/// ARTS COUNCIL FUNDING - A REFLECTION ///
I’ve reached the end of my Arts Council England funded “The Water Tower Works” project. Please see here for more information about the award.
It has been an amazing experience which I am so grateful for. It was busy, and intense, and now I’m through the other side. I wanted to share my thoughts and reflections, and my main takeaways.
In brief the funding was to be used for:
Dedicated studio time each month, which included drawing (namely my 30 sketches in 30 days task)
A research trip to London to visit Collect, and some other exhibitions (more information here)
A meeting with an industry professional to ask advice
Large scale soldering masterclass, delivered in my own studio with my own tools and equipment (more information here)
A mixed alloys masterclass where I learnt how to make my own gold, silver and solder (more information here)
Four days one to one tutoring from a professional silversmith to create my largest piece to date (more information here)
Regular creative mentoring sessions
But the outcome was actually much larger than the sum of its parts. It allowed me to be a full time creative, without the pressure of having to have a full time output, or the stress of having to generate an income.
You may remember my teaching stint at Wensum Lodge in Norwich came to an end last year when the local council decided to sell the venue and not rehome us. I saw this as a sign to throw myself into my own practice and applied for this funding to carry me through this period of uncertainty. It was perfect timing and thankfully Arts Council England thought so too.
I’ve worked incredibly hard to build my business up to where it is, it’s taken me years of a lot of hard work to pay for all of my tools and equipment, and I think on top of other work taking my time and attention my creative progression had stalled a bit. I needed a bit of help to get back on track. I attempted to include every area I would need help in the funding application as I wanted to get as much out of the opportunity as possible. I wanted to do it justice. If I was to be awarded funding, I wanted to give the funders bang for their buck. I wanted it to have maximum impact.
The biggest change - I am far more comfortable and confident with who I am as an artist. I’ve started to value just how accomplished I am, the skills and experience I have gained and that I might even be talented as well as just a really hard worker; I’ve heard the t word so many times but always shrugged it off. Now I accept it, and I’m proud to be thought of as such.
I’ve become more receptive to change, to trying new things, and more open to showing my workings and failures - namely sketches which for some reason I’ve mostly kept very private even though they are such a large part of my creative process. More comfortable with the thought of people looking at my inner most workings - I’m getting used to the feeling of being vulnerable.
I’ve stopped playing safe through lack of confidence and started to appreciate that I need to start aiming high again like when I had first graduated. Because why not? The only thing stopping me is me. And lack of money but that's another work in progress! (I’m still very much make one big thing then needing to sell it - which takes time as I can’t afford to do the big shows to get it in front of the right people en masse - to fund making more things, but I’m getting there and immensely proud that my making is funding my making already.)
The past few years I have shied away from approaching people/contacts/opportunities as I felt I wasn’t good enough. This funding/the project has blown those thoughts out of the water - I am good enough and more than that if I don’t at least try, then I will never progress. In fact, a room full of strangers thought I was so worthy they handed over thousands of pounds so that I could invest in myself and my development. How cool is that? And something I will never take for granted.
I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on what I have enjoyed creating and doing, and to really ponder on how I want my future creative career to look. Through lots of conversations and discussions with those that the funding caused me to cross paths with I have been able to build a really clear picture of what would work for me. These conversations have been open and honest, with people sharing their experiences warts and all, which is a result of spending long periods of time together. I now see how valuable that is, how important these conversations have been and how they will inform my progress.
I even had a selection of my 30 sketches in 30 days exhibited in London - something I’m very proud of. It was such a step out of my comfort zone, showing something which wasn’t finished, resolved and perfect. I’m learning to lean into discomfort and understand that it is a necessary step in growing.
Of course I am not where I want to be, it hasn’t been a magic wand, but it has given me the time, space and insight to get not only my making flowing again but also understand myself better as a silversmith/artist, and consider where I want to head. There is still so much to learn, so much to do, but I am so much better equipped now thanks to Arts Council England having the faith in me to fund my project, and not wanting a tangible outcome other than for me to have developed within my creative practice.
So yeah, it's over, and now it's back to reality however that reality looks so much better than it did before I embarked on this project. Thank you Arts Council England, thank you everyone who plays the National Lottery as that is where the money came from, and thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of me and this project. It means so much when people send me messages of encouragement and I’ll admit quite a few have had me in tears.
Now to let everything I have learned settle, give myself time to digest it all, so I can start to build it into my practice going forward. It will continue to be slow and steady but I’ve a few exciting things on the horizon so stay tuned…
