What's new at RealArts

Benjy Brooke- the 2009 RealArts intern with the Stern and Gibbs writing team, has won the award for best screenplay at the Ivy Film Festival at Brown University. The Ivy Film Festival is the world’s largest entirely student-run film festival. Its mission is to encourage the creative efforts of undergraduate and graduate student filmmakers by acting as a quality venue for their work and by creating opportunities to learn from one another and talented professionals. The festival strives to garner recognition for student filmmakers by means of a panel of celebrity judges including: directors, producers, writers, and agents who will view the top films from the festival.

The Interns for Summer 2009 have been announced!

At MTV Networks in the Creative Services department, the intern will be Elizabeth J. Baker, who goes by "EJ." E.J. is a junior English, concentration in Cinema Studies and a minor in Political Science. She is the Chair of Quadramics Theatre Company here at Penn. and has been active in the theatre community. MTV's Cheryl Family, a Penn alumna, helped us coordinate this project.

The Rolling Stone Magazine intern will be Steven Waye. Steven is a Creative Writing student, double minor in Psychology and Jazz & Popular Music He is a Music Review columnist for First Call Magazine and a D.J. at Penn’s student radio station, WQHS.org. Many, many thanks to Anthony DeCurtis for helping us arrange this special internship.

Working at Brooklyn Films in L.A. with producer/director Jon Avnet (Risky Business, Uprising, etc.), a Penn alumnus and overseer in the School of Arts and Sciences, will be Jillian Dent. Jillian is a junior English major who participates in a wide variety of student film and stage productions. She is a Resident Advisor in Rodin College House and a Peer Tutor for the Penn Writing Center. RealArts would like to express gratitude to Jon Avnet for his generosity.

The intern at Women Make Movies will be Sara Estela. Sara is a Junior majoring in Comparative Literature. She has taken courses in Photography, Literary Theory, Film & Video, Spanish Cinema Theory, Film History and Feminist Theory. She is head of External Outreach and Arts Editor for Suede Magazine. Many thanks to Karen Beckman who helped us arrange this internship.

At Shore Fire Media in NYC, a standard-setting Public relations and marketing group, will be Lucia della Paolera an English major with a minor in Music. She has contributed to 34th St, The Walk Magazine, and College Magazine. She is also a contributing blogger and blog Intern for Urban Outfitters' blog. Thanks to Anthony DeCurtis, again, for his guidance in setting up this one.

Learning editing and book publishing at Grand Central Publishing (former Warner Books) will be Ilana Millner. Ilana is a junior English major with a concentration in Creative Writing and a Fine Arts Minor. She has performed in numerous student productions at Penn. She is an opinion artist for the DP and a writer-editor for F Word and she is a blogger as well. We are grateful to Caryn Karmatz-Rudy, a longtime editor and Penn alumna, for her help on this internship.

Writing along-side two dynamic screen and stage writers, David Stern and Stuart Gibbs, both Penn alumni, will be Benjy Brooks, a Fine Arts major with a concentration in animation. After taking a screenwriting course at Penn, he realized his interest in pursuing a career in writing. Thanks to David and Stuart for helping us to create this new RealArts internship.

The Interns for Summer 2008 have been announced!

At MTV Networks, in the Creative Services department, the intern will be Kerry Golds. Kerry is a junior Comparative Literature/Literary Theory major and a minor in Hispanic Studies. She is the Editor in Chief of 34th Street Magazine and a peer advisor for the College of Arts and Science. MTV's Cheryl Family, a Penn alumna, helped us coordinate this project.

Our first Rolling Stone magazine intern will be John Vilanova. John is a junior, an English major and Music minor. He has studied music history from Gregorian chants to modern music, with special emphases on operas, symphonies, jazz, and modern music technology. He is a veteran of Anthony DeCurtis's “Arts and Popular Culture” seminar. He is on the board of SPEC Jazz and Grooves, a concert-planning committee, and he is a radio DJ. Kudos to Anthony DeCurtis for helping us arrange this special internship.

Working at Brooklyn Films in L.A. with producer/director Jon Avnet (Risky Business, Uprising, etc.), a Penn alumnus and overseer in the School of Arts and Sciences, will be Kevin McMullin. Kevin a junior Communications/Consumer Psychology major who loves to make movies. He won the Drama Category of the Greater Philadelphia Student Film Festival. He has writen film reviews for “34th Street Magazine” and is currently enrolled in one of our screenwriting workshops. RealArts would like to express gratitude to Jon Avnet for his generosity.

At Women Make Movies will be Maggie Borden. Maggie a sophomore majoring in Cinema Studies. She has taken many Cinema studies courses and is deeply involved in the student-theater community at Penn, enjoying both creative and technical positions. She is an aspiring filmmaker. Many thanks to Karen Beckman who helped us arrange this internship.

At Shore Fire Media in NYC, a standard-setting marketing group, will be Joyce Lee. Joyce is a junior dual major Wharton/College student majoring in Economics in Marketing and Visual Studies. She has taken classes at Penn about diverse media forms such as ‘The Graphic Novel as Literature’ as well as ‘Film Analysis and Methods’ - along with those about business fundamentals such statistics and accounting. Joyce is promotions director for WQHS, Penn’s student-run radio station. Kudos again to Anthony DeCurtis for this one.

Learning editing and book publishing at Grand Central Publishing (former Warner Books) will be Heather Schwedel. Heather is a junior majoring in communications and English. She is the features editor of 34th Street magazine and has participated in the “Write On” tutoring project at the Kelly Writers House. We are grateful to Caryn Karmatz-Rudy, a longtime editor and Penn alumna, for her help on this internship.

Coming soon

Soon we hope the RealArts@PENN will expand its reach inside Penn and out:

Faculty doing real arts

Across the Penn faculties are numerous teachers, scholars and arts practitioners who have been teaching and doing real art at Penn all along. We hope through RealArts to bring them together and combine efforts where apt. Here is a sampling of these faculty.

RealArts in the news

"Business connections, but for the arts": The Daily Pennsylvanian writes about RealArts in their December 11, 2007 issue.

"Rock critic sounds off on today's hip-hop," Daily Pennsylvanian: this article describes the visit of Alan Light, former editor-in-chief of Vibe, Spin, and Tracks magazines, to the Kelly Writers House, where he met with students in Anthony DeCurtis's seminar and led a discussion with others students and members of the community.