Creativity, Confidence and Caving: Isaac’s Internship Story

In the summer of 2025, Isaac Holley joined the Super Culture team as a ‘Digital Storyteller.’ This role was part of a paid internship scheme made possible through the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority’s Culture West programme.

Aimed at empowering young people and diversifying the creative sector the internship offered hands-on skills development and career opportunities. We caught up with Isaac to hear about his time with Super Culture and how it has fuelled his passion for pursuing a career in culture.

‘The first day of the placement they sent me into a cave’, explains Isaac Holley, reflecting on his summer internship as a Digital Storyteller with Super Culture. For this assignment, Isaac filmed a group of young people participating in a subterranean music-making workshop with Gwyneth Herbert as part of the View In View Out (VIVO) project. He was employed to create social media content which would ‘tell the story’ of the day and connect with young people across North Somerset and beyond. And the caving trip was just the first of a whole host of ‘unconventional’ experiences, from playing a tiny harp at Weston General Hospital to joining a local theatre company conducting a ‘wish ritual’ by an ash tree. As the summer progressed, Isaac met new people, learnt new skills, and found a new confidence.

‘The internship really helped me to grow as a person and to see what’s out there’.

Isaac started his internship fresh from a Digital Media Design degree at the University of Plymouth and in a period of uncertainty: ‘you’re kind of in that awful state of unemployment when you move back from university and everyone’s asking “what’s next?” – and part of me wasn’t really sure’. Having lived in Weston all his life, he was inspired by Super Culture’s success bringing arts and culture to the town and excited to learn more. Isaac kickstarted a Super Culture TikTok channel (aimed at teenagers), while also creating content for a more general audience to be shared on Instagram. He was involved in Weston’s summer festivals, and other creative activities happening across the region.

Each project posed its own challenges and opportunities. At the festivals, Isaac found himself ‘dashing between things and checking the timetable so that [he] could find all the acts and where they were’; ‘I want to have everyone included’. He observes that montage-style content requires a creative eye (as well as a lot of legwork!), explaining that he set a reel about Weston Arts and Health Festival to a track by one of the local musicians ‘so every single bit of the social media content features people who were actually at the event’. In contrast, Catalan theatre company Los Galindos do not allow their performances to be filmed, so Isaac focused on building anticipation before the event, creating interactive quizzes and polls to open up online conversations. For his last reel, Isaac featured himself losing his way and finding nature on the VIVO augmented reality (AR) trail: ‘instead of hiding behind the camera, I wanted to be in front of the camera to promote the AR trail. I’m quite shy, but I wanted to become a bit more confident’.

This newfound confidence was the most important part of the experience for Isaac: ‘it really helped me to grow as a person and to see what’s out there’. When he was filming at festivals, part of his role was supporting others while he interviewed them about the events, a process which mirrored his own personal development: ‘I think I was learning just to grow confident with myself but also help people to feel comfortable in front of the camera and a lot of it is just about being friendly and comfortable yourself’. The experience has convinced him that his future lies in a creative field: ‘I found it really inspiring to see the community come together over and the shared kind of love for art and culture’.

A budding writer, Isaac was also inspired by the VIVO AR trail and is interested in exploring immersive artforms: ‘what’s next is becoming an artist. I’m always observing the artwork and all the artists, and now I want to actually become an artist and develop my own practice’.