Oh how time flies...

Hello internet friends,

It is that time of the semester to wrap up my blogs for PR Internship. My past 20 days with Artrage has been fantastic and it has been really great to gain some real life industry experience. I have found that I have learnt a lot about myself and my capabilities through this journey. I am also excited to say that I will be extending my placement till the FRINGE WORLD Festival till February, to help with the PR and marketing of the event. It is going to awesome and I am super thrilled to be allowed to work with the team at Artrage.

My time with Artrage has been phenomenal and if there were a few things to take from my experience so far, these would it.

If in doubt, ask. A lot of communication is sent through emails and there have been a few times where I have no idea what messages people are trying to convey. At the beginning I just left it and just did what I thought was need, but what I found was I usually was off track. So now I have learnt, if you are in doubt, don’t hesitate to ask. Everyone wants you to do your best and everyone is willing to help you all you need to do is ask.

When under time constraints remember that things might not go straight to plan. There will always be things out of your control and there will always be things you forget to factor in i.e. waiting for responses. I found that there is only so many times to remind people to do something especially for outsourced services. Things like printing running late or permits not finalised or approved yet, these will impact your own goals so sometimes when there is nothing you can do you just have to work around it or just wait and watch the grass grow for now.

Lastly remembering to thank and help people, I find that being thanked or thanking people goes a long way. Everyone is under stress and is busy but it is always nice to be appreciated for the work you have done. Many of my colleagues work really hard and spent countless hours on a job, so it’s always appreciated to help each other either on a job or make someone’s morning coffee or even making lunch for another. Helping each other and respecting each goes a long way which is why I think Artrage is such a great collective and strong bonded workplace.

Overall it has been an interesting and fantastic learning journey for me at Artrage, I hope extending my placement brings me some more awesome experiences and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead! I am ready to strap on my helmet and take on the coming challenges!

Thanks internet friends, and good luck in all your future endeavors J

YOU have BRAINS in Your Head

 YOU have FEET in Your Shoes 

YOU can STEER YOURSELF in 

ANY DIRECTION YOU CHOOSE

Nikki Sain

Artrage Update: Bunk says hi, life members galore, reports and promotions

Welcome Internet best friends!

It has been a busy and exciting few weeks at Artrage with Rooftop Movies starting in 2 weeks and the promotion for FRINGEWORLD less than a month away. 

Recently I have been locating the life members of Artrage and their contact details for event invites and report distributions. It is a lot of research but what I have found really helpful is having contacts. Because Perth is so isolated I have found the arts community to be quite close knit. When I am searching for a person’s contacts I have been using various channels including googling emails or phone numbers, but I found linkedin to be helpful too. I have also been calling people who have previously been associated with them. Everyone is really friendly and helpful and if they don’t know the exact contact details, many have been kind enough to refer me to another person that would know. I was really surprised that many are more than happy to help an intern out with updating databases.

With Artrage itself the office has grown with two new members arriving last week, they are all so nice and it is lovely to see everyone in the office accommodating the newbies so well. Bunk is still lazing around chilling like a villain in the office.

Bunky loves his naps

Rooftop Movies opens next week, with the launch on the 1st of November celebrate the return for a 2013/14 summer season. The event looks to be a casual event with a few guests with a showing of David Lynch's Wild at Heart. I am so excited for Rooftop Movies, and I am already noting which movies to go and watch, have you?

FRINGEWORLD 2013 Report has been printed and I have been finding the contact details for life members so we can send them copies. In the report it was conducted from research and post surveys and is filled with information from this year’s event. It is an interesting read with things like the benefits it brought to Perth and the influence it has. If you are keen to read it you can find it here. There was a lot of envelop sticking, paper cuts and boxes of reports but I pushed through. I really enjoyed the document and I really liked how FRINGE is making it available to the public. I think it does help engage the community more as they can understand the reasoning for Fringe and why it is relevant for the Perth community.

Anyways, thanks internet friends,
Speak soon!

Nikki Sain

It's the little things in life that makes this intern happy!

Hi Internet friends,

Hope all is well and that you are finding your internships enjoyable and rewarding. It has been nearly 2 months at Artrage and as annoying and generic this may sound, the experience has been amazing. When I first started my main job was research and database content, pretty basic really. I have researched information such as guerrilla marketing, promotional material ideas for sponsorship deals, businesses that have social clubs and also popular arts events. These weren’t just skim reading and listing, I then had to think how, particularly with FRINGE, could incorporate these ideas and concepts.
Also with a database of now over 2000 contacts, my job is constantly updating the Artrage database and thinking of people that would be interested and how Artrage may use them in the near future. This included lecturers, social clubs, local business, politicians, arts industry contacts, life members you name it and I probably wrote it. I’m literally always ‘googling’ and phoning to the ends of the Earth for contact details but I must say I am pretty chuffed with my accomplishment. However I do find that more organisations are getting their interns to do their database work, is that what you guys are doing? Whats your take on it?

Few weeks ago I got to look at over 500 photos from the FRINGE On-The- Road tour and compile a list of the photos I thought would be good for media publications. The photos were amazing and honestly suits the brand concept so well. It is a shame I can’t show you guys but look out for any print media in the future as the photos for Fringe publications are so creative and inspiring.

I have also been working on the Bakery’s e-newz, a weekly online newsletter of the week 'sevents. Even though the newsletter is like less than 500 words, I still get excited when I receive it in my personal email.  Yes it’s the little things in life that makes me happy!

Oh before I forget Rooftop Movies starts soon YAY! The official launch is 1^st November, which I am pretty excited to attend as it is looking to be a great event. You may already know but if you don’t the Rooftop Movies program came out last week. (Check it out ASAP).  I collected all the information content for the program so I was so excited when it was finally printed.  Even though it was just a little job it still amazed for me. Fingers crossed nobody spots any grammatical errors! I am currently working on the second and third set programs, so if you have any suggestions for movies the ‘Choose Day Tuesdays’ ideas opens soon, so go like rooftop movies on facebook… (hint hint).

Anywhoooooooo that is basically the gist of my job, my intern started very chilled and laid back however I may have spoken too soon as I am starting to see a few grey hairs of stress from work colleagues. As the preparation for FRINGE gets hectic and performers are finalised, the office is getting larger. In the last few week there have been new additions to the team and it looks to increase in the next few weeks as we see last year’s members coming back for another go at the infamous FRINGEWORLD.

Cheers guys and ill speak to you soon!

Nikki Sain

Earth without ART is just EH!

Welcome internet friends and welcome to my first blog post.

I am a Bently Curtin Student studying Public Relations and Marketing. I’m currently doing my internship at Artrage, a dynamic, cultural arts and entertainment organisation whose vision is to contribute to the vitality of Perth’s entertainment scene.

Have you ever watched a thrilling movie under the stars, overlooking the city skyline? When was the last time you watched a live band on centre stage? Did you ever notice the mermaids, burlesque dancers or the circus acrobatics when they hit Perth City this year? Fear not if you missed out then be prepared because the summer fun season is about to begin again.

Artrage is responsible for the popular Rooftop Movies in the heart of Northbridge and they also manage The Bakery, a vibrant live music scene. However Artrage’s pride and joy is the world's leading boutique fringe festivals, FRINGE WORLD Festival. They are also just finishing up with the regional tour of their very own Artrage Spiegeltent with FRINGE On-The- Road. Check out this year's FRINGE HIGHLIGHTS!

On the 26th of August I had my first day and I couldn’t find the front door because the whole building was covered in graffiti. A little hint: Try to look for a bell first before you aimlessly knock on the door for ages and look like a crazy obsessive person like I did. However inside the office was pretty sweet, they had just finished painting the office and I then found out the office room I was in had AstroTurf flooring! It is soooo unbelievably comfy with no shoes on. We had a meeting in the afternoon with an outside media marketer on the astroturf and we had told the client ‘to picture us having a picnic,’ clearly Artrage knows how to spice things up.

I later met the Director of Artrage and Fringe Festival, the Program managers, Business managers before being jumped on by BUNK, the beautiful green and blue eyed staffy dog (I’m bad with dogs so I’ll let you know what he really is later). BUNK is the office dog that hangs around and likes to chill with you while you work. So after meeting everyone I got a tour of the whole office and the one thing I realised was the Artrage team is quite small (10-15 people) and the office space is quite small which didn’t make sense because I swear the building is quite massive. I then found out the back part of the building is a warehouse where many FRINGE props and the bakery set things were held. It was massively full however my eye did catch the ever popular GIANT DISCO BALL hanging in the back, yearning to come out this summer (fingers crossed).

One think that I did find interesting (apart from the the quirkiness of the office) was how clear their corporate culture was implemented within their office. The one thing I had to do in my application was address what Artrage's vision and culture was. Writing about a company's culture is one thing (done in many assignments) but actually seeing it being implemented is another. Whether through everyone's quirky dress style, having arty wall art or having a pinball machine in the meeting room or even how most of the team go boxing together after a long's day work, the strong sense of Artrage's culture really impressed me.

Personally I had never thought to go into the arts industry but I have always had a fond interest in the arts and culture. I just never knew how I would get into that industry but now knowing how interesting and fast paced working in the arts industry is, it really makes me intrigued to work in the arts sector especially with Perth’s rapidly increasing entertainment scene.

Cheers Internet friends and look forward to my next post!

Nikki Sain