Arts Ambassador Hannah reflects on her time in the role, and how it has provided her with many opportunities to get behind the scenes in the creative industries, and also where she sees herself in the future.
Being an Arts Ambassador for the past 6 months has been a very interesting experience, which I will definitely take with me throughout my life.
The most exciting opportunity I got to take part in was the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding which took place last autumn, which signified an agreement between the Arts Council and the University of Southampton. I got to meet amazing creatives, and interesting people throughout the creative industries in Southampton and beyond. From the event I got to meet with Vice-Chancellor of the University at the time, Sir Christopher Snowden, and work with him using my role as an Arts Ambassador, to make changes at Winchester School of Art.
As part of my role, I was in charge of focusing on Turner Sims. With this role, I put out social media to promote events which were happening and attended some myself, including my first Jazz performance with Buck and Billie, where I also got to interview Radio 4’s Alyn Shipton, and the spring preview where I got to see amazing folk singer Olivia Chaney.
Being given an insight behind the scenes of a creative job was very fascinating. Looking back, I can see that I was given an opportunity that many students looking to getting into the field would not get the chance to, including seeing the ins and outs of how marketing and social media has a massive role to play in promoting the arts, and since starting, have watched the popularity of Arts at University of Southampton grow.
Looking forward, I will soon be finishing my degree in Illustration. It is a nerve-wracking but also an exciting time for me as I will be moving to Manchester to start my PGCE in Art and Design in order to become an Art teacher, and the skills in teamwork especially that this has role provided me with will be very beneficial in my future job.
I am grateful for the opportunity that this role gave and glad that I made some great friends in the fellow ambassadors along the way. I hope that my contribution to the arts has encouraged more people to explore the creative industries and push themselves to check out more events which are happening in the city and beyond.
Arts Ambassadors is a paid opportunity, supported by the Careers and Employability Service’s Excel Southampton Internship programme, University of Southampton
