For the past two weeks, 10 Shenandoah University arts management students have dedicated their free time to help Frederick County resident Cynthia Fraula Hahn prepare for her art show that opens to the public at 7 p.m. tonight at the Bowman Building in downtown Winchester.

On Thursday morning Fraula Hahn sat cross-legged on the floor giving the students a last minute run-down of what would happen at the show's opening.
Jennifer Barnette, an arts management graduate student from Montgomery, Ala., has been Fraula-Hahn's "right-hand" woman, creating lists, running errands, and making phone calls to prepare for the university-sponsored show.

Having recently moved to Winchester to attend SU, Barnette was afraid to leave behind her old connections and start a new life here. "I feel very fortunate to have found this job," she said. "I feel less like a foreigner."

Barnette also said she has made several connections through Fraula-Hahn that could lead to more work. It will take her two years to get her master's degree in arts management, and she is currently looking at internships.

The other students working with Fraula-Hahn are SU under graduates and members of the Organization of Arts Management Students (OAMS). For the past two weeks, they've been working each day to help the artist get ready.

"They're not so much working for Cynthia as working with her to achieve the mutual goal of a good art exhibit," said R.T. Good, SU professor of arts management.

Good explained that arts management is the link between the artist and the administration. He said arts management majors of ten work in the music industry, performing arts facilities, dance studios, and government entities such as the National Endowment for the Arts. SU has 27 arts management students.

R.T. Good, an arts management professor at Shenandoah University, says arts management is the link between the artist and the administration. "Arts management brings a required sensitivity to the nature of arts," he said, adding that the program is built on business principles.

The program brings together two areas that often conflict, according to Good. "Arts management brings a required sensitivity to the nature of arts," he said, adding that the program is built on business principles.
Arts management students at SU are asked to focus on one particular art form such as dance, theater, or music, which they refer to as their applied majors. Good said the program is 40 percent arts, 40 percent business, and 20 percent arts management.
Students complete an internship before graduation. After that, many go into the work force rather than attend graduate school.
Meredith Magwire, a senior from Chantilly, described working in arts management as working in the background.
Arts management students may be behind the scenes, but at tonight's opening, the students who worked on Fraula-Hahn's exhibit will be anything but incognito. They'll be wearing authentic-looking '20s, '30s, and '40s attire supplied by Erin Heintzinger, a senior from Pittsburgh.
The women will wear colorful, old-fashioned dresses and embellished, hand-made brooches with name tags made by Winchester artist Nathan Windle. The men will don pin-striped suits as they assist guests. Tips they receive taking coats will help fund a spring trip to a conference in New Orleans.
These students helped Fraula Hahn prepare for her exhibit, "Song of the South":
· Jennifer Barnette, graduate student, from Montgomery, Ala.
· Meredith Magwire, senior, Chantilly.
· Erin Heintzinger, senior, Pittsburgh.
· Melody Hall, senior, Chesapeake.
· Michael Crawford, junior, Vienna.
· Tony Scida, senior, Stafford.
· Karen Lewis, junior, Virginia Beach.
· Sara Fogelberg, junior, New Milford, Conn.
· Nora Koerner, sophomore, Alexandria.