Good morning.
My name is Juliet.
I'm a senior here at Mount Holyoke.
And I study psychology and anthropology.
And today I'm very excited to be talking to you
about arts administration and my summer at New York City Ballet.
So today I'm going to be talking to you about some
of the background of the company,
how I got this position, sort of the ins and outs of living
in New York City.
Some of the major projects I worked on,
as well as take a look at [INAUDIBLE]
OK, so a brief history of New York City Ballet.
So up here on the left is Mr. George Balanchine.
He was a very well-established dancer and choreographer.
And he and Lincoln Kirstein, here on the bottom,
sort of got together.
And they were thinking, we need to create
a really distinctive American style of ballet technique.
Because there were companies all over the world.
They had Russian ballet, and French,
Italian, English, and so many others.
And they said, we really need something
that is truly American.
And so they got together, and Balanchine came up with what is
known today as the Balanchine technique,
as well as the school of American ballet [INAUDIBLE] And
they trained dancers to be [INAUDIBLE] [? adapt to ?]
[? this style. ?]
And Jerome Robbins was also [INAUDIBLE]
He is a very well known choreographer, who
did pieces for New York City Ballet,
as well as West Side Story, and many other works.
And this is them today.
It's bold, it's striking.
And it is distinctively American [? in tone. ?]
So this was my office, [INAUDIBLE] center.
This is the Metropolitan Opera House.
And each of these buildings together
comprise the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
It's the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
And so a little bit about how I got this job.
So I really tapped into my networking resources.
So last summer I worked for the Saratoga Performing Arts Center
up in Saratoga Springs.
And this is the summer home for New York City
Ballet, [INAUDIBLE] Orchestra, and some other companies.
And I was kind of going around doing my internship duties,
and I was setting up this [? iron ?] testing for an event
that we were having.
I was actually working with a representative
from New York City Ballet [? sitting ?] on this event.
And I said, OK, this is my chance.
I'm going to talk to her, I'm going
to get a little bit of information
about what she does.
And tell her about myself.
I had that one-minute elevator speech in mind.
And in that time I was able to ask her about her job.
She worked in education, which I'm really interested in.
And I was able to get her information.
And a couple months later, I said,
I'm going to go ahead and do this.
I reached out to her, I sent email.
At first, no response.
But I wasn't frustrated.
I sent my feelers out elsewhere, and I was
applying for other companies.
And then I did hear back.
And she said I would be happy to forward
some of your information.
And I was able to go through the interview process, which
was a two-day process.
And actually got the job.
And I was super grateful.
And so some of the major projects
I worked on-- when I landed, they were diving right
into the Playbill Project.
Which is essentially, that booklet
that you get when you go to any performance.
And it has the artists' names.
It has advertisers.
It has all that kind of information.
They also have pages of contributors.
So the first project that they had me do
was work on updating and revising the patron listings
this upcoming season.
So that required me to use this software
called Tessitura, which New York City Ballet, Metropolitan
Opera, these companies use to manage their constituents,
and the relations with the constituents,
and their contributions [? too. ?]
So yeah, I learned how to use the software.
It was very number-crunchy.
It was very analytical.
I was just spreadsheets on spreadsheets,
very, very detailed work.
And it was invigorating, also, because this
is a collaborative venture for the entire department
of development.
I should say I worked in membership and development.
So many members of the development department
were working on this.
And [? that was ?] [? one duty ?] for me to meet
with and kind of [? connect with other people. ?]
But then I went to my supervisor, and I said,
you mentioned appeals earlier.
I would love to be doing more writing and creative work.
And she said absolutely.
So we got to work on doing an appeal, where I was devising
interview questions, and reaching out directly
to a company choreographer.
And I interviewed him, and this was
to compose the language for an appeal.
So an appeal is a letter that's sent out
to new and exsiting donors to urge
them [INAUDIBLE] contribute the company,
and kind pledge their ongoing support.
So these letters take on many different forms.
And this one was focused [? around jewels, ?]
which was the opening performance for the season,
[INAUDIBLE]
So I did a lot of online research.
I did this interview [INAUDIBLE] format.
And I found that I absolutely loved, loved,
[? writing them. ?] Because I was communicating with
constituents in all different [? ways. ?] I was answering
the phone calls.
I was managing ticket reservations for a young
patrons event with the [? US ?] [? Open. ?]
So I was communicating over email and phone.
And I realized that this was the way that most [INAUDIBLE]
skillfully, I was able to communicate with people.
And I felt like it was a very successful project.
I know that now I can bring this to other jobs in the future.
And I know that's [INAUDIBLE] so that
was a great thing to learn.
And then just a little bit about how
I sort of navigated the city.
Because New York City is not an easy place to live in.
It's extremely rewarding.
I was able to actually connect with some alums who
were very kindly able to take me into their home.
And of course, using my funds for transportation and food
and all those things [INAUDIBLE] city.
So just using your resources, using your alum connections
is all really important.
And then finally, I just want to go ahead and talk
about some takeaways.
So some things I really got out of this internship
was I realized how crucial your environment is, your work
space.
I mean, New York City Ballet, the department I was in
was so well [INAUDIBLE] and so supportive and so healthy.
And I think that's really crucial in determining where
you best fit in, and where you can find a job that really
sustains you in the long term.
So I found that to be really important.
And when I was doing that Playbill project
with Tessitura, that software, it was all very new to me.
And it's kind of a high [INAUDIBLE] situation.
That's sensitive information.
People want to be accurately represented
for the contributions they made to the company.
So I wanted to make sure that, obviously, I
was doing a good job.
There was no room for mistake in that case.
So I really needed to reach out and ask questions,
even if it was uncomfortable, and really make
sure I was doing a good job.
And also, this last point here, giving your
all even to small tasks that seem, maybe, mundane.
People will notice.
Your employers will notice, will supervisor will notice.
And really, just being present, and providing
substantive efforts [? to what you ?] need to do.
And one other thing that I wanted to talk about too,
that I actually did this here, was
space, sort of taking up space in the work place.
So I was completing my internship.
I requested an exit interview with my supervisor
and the director of my office.
And I said what could I do better in the future?
What can I bring to the table next time?
And he said everything you're doing is great.
But what I really say is don't doubt your place
in the workplace.
Don't doubt your place in the office.
And that really stuck with me.
Because I think that's really important as people
who identify as women in the workplace,
and all these kinds of-- these things we absorb,
it's really important to feel comfortable,
and to take up the appropriate amount of space [INAUDIBLE]
office.
So that was really important to me.
[APPLAUSE]