July 11, 2014, by Beth Dawson

Claudia kick-starts her career in the marketing world at Lakeside!

By Claudia Ferlisi, BA English Studies (2012), MA Art History (2013), Arts Marketing Intern at Lakeside Arts Centre

My arts marketing internship has been my first real opportunity to progress my career since leaving The University of Nottingham. It’s great that the university is still supporting me on the next step of my journey and that I’m able to give something back to them by becoming part of the team. 

Joining the Lakeside Arts Centre family

When I began my arts marketing internship, I was immediately introduced to a busy network of people that not only included those within Lakeside, but others from arts venues all over Nottingham. I was told about the projects Lakeside was currently undertaking, including large events such as the Nottingham European Arts and Theatre Festival 2014, which Lakeside was a partner of, and the annual Wheee! Children’s Festival.

During this introductory period, I also learned about the individual needs of each part of the Lakeside family, as a different approach to marketing is required for each venue. I was very excited about having the chance to explore marketing for a whole range of arts, including manuscripts and special collections, the recital hall, theatre, dance, visual arts and The University of Nottingham Museum’s collection.

The day-to-day of my internship

I keep Lakeside’s social media up to date, adding new events and responding to queries. I also write a lot of mail-outs for shows and concerts that are sent out to interested people. I really like this part of my job, as I have a creative input in the form of writing a lot of material for a vast range of shows. I’ve promoted contemporary dance events to fans of modern dance and performance art. I’ve also written about children’s shows, which required an entirely different register aimed at families with children of all ages.

I also make sure that all of the posters and flyers around Lakeside are up to date. This occasionally means using my own design skills to create promotional materials, that I received Photoshop training for, and communicating our needs to designers, who produce new materials.

It is important that other venues also have our information, so we maintain a tight network, ensuring a steady distribution of our promotional materials to places such as Nottingham Contemporary and the Nottingham Tourism Centre. In return we advertise their events.

Additionally, we maintain a presence in the local media. I work on this by organising interviews with radio hosts for upcoming shows, sending out press releases to local papers and inviting reviewers to shows. We track our presence in the media by keeping press clippings of all the publications we’re featured in.

Coming to the end of my internship

When my internship comes to an end in a few months’ time, I know I will be more confident to applying for jobs in the marketing sector. Before the internship, I knew I had the ability and drive to do well in a marketing position, but I lacked experience and felt unable to prove myself to others. I now have a wide range of new knowledge under my belt and can provide evidence for my capability and reliability in this type of role. There is still a lot for me to learn, which I look forward to, and I can’t wait to implement my own ideas and push my creativity further.

If Claudia’s experience has inspired you to look into marketing careers, find out more about the sector on our advertising, marketing and PR webpages. Also, applications for the Lakeside Arts Centre Arts Marketing Internship are now open. Applications close 20 July. 

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