The Solent Creative Growth programme by the Solent LEP launches with a series of networking and skills sessions taking place in venues across the region at:
- Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery – 25 October 2022
- River Recording Studios, Southampton – 22 November 2022
- Ventnor Exchange, Isle of Wight – 26 January 2023, 7-9pm (see details below)
- New Forest – March 2023
Each session will focus on a different aspect of the creative sector, ranging from digital technology to fine arts, from film and photography to crafts. Attendees will hear from industry experts about how to tackle a range or challenges in areas such as IP, sales and finances.
As well as joining the network and skills sessions, creative businesses can benefit from free 121 specialist support with industry mentors by joining the Solent LEP’s Create and Grow programme. This programme of four one-hour sessions is aimed at businesses already generating income, those looking to grow, or for start-ups who have made significant investment, including freelances and self-employed creatives. There is further 121 online mentoring support for creatives based on the Isle of Wight.
IW CREATIVE NETWORKING EVENT & 121 CREATIVE BUSINESS MENTORING:
Thursday 26th Jan 7-9pm, 2023 at the Ventnor Exchange.
The IW Creative Network have been working with the Solent LEP to curate and host this very special networking event and panel discussion, exploring events and festivals, sales and marketing skills for visual artists and how to build a sustainable career in the creative sector.
Introducing the event will be Cllr Julie Jones-Evans, the Isle of Wight Council’s Cabinet Member for Levelling Up, Regeneration, Business Development and Tourism.
Panel includes:
- Jack Whitewood – Co-Director of the Ventnor Fringe Festival discusses building an arts ecology in an area which started off with (seemingly) nothing – as well as building audiences. https://vfringe.co.uk/
- Jo Hummel – established Visual Artist based on the IW will share some of her secrets to success, demystify the process, and discuss risk and mindset, and how to export your work and be ‘seen’. https://johummel.com/
- Alys Scott Hawkins – Arts Advisor & Visual Artist is one of the IW Creative Network mentors and now represents a-n’s Artist Council. She will talk about building a sustainable creative career, arts funding and partnership building. https://alysscotthawkins.co.uk/
This event will be hosted at the Ventnor Exchange – set back just off the main High Street at 11 Church Street, Ventnor, PO38 1SW. It’s just 2 mins walk from the town’s main bus stop and a short stroll from the beach and Ventnor Park.
121 Online Creative Business Mentoring sessions with Mick Smith:
Explore new possibilities and gain the confidence and tools to realise the potential of your business or practice with Mick Smith, an experienced Creative Business Mentor. Mick can provide you with up to 3.5 hours of individual Creative Business Mentoring (2hr first session, then a 1.5hr follow up session.)
X15 places are available delivered over 2 sessions via Zoom between now and end of March 2023.
To find out more about the Solent Creative Growth programme, book a place on the networking event or register your interest in the 121 creative business mentoring, please CLICK HERE.
MORE INFO / BIOS:
Co-Director of the Ventnor Fringe Festival, Jack Whitewood discusses how he started the Edinburgh inspired festival in the heart of Ventnor in 2010, with zero funding from the Arts Council, Local Council or the Town Council. Starting with under 200 visitors the event has grown year on year and now invites over 300 artists, performers and practitioners and over 8,500 visitors to see over 100 shows each July.
Jack will discuss how it is possible to build an arts ecology in an area which started off with seemingly nothing – how to grow and develop audiences and navigate the process of taking over a disused post Office into now, one of the Island’s treasured Arts Venues – The Ventnor Exchange.
Ventnor Exchange combines a micro venue, cocktail and craft beer bar, record shop and co-working. It is a bold attempt to create a new type of space on the High Street. As a social enterprise, all of the profits from the venue are reinvested to fund projects that develop the cultural offer of the area, and support opportunities for the next generation.
From major street art commissions to producing Ventnor Fringe, the Island’s largest arts festival, every summer. They also run Brave Island, an innovative new scheme to provide opportunities, funding and support to young people across the Island.
Since graduating from the Royal College of Art, Jo Hummel has exhibited extensively in UK, and Europe, as well as South Africa and the U.S. She is represented by numerous international galleries. Works by Jo are included in both public and private collections, including Christian Dior Collection Paris. Her work has been featured in the Observer newspaper in an article titled ‘‘Next Generation turns its back on Emin and Hirst’s conceptual artworks’, and ‘Picking up a Picasso is one click away’ in the Times. High profile collectors include Sebastian Vettel, Soho House curator Kate Bryan, and celebrity couple Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson.
Jo Hummel’s work is characterised by a painted and paper collaged surface on which she employs spontaneous variations of space, colour and form. Jo’s minimalist expression draws inspiration from the 1920s concrete art, an art form focused on non figurative elements and hard edge geometric lines.
Previously Jo’s creative practice included studio management of Foal Arts, at The Depozitory – an old chapel in Ryde, restored for the local community to host a wide range of events and activities, including artist studios and exhibition space.
Jo will discuss the challenges and successes of exporting your work from the Isle of Wight, how to be ‘seen’ in an overwhelming world of online visual content, and share some of her secrets to success, demystify the process, and discuss risk and mindset when developing a visual arts practice on the Isle of Wight.
Arts Advisor Alys Scott Hawkins gives artists advice on their portfolios, current ideas or ways to progress in their field of work, and at this networking event will talk about building a sustainable creative career.
Alys is a specialist in Artist Support, providing guidance and advice to overcome barriers, plan projects and make funding applications. Previously she led the Artist Development programme at ‘a space’ arts, Southampton, drawing on her long-standing networks within the arts sector across the region. In 2022 Alys provided 1-2-1 Creative Portfolio Advice for members of the IW Creative Network that needed support in developing their portfolios or requiring guidance in arts funding applications.
For the next three years she will be working with 14 other artists on a-n Artists Council, advocating for change in the visual arts.
Over a three-year term, Council members will play a key role in driving the direction of a-n’s advocacy, research and programme activities, bringing valuable skills and experiences to ensure a-n remains relevant and focused on the needs of its 28,000 members.
Alys is also an artist who works with drawing and animation. Her work has been exhibited internationally and won several awards, including the recent New Media Prize in Southampton City Art Gallery’s 2022 Open Exhibition. She has worked as a freelancer, and run her own creative business making films for clients including broadcast TV. She has taught at universities in London and the South West. Alys draws together all these experiences to provide one-to-one support for creative practitioners working across the visual & performing arts.
Mick Smith has built up a portfolio of management and organisational development achievements during his career. Currently the Director of Bridport Art Centre, Mick previously ran Quay Arts as Centre Director between 2006 – 2010. He has also been the recently appointed creative business mentor for members of the IW Creative Network.
Other achievements include project managing and delivering a creative industries business incubation space at the Arts University of Bournemouth, providing freelance arts business mentoring in Southampton, organisational development support on behalf of the Creative Industries Development Agency in Tower Hamlets and supporting the significant growth and development of ‘a space’ arts in Southampton for 15 years (including 9 years as Chair of Trustees).
Mick has also been also a core team member of the ‘Flying Start’ Programme (providing entrepreneurship and business support to graduate creative businesses across the UK). In addition, Mick has been a lifelong musician, playing piano and guitar to a high standard. His long and varied track record in professional performance and composition includes live performances in 27 countries (including broadcast TV in 4 of these) recording and touring with various artists/bands along with writing for film (premiered at Cannes) and theatre.
