Tag: Culture Mile

Posted on

Barbican Culture Mile Creative Freelancer program on now until June

If you are a creative freelancer living or working in the Culture Mile area, here’s a chance to dialogue and connect with other local creative freelancers, network and refine your skills.

(If you’re further afield, don’t get discouraged – read on to the end!)

Culture Mile invites you to join them as they host a series of online workshops & spaces of exchange for freelancers working in the creative and cultural industries to develop their skills, creative practice and wellbeing in these unsteady times of pandemic.

COVID-19 has brought change, uncertainty and new ways of working for all sectors and we recognise this has significantly impacted freelancers in the creative industries. Questions need to be answered, such as what have we learned and where are we now?

Culture Mile invited freelancers, artists and facilitators to share their experience, knowledge and tools across the following sessions:

‍

16 March          Funding in the current COVID landscape – led by Sarah Waldron

What’s changed in the arts funding landscape over the past year? Where can creatives go to look for funding, and what are some of the key things to include or avoid in your applications?  Freelance project developer & bid writer Sarah Waldron gives us her guide navigating fundraising in our current situation.

‍

23 March         Beyond Zoom: digital platforms for creative activity – led by Paula  Varjack

What tools are available online to help artists and freelancers present and share their work? From hosting interactive live performances to collaborative discussion spaces, this session will give a quick overview to some of the useful platforms available.

30 March          Creative Process: translating to and creating for Digital-led by Jenn Ellis & Paula Varjack

How does an artist authentically move a live experience to virtual? How might a creative idea grow directly from digital material? Curator Jenn Ellis and performance, video & participatory artist Paula Varjack share their creative practice and artistic process, moving between digital and ‘real’ space.  

13 April             Conducting yourself as a creative business online– led by Kei Maye

From negotiating fees to personal branding: Kei Maye, a digital content creator, creative consultant and Founder of Social Enterprise Creative Champs will take you through a crash course with practical tips and guidance on how to conduct yourself as a creative business online.

27 April              Reflecting on Yourself as an Artist-led by Lizzie Reid

“With greater self-knowledge comes greater understanding”. Join freelance artist and facilitator Lizzie Reid in this explorative workshop utilising the tool of self-reflection.  Delve into understanding WHY you do what you do to develop your practise and produce more meaningful and authentic work.

11 May              Putting Reflection into Action – in partnership with and led by Guildhall Coaching Associates, part of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

How do you move from reflection to action?  Begin outlining the steps to make things happen and take away tools to help you continue on your way.      

25 May              Asking the Right Questions: Business Planning Tools: led by Wendy Foster, in partnership with City Business Library

Think through what your business might practically need to thrive, working your way through a business model canvas. Explore how you might adapt and support your work in these ever-changing times.

8 June                SME support within Culture Mile: How Can We Help? A session with Culture Mile, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, City Business Library, Barbican Centre, Museum of London, Corporation of London

A chance for introduction and exchange with the core partners of Culture Mile.

‍

All sessions take place on Zoom between 9:30am – 11.00am, including networking from 10:45am.

Spaces are free but require booking in advance. You may book for individual sessions or all of the them. Please note that priority will be given to those living and working in the local area, with some tickets held for those from further afield.

Posted on

The Cost Of Cutting Culture: A discussion

The Cost of Cutting Culture – can a creative education close the business skills gap?

A lively and engrossing discussion formed the majority of the Lord Mayor’s Gresham College Lecture on Thursday 9th January, attended by a packed audience and a knowledgeable panel including William Russell, Lord Mayor of London, and the directors of the City of London’s key cultural institutions: Kathryn McDowell CBE, DL, MD of the London Symphony Orchestra, Lynne Williams who is Principal of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Sir Nicholas Kenyon CBE, MD of the Barbican Centre, and Sharon Ament, Director of the Museum of London.

Introduced by the Lord Mayor, he made the points that over the last twenty years the tech companies have replaced the oil and engineering firms as as the world’s largest employers, with a raft of implications for what the jobs of tomorrow will look like.

With the changing demands at work, and the threat of automation to 40% of the UK’s current jobs, creative skills are becoming more important and desirable in the workplace. The so- called “Fusion Skills” – social, analytical and creative skills – will progressively play a larger part in the job descriptions of many future UK Jobs.

The alarming situation is that there is a genuine demotion of the arts in the UK school curriculum. The arts are not represented at GCSE Level at all.

The UK’s future workplaces will need to attract the best candidates by offering creative work environments but also extensions of that out into the environment. People aspire to work and live in areas like Shoreditch, Clerkenwell and Camden, as they are seen to have a creative vibe which enriches their environments. 

Culture Mile is a move to create a similar creative hub destination, a creative partnership between The Barbican Centre, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the LSO and the Museum of London. It aims to create a thriving and intriguing cultural community which runs from Farringdon to Moorgate- the Culture Mile.

The discussion covered what businesses can do to support and drive creativity, and the role of the Culture Mile in supporting a creative society.

Each organisation outlines the way that their work has developed to encompass outreach and life-long learning opportunities in the community, with particular drive to unlock each person’s creativity. The links between culture ,commerce and finance were also discussed.

Questions from the audience included issues such as sponsorship, digital services, and the work of creating a cultural community which could call Culture Mile its home- central to this being affordable housing.

So, lots to enjoy and lots to think about for the future, in a very listenable hour.

You can watch or listen to the whole event via the link here.