This report documents a one semester internship with the Arts Council of New Orleans. Through a detailed description of specific projects completed, the intern shares information regarding challenges and observations. Specifically, observations deal with management structure and office efficiency. The report concludes with recommendations for improvement in these areas.

From February 23 through May 10, 2005, I am an intern at the Arts Council of New Orleans in the Department of the Fresh Art Festival. The internship was approved by my Graduate Committee and confirmed by the Arts Administration Department at UNO. It fulfills the requirements for the degree of Master of the Arts in the Arts Administration Program at UNO. My Graduate Committee is composed of one Major Professor and two committee members. The Major Professor is A. Lawrence Jenkens, Jr., who is a professor in the Fine Art Department at UNO. The other two committee members are Donald Kaye Marshall, who teaches in the Department of Arts Administration at UNO and Elizabeth Williams, who teaches in the Department of Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism at UNO as well. My internship mainly focuses on the Fresh Art Festival; therefore, the Coordinator of the Festival, Barbara Workman, is my on-site supervisor. However, I only get one hour of work to do every day due to the fact that my time there is not the busiest time for the Festival. But with Ms. Workman's consent, I could read all the files about the Festival and got a chance to review and study the Festi val. I also got a chance to assist one of the Arts Business Incubator's tenants, CubaNola Collective, with its lecture events. Under the special condition of my internship (See Chapter 4 & 5), I decided to turn it into a studying process, instead of a working experience. Therefore, the following report profiles the Arts Council of New Orleans (most of it is cited from the Arts Council's Fact Sheets, "Agency Operations Narrative," and website under its consent), and details as well as analyzes the Fresh Art Festival.

On May 6, 2002 I began my internship with the Arts Council of New Orleans. The Arts Council of New Orleans is a private, nonprofit organization that provides a variety of cultural planning, advocacy, public art economic development, arts education, and grant initiatives to the city of New Orleans and surrounding areas. Since its creation in 1975, the Arts Council has been the official arts agency for the City of New Orleans. My role at the Arts Council was to work in the Marketing and Development Department, with the major task of updating the annual Arts Directory. Besides work on the directory, my time was spent working for other divisions of the Arts Council, including the Entergy Arts Business Center, the Grant Department and Louisiana ArtWorks. The following report is the analysis of a three-month internship with the Arts Council of New Orleans. It begins with a look at the organization's history, staff and programming and then focuses on the internship's assignments. The purpose of the internship was to gain experience working in a nonprofit arts organization, tying together all ofthe concepts that are studied in the courses of the Arts Administration Program. My internship at the Arts Council of New Orleans was an overall learning experience of the many facets of a nonprofit arts organization.

The Arts Council of Greater New Orleans was founded in 1975 in response to the recommendation of the City of New Orleans Cultural Resources Committee appointed by former Mayor Moon Landrieu. With primarily private support, the Arts Council initiated projects such as monumental sculpture exhibitions around the city, a weekly radio program, an arts hotline, and an arts program for the city's Downtown Development District, including six weeks of outdoor Brown Bag concerts at lunchtime and an annual downtown arts festival.

From May 19 through August 20, 1993, Craig Cunningham interned at the Arts Council of New Orleans and the Entergy Arts Business Center, which is operated by the Arts Council of New Orleans. The internship was approved by the intern's Graduate Committee and confirmed by the Arts Administration Advisory Committee. It fulfills the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Arts Administration. The internship focused around two main projects, production of the annual Arts Directory, and the Louisiana Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. The on-site supervisors were the Assistant Director, Mary Kahn, and the Executive Director, Shirley Trusty Corey. The following report profiles the Arts Council of New Orleans, details the internship, analyzes the management structure of the Arts council, and analyzes the impact of the internship upon the organization.

From May 11, 1987, through August 14, 1987, Rebecca Jean Bossert interned at the Arts Council of New Orleans. The internship was approved by the intern's Graduate Committee and confirmed by the Arts Administration Advisory Committee. It fulfills the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Arts Administration. The internship encompassed duties involved with the coordination and execution of the Partnership Grants Program and the Municipal Endowment Grants for the Arts Program, which were administered by the Arts Council of New Orleans. The first few weeks of the internship were supervised by Ginny Lee McMurray, Assistant Director, who took maternity leave beginning June 3. The remainder of the internship was supervised by Joycelyn L. Reynolds, Grants Coordinator. The following report profiles the Arts Council of New Orleans, describes the internship, analyzes management challenges posed by the internship, offers recommendations for the resolution of these challenges, and discusses the effects of the intern's contribution to the organization.

The Arts Council of New Orleans is the official arts agency of New Orleans, located at 935 Gravier Street. The organization supports and develops the arts community through many different programming initiatives, including administering grants, managing a monthly Arts Market, and providing business training to artists. In this internship report, I discuss my role within the organization during my internship, which began in January 2013 and lasted through June 2013. I then analyze my observations of the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and provide recommendations for improving the Arts Council’s operations based on best practices and expert literature in the field of nonprofit management. The Arts Council hired a new CEO in May of 2013, after a seven-year period of operating under interim management. With a permanent leader now in place, the organization is in a position to apply my recommendations so it can grow into a stronger arts agency, and better serve the New Orleans community.