the Institute’s Diversity in the Arts Initiative, a series of high-level forums exploring the history and challenges faced by museums, dance companies, and theater companies serving African-American and Latino communities throughout the United States. This position is ideal for graduate level students with an interest in research and analysis, non-profit management, and evaluation.

“My internship at DeVos Institute of Arts Management provided me with priceless, valuable lessons that I otherwise would not have learned in the classroom. Interns are treated as the members of the team and given tasks that matter, allowing you to get real “hands-on” experience. Thank you very much for a wonderful and priceless semester, DeVos Institute!”

Adriel Tjokrosaputro

Music Business/Management Student

Berklee College of Music—Boston, MA

DeVos Institute Intern, Spring 2014

About the DeVos Institute of Arts Management

The DeVos Institute provides training, consultation, and implementation support for arts managers and their boards.

It operates on the premise that while much is spent to train artists, too little is spent to support the managers and boards who keep those artists at work.

At the same time, rapid changes in technology, demographics, government policy, and the economy have complicated the job of the manager and volunteer trustees. These challenges continue to accelerate.

Organizations that have mastered these trends are flourishing—even leveraging them to their advantage.

For those which have not, however, the sense that “something’s not quite right” can seem unshakable. For too many, these changes have led to less art, decreased visibility, diminished relevance—even financial collapse.

These challenges inform the Institute’s approach. Never has the need to balance best practices and new approaches been so urgent.

Institute leadership and consultants—all arts managers themselves—understand that, in today’s environment, there is no time or resource to waste. Therefore, Institute services are lean, direct, and practical.

Since its founding in 2001, the Institute has served over 1,000 institutions from over 80 countries. While environments, objectives, and disciplines vary, each of these clients share the desire to create, market, and sustain exemplary cultural programs.

As such, the Institute has designed its services to assist a wide range of institutions, from traditional performing and presenting organizations, museums and galleries, arts schools and libraries, to botanical gardens, glass-making studios, public art trusts, and non-profit cinemas, to name a few.

It offers support to individuals, organizations, and—in collaboration with foundations and governments—to communities of organizations throughout the world.

The DeVos Institute transferred its activities and offices from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to the University of Maryland in September 2014. The move enables the Institute to expand its global training and consulting programs, enhance its fellowships for North American and international arts managers within the context of a major educational institution, and create a Master’s program that leverages both University and Institute resources.

For more information about the DeVos Institute, please visit www.DeVosInstitute.umd.edu

DEVOS INSTITUTE PROGRAMS INCLUDE:

Global Training Programs

Capacity Building Programs

The Institute’s Capacity Building Programs provide in-depth training and consultation to a cohort of arts organizations in a given city or region. They combine in-person group training, web-based master classes, and one-on-one, on-site consultation with each participating organization.

Subjects are tailored to the needs of each cohort and include:

• Artistic Planning

• Programmatic and Institutional Marketing

• Fundraising

• Board Development

• Financial and Strategic Planning

• Technology Management

• Audience Development and Outreach

To date, Capacity Building Programs have been mounted in New York City, Miami, Orlando, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Chicago, and Portland. An international version of the program has been offered in Ireland, Croatia, England, and Vietnam.

Board Seminars

The Institute also hosts an annual, two-day Board Development Intensive in Washington, D.C., for board members and senior executives.

Topics include:

• Recruiting and managing board members

• Achieving fundraising success

• Maximizing the staff-board relationship

• Creating institutional image and impact

• Financial planning

• Developing and supporting effective marketing campaigns

• Hiring an executive director

Board Development Intensives are also offered in cities in partnership with local governments and foundations. These seminars serve up to 40 local organizations for a two-day discussion localized for the immediate environment.

Funding partners for Capacity Building Programs and Board Seminars have included the Ford Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Arts Council England, The Joyce Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, The Paul G. Allen Foundation, Bank of America, and ministries of culture in host countries.

Consulting Services

The Institute offers a range of consulting services tailored to the needs of each client. Recent representative clients include:

Alaska Native Heritage Center

ArtPrize, Grand Rapids

Ballet San Jose

City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program

DuSable Museum, Chicago

El Museo del Barrio, New York

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Harlem School of the Arts

Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey

Miami City Ballet

Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami

National Black Arts Festival, Atlanta

National YoungArts Foundation, Miami

Columbia Film Society/The Nickelodeon Theatre, Columbia

Park Avenue Armory

Pennsylvania Ballet

Penumbra Theatre, Minneapolis

Royal Opera House, Oman

Texas Ballet Theater

Strategic Planning

The Institute’s core service provides in-depth, comprehensive, implementable strategic plans. These plans assist organizations in crisis, those considering growth, and those facing changes to their environments.

Each plan includes:

• A thorough review of the organization’s mission;

• An environmental analysis that evaluates the relevant field and determines what is required for success, today and in the future;

• An internal analysis that determines how the organization compares, at present, to what is required for success, as defined by the environment;

• Detailed strategies that position the organization to overcome its weaknesses and exploit its strengths;

• An implementation plan that outlines tactics required to execute each strategy, assigning responsibility for each, and a deadline for their completion; and

• A financial plan that projects financial performance based on the strategies.

To augment the benefits of planning, the Institute provides implementation support to assist staff and board members as they begin to execute key strategies.

Private Intensives for Individual Organizations

The Institute offers short- and long-term training, planning, and evaluation intensives for board-staff teams focused on:

• Launching the strategic planning process

• Reviewing/updating a current strategic plan or organizational mission

• Establishing/reviewing board and staff roles and responsibilities

• Crisis management

• Department-specific training (in Fundraising and Marketing)

Organizational Evaluation

The Institute offers organizational audits in the following areas:

• Total organizational performance

• Board structure and performance

• Financial structure and performance

• Marketing operations

• Fundraising operations

Other Planning and Implementation Services

The Institute also offers “business unit” planning and implementation support in the following areas:

• Capital campaigns

• Endowments

• Programmatic and Institutional Marketing

• Pricing

• Planning, operating, and sustaining new cultural institutions

• Season and program design

Fellowships

The Institute offers two, three-year Fellowship programs: one for North American arts managers and a second for arts executives from abroad. Both are offered free-of-charge to participants, who are selected through a competitive application process. Participants attend a four-week Fellowship in residence at the University of Maryland each spring for three consecutive years.

Fellowships include:

• Intensive academic training in non-profit management, finance, planning, fundraising, evaluation, and marketing;

• Hands-on work rotations in a performing or visual arts institution;

• Intensive collaborative group work; and

• Ongoing personalized mentoring, both during and between the month-long residencies.

Arts Management Texts

Institute publications offer practical guidance on a range of arts management subjects.

• The Cycle: A Practical Approach to Managing

Arts Organizations, by Michael M. Kaiser with

Brett E. Egan. This volume describes the Institute’s approach to managing sustainable arts organizations through a series of practical examples, illustrations, evaluation templates, and planning tools. (English.

Short-form versions are available in English, Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian,

Spanish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.)

• The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations, by Michael M. Kaiser. This distillation of best practices learned through Kaiser’s nearly three decades of work with troubled cultural organizations provides a practical framework for any manager or board member facing—or planning to avoid—a turnaround. (English)

• Leading Roles: 50 Questions Every Arts Board Should Ask by Michael M. Kaiser. A need-to-know primer in board governance for arts trustees worldwide. (English)

• Strategic Planning in the Arts: A Practical Guide, by Michael M. Kaiser. A step-by-step guide to the Institute’s strategic planning process. (English, Arabic, Czech, and Spanish.)