Meet Harnique! Our Lakeside Arts Creative Placement!

Throughout June and July, we were very happy to have a wonderful placement from the Lakeside Arts Creative Placements, Harnique! Here is what she thought about her time here at Nonsuch:

Heya! My name’s Harnique and I’ve been on a summer placement at Nonsuch studios for slightly over a month, and I’ve had a really brilliant time. 

I started my placement really unsure about what my post uni career plans would be and this was probably my first time working somewhere with the intention of trying to figure that out. I had a vague idea that event organising was something I’d be interested in, but it was an idea that wasn’t really grounded in anything. That's why this placement has been really helpful for me, both for learning about what goes into event planning and also for learning about other career paths.

As someone who doesn’t have a background in theatre, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this placement and I didn’t know much about what goes into running a venue like this. So learning more about Nonsuch itself has been as much a part of my placement as figuring out my own personal goals. I really do love it here and I think everything everyone here does is really awesome. 

In my first week I was so relieved when I met the team and found out the place was run by such lovely people. I had individual chats with everyone working in the office, which was a really scary prospect but actually ended up being a really nice start to my placement. 

In my meetings with people I learnt about how Nonsuch runs without the funding that other arts venues often have. I learnt that the company does so many different things to keep things alive and thriving and those things come together to allow the venue to put on shows, classes and work within the community.

While working here I’ve done all sorts of things, from leafleting in town to planning and organising the Creatives Summer Social. I’ve learnt about and worked with the systems that go into organising studio bookings and I’ve been able to sit in on some of the workshops that Nonsuch holds like Script Reading and Home Rangers. The workshops were both so fun to join in on. 

Some of the jobs I’ve done have been really fun and creative, like designing the marketing for the Summer Social and decorating for Sofar Sounds. I also then went to the Sofar Sounds gig itself in the evening and it was so amazing.

Organising the Creatives Summer Social has given me the best insight into how event planning works; visualising what I would want from the event to then applying my ideas practically is a process I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve been reaching out to people for talks, marketing the event and deciding on the timings & foods for the evening which is all stuff I haven’t done before. It’s happening this evening now and I’m really excited to see how it goes, I hope it all goes well! 

All in all, I’ve had a lovely time on my placement and I’ve done way more than I would’ve ever expected. I’m super grateful to everyone for being so nice to work with, and I’m really grateful to Annis for letting me shadow them. I’m still not fully sure about what I want to do after uni, but I’ve learnt so much about different possibilities whilst here and I’m in a much better position than the one I was in before I started my placement. 

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