On this program, you will spend around 20 hours per week interning with an organization focusing on film. In some cases, the organization itself will be a film studio, production house, animation studio, or film company. In other cases, you may be using your film skills to help produce promotional material for a non film-focused company and/or to capture events throughout the city related to your placement organization. We handpick each specific placement based on your interests as captured in your application through a detailed questionnaire, as well as a an online interview with our Internship Placement Team.
Performing Arts Abroad offers an internship capstone where we will fund you up to $100 to pursue a final project of your design.
“I love my internship and I love Barcelona. People are so kind and friendly. I am having the best time attending crazy productions and workshops. It has been a magical experience.”
Chinmay KulkarniThe Phenomena cinema, which holds 415 film fans and has one of the biggest screens in all of Catalonia, boasts a latest-generation 4k projector, as well as 35 mm and 70 mm projectors as well as the best sound systems, including DTS, SDDS and the multidimensional Dolby Atmos.
Cines Verdi offers a nine-screen cinema where there is always a good choice of quality films in original language with subtitles. You can find in Cines Verdi a varied range of alternative films, from reruns of “The Quiet Man” (1952, John Ford) to the Oscar winner “The great beauty” (2013, Paolo Sorrentino). They offer a cinematographic experience focused on quality and diversity.
Cinema Méliès programming is between classic cinema and European cinema, alternative and premiere, and has won several awards throughout its existence, such as the Sant Jordi in 1996 and the City of Barcelona in 2003. Nowadays, they can be considered as one of the reference points of the author and independent cinema in Barcelona.
Our office is located in the heart of the city, near Plaça Catalunya, and our team includes Spaniards, Catalans and international staff who are all passionate and knowledgeable about international education and life in Barcelona. Our office is a place you can come to talk with staff, hang out in the student and intern lounge, or print any needed documents. We are available to you at the office during work hours (9:00am-6:00pm M-Th, and 9:00am-5:00pm on Fridays), and via emergency phone 24 hours per day.
Barcelona offers a diverse array of film organizations, from animation studios to production houses to independent film projects. You won’t be short on inspiration or visually stunning backdrops in this beautiful city, with unique Spanish architecture, sidewalk cafes, and delicious paella. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, which has its own culture and language, giving the city a unique vibrancy.
In addition to the abundance of year-round festivals, you can also see lively international and local plays full of bright colors and interesting characters, and Barcelona’s dance scene offers everything from classic ballet to Flamenco. Art museums abound throughout the city, paying tribute to Picasso’s legacy as well as showcasing contemporary stars. Also prevalent is the architecture of Antoni Gaudi and the art of Salvador Dali, who co-wrote the landmark surrealist short film “Le Chien Andalou.”
Just outside Barcelona, you’ll find beaches and mountain ranges that make the region worth exploring. Beyond that, the city is only hours by plane to destinations such as Paris, Rome, and Berlin.
Choose between living in an apartment and a homestay. All rooms are shared with other participants, although single rooms are available at an extra cost (see Cost & Dates page for more details).
In an apartment, you will live with other interns and students from the program, coming from the United States and other parts of the world. If you choose this option you will build relationships with other participants and young professionals, and have independence when it comes to meals and laundry. Meals are not included and full kitchen and laundry facilities are available for you to use. For this option we cannot guarantee the age, profession, or gender of other residents sharing the apartment. However, you will be able to request your housing preferences and are highly likely to get your requested selection. In addition, if you know another program participant in Barcelona, you can request to be placed in the same apartment.
Home stays offer the chance to experience complete immersion in the culture and languages of Barcelona. If you choose this option you will receive breakfast and dinner each day and will be able to come and go as you please. You will live with a Barcelona family, married couple, or resident who lives alone. Because of meal inclusion, the program price for the home stay is higher than if you choose to live in an apartment. Living in a home stay is a wonderful way to gain perspective of life for a Barcelona citizen and to have a day-to-day cultural interaction and language practice.
For participants with existing housing in Barcelona (family or friends residing in the city), please see the “Independent Housing” column for the cost of the program with no housing included.
You will share your apartment or homestay with other interns and study abroad students. Upon acceptance, you will choose between a shared room (shared with one to three other program participants), or a private room. There are rarely more than six flatmates sharing the apartment or homestay.
Interns of all ages and experience levels participate in this program and we have arranged some exciting placements for high-level professionals, but the most common demographics are college students (undergraduate and graduate), and recent college graduates. In the fall and spring, PAA usually has 5-10 interns onsite at one time who join with a dozen or so interns from our partner study abroad companies, while the summer brings over a dozen PAA interns joining over a hundred other interns.
Your main focus while in Barcelona will be the internship we hand-pick for you. However, you will have plenty of free time to explore the city on your own and with the new friends you will make while on the program. We also provide a range of onsite excursions included in the program cost, such as Catalan cooking classes, Latin dance classes, visits to museums and markets, neighborhood history tours, day trips and hikes, and much more. When you are accepted to the program, you will be added to an activities calendar so you can start getting excited about all the activities we provide. In addition, you will have the option to sign up for longer weekend trips to places like Morocco, Valencia, and more (at an extra cost).
You will also form close bonds with your co-workers at the internship, and will likely be invited to a wide range of social activities, artistic and otherwise. Get excited to call Barcelona your new home!
Some examples of past film internship placements include:
On this program, you will book a flight that lands at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport (BCN) before noon on your arrival day. Upon arrival at the airport, members of our staff greet you and other participants starting the same day at a coffee shop in the arrivals area. Once everyone has arrived, you will be taken to your accommodations to unpack and settle in. Later that afternoon, you will attend an orientation and welcome meal where details about the city and your program will be discussed in depth. In your first two days in Barcelona, you will be invited to neighborhood walking tours to get to know the diverse areas of the city. Your first day at your internship is usually your second or third day on the program, and a member of our staff will accompany you to make introductions and be sure you know how to travel to your placement on your own. On your first day at the internship, you will finalize your schedule with your placement supervisor, which should be about 20 hours per week.
For the rest of your program, you will travel to your placement on your own at the times agreed upon with your supervisor. During the second or third week of the program, you will begin Spanish classes (one week of 20 hours for 6 week programs, and two weeks of 40 hours for 8, 10, and 12 week programs). During these weeks, you will be interning for around 20 hours and taking Spanish classes for around 20 hours. These are full and demanding days, but will be helpful for boosting your language skills.
During your time outside the internship placement, you are completely independent to explore the city and surrounding areas and countries at your leisure. We provide weekly cultural activities and regular excursions that are included in your program cost, which we highly recommend you attend! Our staff are available during working hours to help with your independent travel plans or address any issues you may face, and are available 24 hours via an emergency phone for serious emergencies.
This is a customized film internship abroad. We work with several film organizations in Barcelona, and you will be placed based on your interests and background. When you apply, you will fill out a questionnaire that explains your goals for the program, including the style and area of film most interests you, and the kinds of tasks you hope to be doing. If you make it to the final stage of the application, we will conduct a Skype interview with you in which you will describe what you are willing and NOT willing to do during your internship. We will then use all of that information to make our acceptance decision and place you with the company that best fits your goals and interests.
Reynolds graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis in 2008 with a degree in Theater and African and African American Studies. For an honors thesis Reynolds filmed, edited, and produced a full-length documentary in Kenya with Haba na Haba, a group using performance for education and social change in the slums of Nairobi. This project earned him the Forum on Education Abroad Undergraduate Research Award. A year later, Reynolds organized a trip to bring Haba na Haba to the United States for a tour of St. Louis and Washington University. Immediately after graduation, Reynolds worked in Rwanda as a filmmaker for Millennium Congregations, an interfaith organization connecting communities of faith in the United States with development projects in Rwanda’s Bugesera District. Reynolds then served two years with Teach for America, teaching in the South Bronx and receiving a Masters Degree in Education from Hunter College. He completed a second graduate degree in African Studies from Indiana University in Bloomington, and his Masters thesis focused on the impact of donors on the creative process of Theatre for Development (TfD) groups in Kenya.
Reynolds has traveled extensively in Africa, spending time in Ghana, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He also studied acting, voice, and movement at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Reynolds is a two-time Rhodes Scholarship finalist, the inaugural recipient of the Dred and Harriet Scott Award for the Advancement of Human Rights, and the winner of two research fellowships. He was also a Dialogue Fellow for the Xenia Institute, has twice served as the co-director for the Roosevelt Institution’s International Diplomacy Center (Washington University branch), and was president of the Graduate Students of African Studies (GSAS) at Indiana University.
Reynolds lives in Northampton, MA with his wife Julia who is a professional costume designer and his daughter Lily who is a cute baby. In his free time Reynolds likes to play his guitar, go hiking, act in local productions, hit the karaoke bars, sing with his dog Captain (the best doggy singer in the universe), and play various yard games such as KanJam, cornhole, “cups”, and Kubb.
Rich supports all participants on our Spain programs. He oversees a team that coordinates airport pickup, arranges housing, leads cultural excursions, facilitates internship placements, and manages the 24-hour onsite emergency phone.
Rich Kurtzman has been living in and loving Barcelona since 2002. Originally from Chicago, Rich took his passion for Spanish language, study abroad and all things Spain to Barcelona to work with students and hasn’t looked back since.
Rich studied abroad twice in college – in St. Petersburg, Russia and Madrid, Spain – and participated in an internship in a study abroad office in Milan. He has a variety of experience working in international education from advising students in the U.S. to teaching Spanish Culture and Intercultural Communication courses, to Director of his own organization.
While he does not have much Performing Arts experience (unless you consider playing the Rabbi in his high school production of Fiddler on the Roof, or a couple years in show choir), Rich has a huge admiration for the Arts and loves working with the students in Barcelona whether they are on stage, behind the scenes, singing, dancing or similar.
He looks forward to working with all the future Performing Arts Abroad participants who plan to come to Barcelona and following in the footsteps of other Barcelona alumni who have been able to do solo performances, and worked to make productions big and small come to life.
Roser arranges internships on our program in Barcelona. She matches our interns with performing arts organizations based on their profiles and interviews, works with the placement companies to create training plans and tasks for the internships, identifies new dance studios, theaters, music schools, film companies, and other potential internship placements, coordinates performing arts-focused excursions during the program, and acts as the main point of contact for interns during their time in Barcelona.
Currently based in Barcelona, Roser was born in Torroella de Montgrí (Costa Brava) but moved to Barcelona with her family when she was 8 years-old.
She finished her performing arts studies in Drama in 2003 and worked as an actress in TV and Cinema and also did some modelling for advertisings. She was also part of an amateur theatre company until 2009. After that, she developed her second career as a Health & Safety technician and moved to Andorra and then Bolivia, where she had the chance to experience a different culture and worked alongside an international team (Bolivian, Spanish, French, Austrian and Swiss). She moved back to Barcelona in 2016 and started to work in Study & Internship Abroad Programs, focused in the Performing Arts fields. She is currently pursuing a postgraduate degree in Cultural Management and taking classes in Cabaret and Modern Method Acting.
Roser’s passions include anything to do with the performing arts, and also enjoys traveling, hiking, reading and, above all, meeting new people.
“My experience doing a Performing Arts Abroad dance internship in Barcelona, Spain was unforgettable. Through my internship placement at a local dance studio, I gained valuable teaching experience in a second language, built strong local connections, and took classes from a wide variety of professional instructors. Doing a homestay gave me a deeper immersion into the local culture and language. My Spanish improved immensely, and I even learned some Català! I had a lot of free time to explore the city of Barcelona, as well as make a trip to Morocco. Barcelona is an incredible city, that offers something for everyone. Fascinating museums, gorgeous architecture, vibrant arts and culture, narrow streets that are always alive, an excellent public transportation system that gives you free reign to explore the entire city, and of course, the beach. It is a magical place to be in the summer. I strongly recommend the Performing Arts Abroad program in Barcelona!”
Allyson Yoder“This was a life-changing experience. I grew more as an individual, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. Over the duration of this experience, I rediscovered my passion for dance. I also enhanced my interest in traveling and discovering the world. This experience has broadened my possibilities in life and has undoubtedly changed me.”
“Barcelona has exceeded my expectations! I love the culture, the vibe, the ART, and most of all, my internship. Thank you all so much for this wonderful opportunity :)”
Jordan MaiaBón Día from Barcelona! My name is Allyson and I am a dance intern in Barcelona, Spain with Performing Arts Abroad. Barcelona’s street art scene is one of the many reasons why I love living in this city. I don’t have to pay for…
For the next few weeks, we will be featuring some of our wonderful dance interns in Spain who are joining together to write a series, cleverly named “Dance in Spain.” Our first post is by Immanuel Jones, who both got…
Hannah McCarthy is a PAA alumnus who interned at La Caldera dance studio in Barcelona, Spain during the summer of 2017. The video below is the final product of Hannah’s capstone project. During my eight week Dance Internship in Spain,…
Beverly Diaz was a PAA Dance intern in Spain in the Summer of 2015. This is the first of 3 blog posts she wrote on her personal blog about here experience. Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3. I was…
The information on this page provides details for a sample group program. Note that every group is different, and we will work with you to cater the experience to your group. To connect with us and begin organizing a program for your group, please follow the “Get Started’ button below and submit an initial questionnaire. We will then contact you to set up a discovery call where we can go into more detail about your group’s needs and what we can offer.
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