Useful information and resources for freelance artists
If you’re looking for advice and information on how to work as an artist and freelancer or you do already and just want a bit of support and reassurance, there are some great resources to be found on t’internet. Here’s a list of blogs and sites that I think have some really useful stuff on them and make interesting reading…
Freelance Advisor – up to date and UK specific news, information and resources for freelancers. A really informative site and I like the mix of serious stuff and irreverent comment. It’s not aimed at creatives, artists or designers but does bring together a huge amount of content from the freelancing world.
Being A Starving Artist Sucks – this is written by a designer in America called Jeremy Tuber. There’s lots of information about how to deal with clients, how to negotiate and how to price your work; especially based around graphics and design. What I like most are the rants about working as a freelancer – they’ll make you laugh when you’ve had a bad day. There’s also a downloadable resource called ‘Verbal Kung-Fu for Freelancers’ which I love. I’ve got it on my iPhone for meetings with ‘challenging’ clients…!
Freelance Factfile – this is my most recent discovery and is a great resource for both new and existing freelancers. The blog covers everything from getting started and finding new clients to financial matters, how to stay motivated and keeping said clients. Much of what’s written may seem obvious but it’s nice to know someone else out there is experiencing similar situations.
Freelance Switch – pretty similar to Freelance Factfile but aimed more towards the Creative Industries. It also has a Jobs Board and some useful online tools, like an hourly rate calculator etc. but probably more relevant for designers and webby people.
ArtQuest – ok, this isn’t specifically about freelancing but it IS about working as an artist and they help artists to ‘make work, sell work, find work and network’. Though this site is aimed at artists living and working in London it does have some good information on (there’s a brilliant ‘how to’ section) and is worth a look even if you do live outside the capital.
Compiling this list has raised the question of being an artist versus being a freelance artist – the same thing or two completely different animals? Hmmm…. maybe a question for when I’ve got more time and brain power to dedicate to it.
Lantern Parade and … it’s suddenly become Withy Central
For the next couple of weeks I’m working with lots of groups in Johnson’s Fold, Bolton to create withy lanterns for their lantern parade, organised and funded by Bolton at Home. Here’s one I made as an example…
I’m also about to start making some withy / willow sculptures with a New Charter group in Mossley, Tameside for the RHS Tatton show garden. One of them is going to be an enormous snowman, which feels entirely appropriate after the snow we had last week! I’ll be using brown willow for this so I’m currently soaking the withies in my lovely new ‘water trough’ – a perfect shape and size for the job. I’ll post a picture when I remember to take one…
Success! Hyde Park Community Orchard Artwork…
Last year myself and two other artists (Ann Gilligan and Richard Dawson) were successful in gaining a commission to create artwork (pending funding) for the Hyde Park Community Orchard in Hyde, Greater Manchester. Just before Christmas we found out the Community Spaces funding bid had been successful and we have now started the project.
The artwork will include an outdoor classroom, a wildlife trail and an entrance feature all informed by work produced in sessions with local schools and community groups. The final pieces will feature a number of different techniques and materials including wood, cast-stone and mosaics.
There are lots of other things happening in the Orchard so keep an eye on the Operation Farm blog for more details. I’ll also be posting about the ‘art’ side of things regularly!
Working with your local partners and organisations
I’ve just been to a local youth partnership meeting and it’s caused me to reflect on the benefits of getting involved in your local community – in both a personal and professional capacity. At the meeting this afternoon were: councillors, representatives of the (very active and successful) residents association, housing association regeneration and community staff, youth workers / senior managers and various other bods, including me, an artist.
I’ve found getting involved and being active in your local community is a great opportunity to meet, not only local commissioners of community arts but also to develop stronger links, discover what’s going on in the area and gain advice and insight into projects and upcoming developments. Its also a good way of highlighting your own projects and activity and sourcing help and support for your own work.
On a personal note, I learnt about a gardening group that a friend might be interested in and that the Council are currently doing a consultation on local libraries and they haven’t had much response. So I’m off to the library this afternoon to wave my flag of support (not only is it brilliant for books but it’s a lovely warm place to work in too).
So – Tip of the Day: go to some local meetings. It might take up an afternoon when you could otherwise be earning money but it’s worth it to network and meet the movers and shakers…
The Colshaw Art Project
Way back in October, I commented on a project I had recently finished on the Colshaw Farm estate in Wilmslow, Cheshire. More on this now…
The Colshaw Art Project was a pilot 8 week project initiated by Cheshire East Council and Lime, the arts and health organisation based in Manchester. Working with three artists, the young people from the estate would create some kind of public art for a long concrete wall in the park or ‘ramps’ as it’s known locally.
Myself, Kim Wiltshire and Richard Dawson started with a basic idea of creating some kind of lettering, possibly 3D, possibly using recycled materials but with the knowledge that we weren’t allowed to do ‘graffiti’. We ended up working with a group of challenging but enthusiastic young people aging from seven to 16 years, predominantly girls but some older boys too. They needed a lot of encouragement and support, which led to us really having to structure the workshops and think about behaviour management, health and safety and the logistics of working with 12-15 young people in a restricted space.
We started the workshops with a run through of The Rules (which they had written) and included obvious things such as ‘No Shouting’ and less obvious things such as one group member not being allowed to bite people…
Every week we ensured we had a diversionary activity whereby group members could stop what they were doing and move onto a different activity if they felt a bit restless. This was facilitated by students doing a community arts course.
We ended up with a fantastic bit of art that was created by young people from the estate from start to finish. They chose the word ‘Colshaw!’, they designed the letters from the shape to the decoration, they constructed the 3D forms, used drills, painted each letter and helped prepare the wall. They achieved a huge amount and should be proud of the finished artwork.
Survivor vs A Winged Victory for the Sullen
Two cultural outings for me last week; one outstanding and inexpensive, one outstandingly awful and outstandingly expensive…
The first offering was a trip to London to see the premiere of Hofesh Shechter and Antony Gormley’s Survivor at the Barbican, a performance piece billed (by the Barbican) as one of the cultural events of the season. Having seen the last piece Gormley collaborated on with a choreographer (the brilliant Zero Degrees) twice, I was fairly excited about seeing Survivor and paid for top price tickets to ensure good seats. The opening didn’t disappoint – the Barbican Theatre’s big metal curtains opened first to a eye-wateringly bright beam of light shone onto the audience, closed and then opened again to show a line of people, each barely illuminated from above by a single dim light…
… I’m afraid it went straight downhill from there. I won’t go into the painful hour and twenty minutes in detail but will mention the awful drummers, the ‘let’s film the audience and project it onto a big screen – won’t it be brilliant’ moments and the ‘here’s some footage of running water’ as being particularly memorable.
One comment has been that Survivor was like an end of year show from the local drama college and to be honest it was. It even looked like there were enthusiastic parents in the audience clapping wildly at the end.
However, on Saturday I went to see ‘A Winged Victory for the Sullen’ at Manchester Academy. AWVFTS is a collaboration between a composer called Dustin O’Halloran and Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzie. I won’t attempt to describe their genre of music but it was incredibly beautiful and atmospheric and I left feeling uplifted and massively in awe of their talent. Go to Boomkat to listen to some of their tracks and read a review…
So… by the time the dogs had gone into kennels, the car had been filled with diesel, the congestion charge had been paid and we’d had something to eat, Survivor had suddenly cost two people eight times what A Winged Victory for the Sullen cost. Ho hum…
One more rant…Survivor cost everyone in the arts world a lot more than that, especially those of us that might be considering a grant from the Arts Council. £95,000 more…
Being A Freelance Artist 