A New Partnership
As part of the partnership forged between the Arab World Institute and IESA arts&culture, a large number of Bachelor, Master and Professional Master students were able to do one-off internships, and among them, two did a two-month internship as part of the Meetings on the History of the Arab World.
Hicham, a student in the Professional Master in Art Market and Fanny, a student in the Bachelor in Art Expertise and Trade did their two-month internship at the IMA to prepare the event. A look back at their experience.
Fanny and Hicham comment on the missions:
"We started our internship at the beginning of April. First we had to determine the needs: how many students per room, the café, speaker reception, public reception. Then, based on the needs we had assessed, we had to complete the recruitment.
Once recruitment was finished we contacted all the selected students in order to draw up the schedule based on their availability. This was no small feat since some students were only available one day out of the four and these days were split between morning and afternoon (students only worked half a day so they could attend the conferences) except for Hicham and me, who had to be operational at all times. We also had to scout the rooms with the allocation and layout of the spaces, and prepare information meetings with all the students so as to be operational on the big day. We prepared a small leaflet for them re-explaining the missions and with all the necessary contacts.
Then on the big day we took care of the hosts/hostesses, notably for public reception. As for the interns during the event, they had to look after the reception of speakers, take care of setting up the room and ensure the conference ran smoothly."
Our Professional Master in Art Market student concludes:
"Overall, the internship at the IMA was a very good experience that helped develop operational skills and interpersonal qualities essential for working in a team, such as taking initiative, listening and anticipating. However, it would be welcome to bring in political figures, civil society and institutions from Arab countries, so that the event has legitimacy and credibility in the Arab world and so that the exchanges help move forward the debates on the issues addressed in Arab countries and keep them from remaining a dead letter or confined to the files of French specialists and academic researchers." Fanny adds that they were "very well received at the Institut du Monde Arabe, that they trusted them and gave them responsibilities, which is very pleasant, especially since everything went very well. Marie Descourtieux and the whole IMA team were very happy!"
We can easily say that this partnership was a success. Jack Lang wrote the whole team of students and IESA arts&culture a lovely thank-you letter, of which we will quote only a few sentences:
"I would like to thank you personally for your active and dynamic participation in the third edition of the Rendez-vous de l’Histoire du monde arabe, which was a tremendous success. Your enthusiasm and seriousness were unanimously praised by the public, who congratulated us as much on the quality of the meetings and debates as on the quality of the welcome throughout the event. These congratulations go directly to you."
So we can go ahead and say see you next year!