Allison Kelly is a second year BFA Studio Art major from Dallas, Texas. While pursuing her degree, Kelly has served as the Marketing Manager for The Mall, a local store and platform for queer, womxn, non-binary, POC artists. This past month, Kelly took on a new role as a Digital Marketing Intern for the internationally known Fusebox Festival right here in Austin.
"As one of our awesome 2019 Digital Marketing Interns, Allison made creative use of Instagram to communicate the unique, live experiences at our festival to our audiences in Austin and around the world," said Fusebox curator Anna Gallagher-Ross. "We're so grateful to have had her as part of the team this year!"
How did you find the Fusebox position?
I originally found the Fusebox opportunity through the Museum of Human Achievement (MOHA). Thanks to Zac Traeger who runs MOHA, I was introduced to Anna Gallagher-Ross who is a curator at Fusebox.
What skills did you need for this internship and what are you leaving with?
My skills going into this involved my prior social media knowledge of promoting products and events that I've done for The Mall. After the Fusebox internship, I have a better grasp about promoting events rather than products, and how time-specific some promotion has to be.
What did the internship entail?
I was hired as their Digital Marketing Intern to go to as many performances as I could and document them via Instagram. In the process, I was able to experience professional performance artists in a setting that wasn't a studio or an academic environment, which allowed me to think about my own work outside my academic career at UT.
One of the most memorable events I attended was Jaamil Olawale Kosoko's Séancers. It was a performance that I keep thinking back on, not only because of how beautiful the entire performance was, but because Jaamil touched on ideas of death and mortality in a way that motivates me to keep at the practice of performance work.
Lastly, every night Fusebox hosted events at their Hub. The environment of the Hub was truly amazing, because this is where performers, attendees of the festival, and those staffing the fest came together in one place. Every day ended with a party with the artists and everyone else enjoying each others’ company. It made me see how a community is created and what it means to celebrate everyone’s contributions to that community.
How do you see your internship playing into the work that you do either as an artist or a student?
The Fusebox internship, and my current internship at MOHA plays into my own work in such a beneficial way. These experiences allow me to understand the art of promotion and social media strategies that are crucial when promoting my work, event, or anything else for that matter. I leave these internships a better multitasker with the ability to understand the power social media. Cliché as it may sound, I know that social media is one of the most effective promotion strategies we have at our disposal as artists; it’s so important to understand how to use it in order to develop a relationship with an audience for my work.