Openings: Artist's Intern / Virtual Studio and Support Assistant

Note: I have had some inquiries about these openings and based on those have put together a more comprehensive description of what I'm seeking as well as what I'm offering.

OPENINGS FOR:
Artist's Virtual Studio and Support Assistants - Susan Reynolds Studio (Loudoun County VA)
Date Posted: November 26, 2005

Susan Reynolds Studio is seeking qualified Artist's Interns/Assistants to perform administrative, general support and marketing functions. 

There are several internship positions available - all are in the Virtual World rather than In-Studio, and are open to those looking for experience and/or a career in Art or entrepreneurship. 

The best intern is not always the person with the most experience. Some experience is helpful, but dependability, initiative, attention to detail, and the ability to learn independently is paramount.

BENEFITS   

• You will be credited on the websites, have suitable work shown on the website and blogs, and receive letters of recommendation and job references, depending on your participation.
• You will gain contacts in the art and online e-buisiness worlds
• You will add a solid line to your resume, give you exposure and experience.
• Successful completion of any artist internship program will result in a body of work for sale or exhibit.
• The more time a candidate can devote to the support work of the studio the more they will free the artist to work with them on creating their own work and marketing it.
• For a productive and serious candidate this will include display of their work and setting up a blog adjacent to and connected to the Case Notes from the Artsy Asylum and the Museum of Paper Arts blogs after a three to five month period.
• You will gain access to valuable information and resources. I will welcome your ideas about formats, function, accessability, services and goals.
• You will add to your knowledge about marketing art, entrepreneurship and the art and blog communities.

OVERVIEW

This is an unpaid position which will occupy you for an approximate minimum of seven hours and up to ten to twelve hours per week, depending on the candidate's availability, desire to make more rapid progress, and areas and projects they are working with.

The position is excellent for someone interested in a career in the art business, entrepreneurship, cottage industry, e-commerce, or marketing and/or public relations. . . .

Ideally, a good candidate would already enjoy art and would be a dedicated paper arts magazine reader or active in the arts and fine crafts, attending shows by local artists as well as arts websites and exhibits on-line.

The internship is specifically designed to provide hands-on experience with all elements of management and operation, distribution, promotion, publicity and support functions in addition to other projects.

It does not matter what work you are doing now; however e-communications experience or education such as marketing and public relations are a helpful or work on a Web site or blog, emailing multiple recipients, moderating forums, word processing, writing, copy editing, visual design, publicity, promotion, data entry, and/or database management.

All applicants must possess either general knowledge or willingness to learn how to operate in a virtual office environment.

Candidates must be computer literate, have dependable access to the Internet and some familiarity with Yahoo or other e-Groups. Understanding of how to send BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) email. Attention to grammar, typos and quality control.

Individuals must be self-directed, responsible, have the ability to follow through on projects without supervision, and take pride in quality control.

Ability to upload and download image and document files on-line is required.

A working knowledge of digital images (scanning, camera, resizing etc) using JASC Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop or other graphic program is needed. Familiarity with Adobe Acrobat, MSWord and Excel preferred although concurrent education in one or more of these areas is OK as well.

GUIDELINES for all STAFF      

• You will sign a confidentiality and non-compete agreement, which protects our clients, readers, mailing list, intellectual property and copyrighted content.
• You will commit to a six-month to one year period of participation.
• When you move on to other endeavors, you will explain your job to your replacement and preserve a sense of  continuity.
• You will actively support other staff members, asking for assistance when you need it, offering it when you are able.
• You will send a brief weekly report to the Director.
• You will honor the privacy, intellectual property rights and copyrights of the artist and be able to explain copyright and the concept of Registered Use License to others.
• You will not copy, sell, adapt, modify or distribute the subscriber mailing list, client list or any studio artwork, design,plans or other information.
• If you have password access to the site, you will never reveal the password to anyone for any reason.
• You will use only the shared password g-mail account that is set up for you and will sign all job-related email with your name, your title, Susan Reynolds Artsy Asylum Studio, and the URL

OPPORTUNITIES:

Although this list is not exhaustive, interns can expect to work in a number of these areas. Other than the first seven items you will not be asked to do ALL or you'll be burned out in two weeks.

All interns will be expected to:

1. Keep a written record of whatever you are working on and what you're doing in the process,  submitting a copy to the studio on Friday or no later than Saturday of each week
2. Stay up to date on what's happening in the studio and blogs so that you can chat about some part of your experience at least twice every week in yahoo groups, Google groups, bulletin boards and on list-serves (most often what you will be doing in these arenas is guerrilla marketing, but also you can maker offers of a commercial nature when allowed) If you have not read Guerrilla Marketing or Guerrilla Marketing online now's the time to order - links below.
3. Proofread anything and everything for spelling, word usage and other errors (we're talking well beyond the "spell check" button)
4. Keep updated on current trends and the forward edge of what's happening in the paper arts via the web, groups, magazines, etc. You don't have to subscribe. Spend two hours in Borders Cafe once a month and look at everything you can get through, making notes for future reference or planning.
5. Make about twenty contacts per month, which means email information about the Studio's blogs, designs, events and info about the artist in general to suitable online groups, media, zines, newsletters, article publishers, other blogs, etc. Submit a monthly report with updated list of contacts, date the message was sent, what you let them know about and any responses.  If you have extended correspondence let us know
6. Be prepared to chose a handfull of areas that you might be intrested in learning more about and working on (such as blogs, finding creative uses for designs, creating clip-art on CDs, podcasting, online classes, online exhibit venues, cafepress.com, lulu.com, e-zines, alternative exhibit opportunities, submitting art and/or articles to magazines/newsletters, websites, tracking customers, etc)
7. Learn and then practice the art of blog commenting in a manner that is appropriate and not considered "comment spam"
   Example:

• Don't: Susan Reynolds wrote a great blog on this www.mycomeoverhere.com/link   
• Do: I've seen something similar in what Susan Reynolds (insert appropriate link) does - do you know if your processes and materials are the same or are you familiar with hers? Do you have suggestions on where else I can get information on this?

Now those links I promised you. I read the first book twenty years ago and within two years I went from teaching 5 students in my basement to operating a teaching studio-gallery with multiple instructors teaching six days and three evenings each week.

These books are worth their weight in gold.

---

Interns will be expected to do some of these, depending on needs, abilities interests, experience, etc:

• Catalogue art pieces across multiple web portals

• Create a systematic catalogue of artistamps

• Build and maintain a history / list of where announcements were made, of what, and what date

• Distribute press releases

• Create articles for on-line article banks using our blogs as material

• Build on the current spreadsheet listing locations (yahoo groups, bulletin boards etc) where announcements can be made, including guidelines about days / repeat rules / when and under what other guidelines apply

• Update mailing list members and blog readers of special deals at Cafe-Press like the current free shipping - making sure to mention the artist's pieces are there and giving that link

• Work with design team members who will use Susan's collage clip and artistamp designs to prepare a set number of samples each month - sometimes on specific themes - in exchange for free use of the same, display of work and other studio perks

• Learn the craft of creating a blog entry with built-in "TrackBacks or automatic pings" to another more popular blog, thus getting your entry linked (and often an excerpt actually shown there) below the one you're referring to

• Research exhibit opportunities with galleries, magazines, arts organizations, corporations, small businesses

• Create "members only" content

• Work towards a long-term build of a more automated and functional mailing list

• Research products, techniques, equipment and artists, writing a post for the Museum of Paper Arts blog when appropriate

• Add artistamp sheets to our download portal & then announce in appropriate venues

• Organize and update the artist's publicity materials

• Review and assist with public art applications

• Research additional public, private, and corporate art exhibit, commission or sales opportunities

• Check links and forms throughout the blogs and website

• Email press releases and respond to Website Award-giving sites, local media, and magazines on-line

• Submit website and blogs to search engines. Return to the popular search engines and check on the sites' status monthly, and re-submit if necessary

• Assemble a list of search engines with links to their submission pages

• Write and get approved one or more short 'blurbs' about the site & each of the blogs to plug in as needed in forms

• Respond to simple inquires by referring to the site, or quoting from press release. Forward requests for art or interviews to Susan or your immediate supervisor promptly with background correspondence and contact information

Since you can most likely either do at least a couple of these or learn how to them, I encourage you to give your skills and goals some thought and apply if this is something that you feel may benefit both you and the artist.

TO APPLY:

To apply, please send the following to intern1129b@susanreynolds.com  

1. your name, real world address and phone number (I rarely phone, but I do verify you're who you claim to be)
2. a narrative about your experience, background, interests and goals for internship - don't worry about minimum or maximun word count - just tell me your story
3. the names and email addresses of two prople who you consider to know you well and who you feel can say something about your follow-through, abilities, etc
4. plus links to samples of your creative work if any (please do not send attached files as these emails will not be opened)