<rleton College alumna Milanda Landis ’12 has recently finished a prestigious arts management internship at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. From January to April of this year, Landis served as the Graphic Design Intern for advertising at the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center.
“Life post-Carleton is very different from life at Carleton, but I have enjoyed the transition. It can be a little nerve-wracking to all-of-a-sudden be responsible for finding a place to live, paying your bills on time, landing a job, and maintaining your social life,” Landis says. “It’s been an exciting challenge, made all the more fun by the great group of friends I have from both high school and college who have also made DC their home.”
As the Graphic Design Intern, Landis worked for the past three months as part of the DeVos Institute’s in-house team to design newspaper advertisements, signs and posters, web graphics, and other forms of advertisement to promote performances at the Kennedy Center. She can add the projects she has produced to her professional portfolio.
“I love working with InDesign and Photoshop, and getting to see my work printed and displayed for thousands of people is really satisfying, but sometimes sitting in front of a computer all day can be exhausting,” she says.
Originally from St. Paul, MN, Landis graduated from Carleton with a degree in Cinema and Media Studies. She was one of 35 interns selected by the Kennedy Center for its Spring 2013 internship program, from an annual pool of over 300 applicants. The 14-week internship is recognized by the Princeton Review as one of the “Top 100 Internships” in the country.
“I would definitely recommend this internship to other Carls, and not just to those interested in graphic design,” Landis says. “The Kennedy Center offers a range of similar internships in many different areas of the organization, from programming to education to development to press, and anyone with an interest in or passion for the performing arts should consider applying.”
The DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center is a training program for arts administrators at different stages in their careers. It aims to give interns experience with practical application of arts management skills at a renowned arts organization, the Kennedy Center. Interns also attend weekly seminars run by Kennedy Center executives and leaders of other large arts institutions in the city.
As her internship comes to an end, Landis remains positive about her experiences in DC and at the Kennedy Center, even in comparison with the security and close-knit community of Carleton.
“I absolutely love living and working in DC. It is such a young, vibrant city – something I didn’t realize until I moved here. There are so many fantastic places to explore,” she says. “I miss the small town feel of Northfield sometimes, and having everything and everybody within a five-minute walk, but DC has such a great public transportation system that nothing ever feels too far away.”