Internship with the Public Affairs Office, Illinois Arts Council

This paper reports on anticipated and actual experiences of an internship with the Public Affairs Office of the Illinois Arts Council. The internship, accompanied by this paper, was chosen in lieu of the traditional thesis to culminate the Master of Arts in Related Arts degree. In addition to the description, the paper includes a proposal for the internship, a daily log of internship activities, an appendix of the writings accomplished during the internship, and recommendations. The paper is 70 pages in length. Being the first Related Arts graduate student to serve such an internship, it was inevitable that certain discrepancies would develop between the proposal and the internship. The most predominant discrepancy was the work required at the internship site. Projects that had been agreed upon prior to the internship were never fully realized during the 120+ hours. The internship basically fulfilled the immediate needs and deadlines of the Illinois Arts Council rather than the intern. The paper expands on this discrepancy and makes recommendations for improvement. In addition to describing the actual internship, the paper includes possible projects that could have been achieved for a more challenging internship. The Illinois Arts Council has the potential for providing a worthwhile internship experience in public relations for the arts