14F AUGUST 1996
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
Lied Center helps interns shape careers
- Lied Center intents learn more than just their jobs.
BY JL WATSON
JOURNAL-WORLD WRITER
Kansas University graduate David Woody has a dream career. He's an art director for MTV and travels to New York and California from his home in Florida.
But in terms of career success, the yellow brick road leads back to KU and his job as a technical director for what is now the Lied Center Series.
"My KU job set the wheels in motion for a professional career for me," Woody said during a phone interview from California. "That experience alone was more influential than my education at KU."
Under the direction of Lied Center director Jackie Davis, Woody learned to negotiate contracts and work with campus offices on issues of security, traffic control and coordination of major theatrical, music and dance events. He
began working with the Concert Series as a freshman in 1985.
"It boggles my mind that I lid that at such a young age," Woody said. "Jackie put 100 percent faith in us to get the job done. It gave me real-world experience and I was 00 percent prepared to deal with the experience I started having in the professional world."
Working on the technical side of visiting productions had an added bonus for Woody; exposure to many acets of the art world.
haping cultural identity
"I had to be there for every performance," he said. "I got to see incredible artistic events most students never get to see. I got the exposure I wish every student could have. Because of that I'm a huge patron of the arts."
That high praise is echoed by KU alum Alison Hart, who also credits Davis with putting her where she wanted to be New York City.
"I got to see incredible artistic events most students never get to see.I got the exposure I wish every student could have.Because of that I'm a huge patron of the arts."
— KU alum David Woody
Hart spent her first three years at KU as a music major. She changed majors and in 1987 graduated with a journalism degree. Davis helped Hart find the right internship to utilize her talents.
Woody urges students to take advantage of the events that come to KU stages.
"She knew a guy, Judd Wheeler in New York, and he had an internship," Hart said. "She told me to take it and I did."
"Jackie is very selective in the art she chooses to bring KU,"he said."She helps tape the identity of Lawrence culturally by educating people one show at a me."
Hart packed up what she could carry and in the summer of 1987 moved to the Big Apple. She's been there ever since and is currently in charge of public relations for Life magazine. She started her PR training while working
under Davis at KU.
"I did publicity for her and I learned to take the initiative," Hart said. "She taught me how to be resourceful."
Enduring interest
It's a skill that Hart said helped her land her current position. Hart is not working in an arts-related field, but her start at KU fostered an enduring interest in the arts.
"Even though I'm not working in the arts I can go whenever I want," she said. "From the time I left school this is all I've ever known. I wonder where I'd be if I hadn't stayed at KU two extra years."
"Jeanne Mellinger taught me about the arts in general," Jacquinot said. "I sponge off of her from day to day. She has a very successful program and I have a lot of respect for that."
Davis isn't the only Lied Center mentor to receive high marks. Education director Jeanne Mellinger is one of the main reasons former student Jennifer Jacquinot returned to work at the Lied Center when she came back to KU to pursue graphic design studies after completing internships in New York and at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
While Davis and her staff instill self-confidence, they also look for it in students they hire.
"I don't think you could have a better job as a student," she said. "They treat students with such respect and put so much faith in them, and that gave me a lot of confidence."
"I look for someone who seems serious about and is interested in the arts," Davis said.
"I find that people who have a higher GPA generally organize their time better and are able to keep up their studies and work here."
Once hired, students have an opportunity to work with the public as well as visiting artists and management.
In addition, graduating seniors can put their work experience on a resume and take with them the memories from the performances they helped produce.
RENÉE KNOEBER/JOURNAL-WORLD PHOTO
Jennifer Jacquinot works as an assistant to the education director at the Lied Center while taking classes part-time at Kansas University.