Being an artist of any artform, be it a socially engaged artist, a visual artist, performer, photographer, writer or whatever, is a tough business. I have been there myself and to be truthful, I found the freelance lifestyle a difficult one to manage. I lived in a permanent state of anxiety, and would constantly rehearse the answers to the inevitable questions from friends and family, “so what are you up to at the moment?” In response to this challenging way of life, where we know that one’s creativity can often suffer from the day to day obstacles of finding and sustaining work, we developed The Creative Resilience Programme.

‘How to Survive and Thrive’ is a workshop where artists can experience our unique, thoroughly researched resilience model, consisting of seven elements. You can use the elements of the model in your career, in your life and in your creative practice. It will support you to develop the skills and confidence to manage challenging situations and to learn flexible and adaptable approaches to problem solving and staying motivated. It is also a great networking opportunity and way to meet with other socially engaged artists who are experiencing similar challenges to yourself. ‘Support Networks’ is actually one of the seven elements of our model, and there is no better way to develop your network of support than coming on our next workshop on 12th March. Please see details of how to book inside the newsletter.

This workshop is part of our co|Create programme of training, support and development for socially engaged artists. We have recently launched our programme for the next few moths and we have some exciting, engaging and incredibly useful workshops coming up. co|Create is delivered over four strands: Creative Inspiration, Safe Practice, Enterprise Works and Creative Resilience. These elements were established after extensive consultation with artists about what training and support they would find most useful. It is a holistic programme, that explores creative practice, the business side of sustaining work, how to stay safe when working with vulnerable people, and, as mentioned, how to develop your resilience.

Please do take a look at the programme inside the newsletter as I am sure you will find something of benefit. I would like to point out that we have also revamped our pricing strategy, making the programme as accessible as possible to everyone. This means that if you have difficulty in paying the full price, there is a ‘pay what you can’ option.

I very much hope to see you at one of our events soon.