Hello everyone!

It is week 5! I am now halfway through the fellowship, and I cannot believe it!

This week, I had the opportunity to continue to work on the project I started last week in regards to writing up performance descriptions and biographies for the performance group that has struggled to bring in MAC patrons to see their shows. In order for me to be able to write these performance descriptions and biographies, I have had to do some research on both Carnatic Music and Bharatanatyam dance, both Southern Indian art-forms. I enjoyed the opportunity to get to learn more about the styles of music and dance and also to learn more about the performers themselves, who in most cases have had exceptional careers and who have come from rich music traditions. This project has helped me grow my skills in writing about and for the arts, which I can see being an important skill moving forward.

Another project I worked on this week was connected to the MAC’s volunteers. All new or returning volunteers at the MAC have to fill out an interest form. My job was to take these recently filled out interest forms, scan them, and then input the personal information and volunteering related information into an excel sheet. Volunteers are important for any organization and their overall operations, so I was happy to contribute and to learn a little more about the MAC’s volunteer process.

This week, I also got to sit in on another meeting with the Executive Director and Development Coordinator. During this meeting, we had a discussion surrounding the who, what, when, etc. of this new fiscal year’s member events. We also had a discussion surrounding last years grant budget and started working on a new list of corporations and foundations to reach out to for financial support. Within this, I have been asked to do some research on the corporations and foundations we chose, and their available grants, and to collect all this information on an excel sheet to aid our grant application process. I have found this research to be very interesting because my knowledge of corporation and foundation giving is minimal, but as I have seen, these gifts can be a significant resource. We also talked about starting to work on another Final Report for a grant that we were given last fiscal year, and we created a new list of top donors, connected to our organization, that we want to reach out too and ask for bigger donations. Overall, we had a very productive meeting, and I loved getting a chance to expand my knowledge surrounding development within a nonprofit.

Towards the middle to end of the week, I was able to do some marketing focused work. Our Director of Marketing and Communications asked me, and the MAC’s Event Coordinator, to put some information together about the MAC for an upcoming performance review on Columbus and Central Ohio arts organizations to be done through CityScene. For this performance review, I have once again been able to exercise my skill in writing for and about the arts, and specifically for this project, exercising my ability to sort through and highlight pertinent information. Earlier on in the fellowship, I was asked to go around the MAC and find old logos and make a list of where these old logos were located so that we could update them. This week, I walked through the building with the Director of Marketing and Communications to finalize this list and got the process started on updating these logos and replacing them throughout the building. The MAC will be attending the Columbus Book Festival the weekend of July 12 and 13, and will be hosting a booth. So, we both also made a list of all the things that we would need in order to stock the marketing cart to host the booth, and we physically started collecting and getting materials ready. This will be the third festival I have done this summer with the MAC. The first was the Columbus Arts Festival, then the Worthington Arts Festival, and now the Columbus Book Festival. I am really happy that these festivals have been a part of my fellow experience, for not only have they exposed me to the festival scene in Columbus, but they have also helped me grow when it comes to marketing and outreach. I look forward to hosting our booth and selling some of our artist’s art and our MAC merchandise at the festival!

Happy 4th!!

Graci