Written by Haley Paulin | June 14th, 2024
I’m lucky to be the type of person who feels revived and refreshed after working an almost 18-hour day on my feet. This past Saturday, I had the privilege to work from roughly 7am to 12:30am on the IU Arts and Humanities Council’s annual Granfalloon mainstage day. This marks my second Granfalloon, and just over a year of working with the A&H Council. This blogpost will contain some of the things I’ve learned, some of the skills I’ve had to develop, and my personal feelings about working on events with this team.
First, a small bit of background. My name is Haley Paulin, I’m entering my second year of the MAAA program, and I’m a Bloomington native. I’ve had the opportunity to grow up in a community where there isn’t just an abundance of arts and humanities, but an abundance of people who will show up for the arts and humanities. I joined the IU Arts & Humanities Council just over a year ago for a summer internship to complete my undergraduate requirements and loved it so much that I never left.
The IU A&H Council is a small staff, with 7 full-time employees and 5 interns (myself included). Still, the amount of work that this group manages to get done in a small window of time continues to surprise me. The Council is responsible for not just Granfalloon, but for First Thursdays, the recent Taylor Swift Conference, managing a free event space in the Cook Center’s grand hall, and dozens of galleries and external programming events throughout the year.
What is a Granfalloon? The festival’s name comes from author Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle. For Vonnegut, who held a great desire for a sense of community, a “granfalloon” is essentially “a proud and meaningless association of human beings”. Vonnegut’s work directly inspires the Granfalloon Festival, as well was much of the work that the A&H Council does. Each year, the staff picks a Vonnegut book to help outline the festival’s theme. This year, we picked Jailbird, which is Vonnegut’s Watergate-inspired book.
To quote from Goodreads: “Jailbird takes us into a fractured and comic, pure Vonnegut world of high crimes and misdemeanors in government—and in the heart. This wry tale follows bumbling bureaucrat Walter F. Starbuck from Harvard to the Nixon White House to the penitentiary as Watergate’s least known co-conspirator. But the humor turns dark when Vonnegut shines his spotlight on the cold hearts and calculated greed of the mighty, giving a razor-sharp edge to an unforgettable portrait of power and politics in our times.”
Like much of Vonnegut’s work, Jailbird is ripe with social commentary delivered with a satirical gut punch to the audience. The themes within the book that we sought to highlight included: political corruption (including Watergate), consumerism, meaningless corporate structures, the housing crisis, and elder care.
So, what does it mean to take these themes and apply them to a “summer kick-off” festival? It’s a bit of a balancing act… and might be why we haven’t picked Slaughterhouse-Five as a fest book yet (lol). To start with, the whole staff reads the book and holds small book-club meetings throughout the fall and winter. From there, the staff picks which themes to focus on, and how we can utilize them. For Jailbird, much of it comes through in true Vonnegut fashion: ironic corporate sponsors. Granfalloon begins with smaller-scale literary events, which help to set the scene for our theming for our audiences. From there, it expands out into film screenings, academic panels, music events, and then cumulates into our mainstage day: an all-day festival in partnership with the Bloomington Handmake Market, including a mainstage festival on Kirkwood.
With 30+ events over the course of three weeks, it goes without saying that this isn’t something that the council can do on its own. As I said before, Granfalloon is lucky to take place in a community with several prominent arts partners. This festival, quite frankly, would not be possible without the help of so many of our partners. This year, we were lucky to partner with so many local arts organizations and venues, including: The Buskirk-Chumley Theater, the IU Theatre Department, Cicada Cinema, Kan-Kan Cinema, IU Cinema, the Bloomington Handmade Market, the IU Writers’ Conference, The Backdoor, The Bishop, Morgenstern’s Books, and Girls Rock Bloomington.
Granfalloon is a celebration of Bloomington arts and acts as a kickoff to summer. It balances this with a platform for discussion—not just of Vonnegut’s work, but of the variety of themes therein. Our keynote speaker this year, journalist Carl Bernstein, was perfectly suited to discuss the complexities of political corruption, and the role that journalists play in bringing these issues to the public eye.
So, what is it like to work as a graduate intern for a group that does so much all at the same time?
I’m lucky to be surrounded by full-time staff that are passionate, kind, and excellent at directing me. I’ve thrived in my position, though I admit this is due in large part to the support of the Council staff. My work is mainly done under Gerard Pannekoek, the external program coordinator, in charge of First Thursdays and the Granfalloon festival. My duties include volunteer coordination, assisting with day-of operations logistics, and assisting with hospitality.
It’s very important to have a good organization system, and to find the best way to triage your responsibilities. The more events you work, the easier it is to picture yourself on the day, and to picture what will be necessary that day, and what you need to make your own life, as well as the life of attendees, performers, and your fellow staff, just a little bit easier. Working with the Council has provided me with a strong safety net to learn certain skills on my feet, including the Machform software, volunteer outreach and management, Meta Business Suite, and a good number more! This work, in my experience, requires a healthy amount of flexibility, proactiveness, and strategization. I’ve also found that harnessing a positive attitude doesn’t hurt!
Working in live events is a ton of fun! But it’s also very exhausting. By the end of the mainstage day, I had walked close to 30k steps! It’s important to build healthy habits ahead of time and to be kind to your body and mind in the lead-up to a large event like that. As a large (or, extra extra large) girl, it’s been a struggle to be patient with my body’s ability to move itself effectively for that long. I’m slowly learning to be more communicative about what needs to be done and delegating to my fellow interns and volunteers, as opposed to doing everything myself and burning out faster. I’m a patient person, but I’ve found that my patience with myself runs out quickly, and often leads to me being frustrated and pushing myself too hard during events, meaning that I’m less effective during evening teardown or the next day’s work. These are things I hope to continue working on, and I’m grateful to work for an organization that allows me space to think about these things and harness them.
Finally, I want myself (and everyone else who works in live events) to spend more time enjoying the event. During this past semester, I was often too stressed about teardown after the setup and prep work to sit and enjoy the event. However, during Granfalloon this year, I was able to spend some time at the side-stage watching our headliner, Sleater-Kinney, perform their hearts out. Taking the time to pause and enjoy the event is more than just a moment of respite on a busy day, it’s a chance to remind ourselves why we do the work that we do, and why we love it so much.
Whatever medium you work in, I highly encourage you to take a moment during the summer to immerse yourself in the art you’re helping make happen. Whether it’s just a five-minute break in the gallery, or attending a concert during your evening off, even if you feel at the end of your rope and exhausted, this can help you breathe and re-enter your work re-invigorated.