Pitch Up is fast-paced programme for college students to experience the artistic commissioning process. In just two weeks, participants learn how to respond to a brief, pitch their ideas and co-create an artwork for a public exhibition.

This year’s Project Assistant intern was Alex Clark-Michalek.

About me

I’m Alex, a Masters student at the University of Birmingham studying Art History and Curating. I’ve been working all year on my Masters, so it was great to join this project which is completely different to my day-to-day at uni! Usually, I’m researching medieval art and museum learning, but I heard about Severn Arts from a placement I did earlier this year and Pitch Up seemed like just the kind of project that I would love to work on.

Week 1

Jen, the project lead and Community Producer, had been planning Pitch Up for a while, so on my first day I got caught up on the plan for next couple of weeks. I also got to have a great chat with some of the senior leadership team, which was a great way to find out about the broader vision of Severn arts. There was also a cracking tour of the office where I got shown how to repair a violin bow - but that’s beside the point.

The next day Jen and I were off to do a presentation to the students involved in the project, so I put together a presentation with all the information they would need. The presentation was a success, although I did learn something about being prepared for any eventuality when working with tech in an unfamiliar setting… With all of that behind us, we got to go on a visit to Arch 27 where the final exhibition would be shown. This was also the first time I got to have a good chat with the students and get their initial ideas. Honestly, they seemed pretty daunted with the idea of filling the space, but that didn’t last long!

Week 2

It’s worth mentioning that the students only had 3 days to respond to the brief we set them and build a pitch for the judges on Friday. This meant we launched straight into workshops with them, and neither me nor them had time to be worried about anything! I had come up with a baseline evaluation to measure the change in the students over the course of the project, so I spent a lot of my time getting evaluations done, getting social media pics, and helping out with the workshops. The workshop facilitators were great at getting the students to generate ideas and think outside the box, and I had a great time listening in, getting involved and helping out where I could.

The second half of the week was all about taking the ideas that emerged in the first half and then developing them into pitches. The best thing here was that the students, most of whom had never pitched before, got to meet the judges and get advice and feedback before their final pitch. I think this took away some of the mystery behind pitching, showing them that the judges were on their side. In combination with that and the workshop on how to present confidently, there was a visible difference in the students by the end of the week!

I learnt some great things from the workshops, but alongside that I was helping form a plan for the day of final pitches, getting the judges criteria, the timetable for the day, and getting the rooms set up with everything needed for each group. The final day of that week was great fun for me, as the students were doing their final pitches in the Hive it was my job to get everyone in the right place at the right time. It was a fun day of running around and the excitement of seeing who had won first place!

 

Week 3

The final week was a whirlwind of art being made in every corner of the college. For me, this meant sourcing materials for the students and getting everything arranged for the final exhibition. This was the most hands-on part of my time with Severn Arts, working directly with the students to form plans and identify problems before they happened. But that was what made it so exciting, I had real responsibility and the chance to get stuck in. Some of the highlights were working with a local printing shop to get A1 prints turned around same day and figuring out how to get the exhibition refreshments sorted.

After a hectic couple of days for both me and the students, we finally got to put up the exhibition. I oversaw the exhibition space and helped the students get their artworks hung, with only one mishap of a broken frame which we managed to get fixed in record time. It was incredible seeing the artworks on display after such a short journey from conception to exhibition, you could even see how impressed the students were with themselves.

As the exhibition opened I got the chance to talk to each student about their experience and record more evaluation data. Having been so involved in the project it was a great chance to see what a positive impact the students reported and how happy they were to share their thoughts on what could be improved going forward.

Week 4

My last day was spent putting together everything that I’d learnt. I wrote up an evaluation report and using Excel, my guilty pleasure, I visualized the data from the evaluation questions I’d asked the students. It was a great way to round out my experience as an intern by evaluating the impact of the project and getting the chance to say goodbye to everyone in the office.

 

Unexpected lessons

·       You can’t ever be fully prepared for this kind of project and that is what makes it so exciting. If you find the right people to facilitate it, you can trust that the result will be successful. 

·       Make eye contact even if it is uncomfortable, it will help you form connections and confidence faster than anything else.

·       If you want people to break out of their comfort zone then you need to do it first: be the person to break the ice, have the most energy, speak loudest. If you start there then others will come and join you.

Favourite moments

·       Watching each group go into their final pitch with real confidence, repeating to each other the advise that they’d be given so far. Their transformation from day one, where some of them had never even spoken to each other before, to now was incredible to watch. The tools we had given them had actually made a difference and were being used.

·       Talking to the college staff who were even more excited about the project than we were and hearing about how useful it would be for the students. It felt as though the planning and work would actually be useful, pitch up would actually provide new experiences that were super relevant to this group going forward.

Tips for the next Pitch up Project Assistant

·       Take notes of what you’ve been up to and what you’ve learnt along the way – useful for your CV and understanding your impact in evaluation.

·       Have a good chat with people, don’t be afraid to make eye contact and ask people’s names.

·       Write things down! It just means you’ll know what you’re going to next and won’t forget important things, even if they’re small.

·       Don’t be afraid to ask probing questions, if you think it will bring more out of the students.

·       Get involved in the workshops, I learnt so much from the facilitators that I will take with me.