November 30, 2023, by Arts Placements

My Experience on Placement with the Being Human Festival

Being Human Festival Placement

By Jessica Webber

For 8 weeks during the autumn semester, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with the Being Human Festival as part of a placement with the Faculty of Arts here at the university.

About The Being Human Festival

The Being Human Festival celebrates humanities research by bringing it to the public through fun and engaging free events. These events covered a large range of topics and included workshops, performances and talks (many of which I got to attend!).

I was really drawn to this placement because I wanted an opportunity to see how my English degree could be applied practically in the world of work. I also believe that the work the festival is doing to create accessible spaces for the public to learn, outside of academic settings, is really important.

Working the Events

Each placement student on the team got to pick which events they wanted to work on based on their interests. While I enjoyed all my events, my favourite event that I worked on was an art and theology-inspired workshop called Picasso and Faith.

For this workshop, an academic from the university taught us about the spiritual imagery seen in Picasso’s paintings. Then a local artist led us in creating our own art inspired by what we had learnt. Even though I attended the workshop ‘on the clock’, I still felt like I could get stuck in with the activities after I had helped with setting up. I also really enjoyed chatting with the academics, the public and the other staff members. I loved learning from them throughout the evening and generally having a lot of fun (and getting paid to do it!). It felt extremely rewarding having worked on something beforehand- behind the scenes in the admin and promotion- and then getting to see how it all comes together on the day. I feel I have much more of an understanding of how these events come together from a business perspective whilst also having enjoyed them as a member of the community.

Don’t Stress!

I found entering my final year of university and starting to think about the next steps quite stressful as I had no idea what I wanted to do. I honestly can say that this placement has helped ease my mind a lot. Not only was I fortunate enough to get a bit more financial security for the term, as it was a paid placement, but I feel like I have a much better understanding of where my degree can take me. I have enjoyed meeting new people, seeing more of the city and widening my university experience beyond campus and classes. I have become more confident about working with a team within a professional environment and have more of an idea of where to take my career next year (with a stronger CV to help me). I will definitely be attending the festival next year and I am grateful to have had the chance to work with them.

 

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