STARTING OUT - our popular business development programme tailored to the needs of early career visual artists, crafts people and designer-makers is continuing with our 3rd course: Market Development.  Course 1 and 2 are now archived in the LEARN section of our Studio54 website and can be accessed for £30 per course - a real bargain!  Plus you benefit from free 1-2-1 advise as part of the Starting Out Programme package.  There are 2 free lessons on-line to try out.

Feedback from some of our participants:-

"Thank you to you and Patricia van den Akker for this mornings session. Patricia is a great enthusiast and made lots of helpful suggestions so I am no longer feeling short of possible ways ahead". Anthony Eccles

"Thanks for the great opportunity t take part in the live webinar session!" Brittany Delany

"Thank you for your email and the Q and A write up. The notes are great -  and thanks again for assisting me in my approach to the Arts Council, that will be very valuable indeed. I'll be in touch when things are ready to discuss". Christine Anderson

How can you take part?

Until June 2014 we will host a series of webinars (presentations delivered via the internet), accompanied by guidance notes, worksheets (homework), tests with options to receive personal feedback to help you understand how to start, develop and sustain a professional creative practice. The programme is offered as 6 short courses, each with a number of lessons. We are working with our EXPERTS to deliver this programme. The experts have a variety of backgrounds and specialist knowledge and will be sharing this with you, as well as offer tips and give you the opportunity to ask questions.

The individual lessons will be introduced by a blog post written by the expert who will be delivering the lesson, posted a week or so before the webinar takes place. After the webinar there is time for you to ask questions. Some Q&A sessions have been scheduled a few days after the webinar so people who are not able to attend the live webinar will have the opportunity to catch up by watching the archived version and then join us for the Q&A session. A summary of the Q&A session will shared in a blog post.

You can sign up and pay for the programme per course and you can do this on-line. Just follow the PayPal instructions. Please do read the course information carefully to make sure you understand what we cover in the lesson so you can judge whether it is appropriate to your needs. And do take the FREE ‘Are You Ready’ test in the LEARN section to see if the course is for you.  Lesson 2 is a FREE archived webinar that lets you know what to expect from the programme.

Guidance notes and worksheets will accompany some of the lessons to help you understand the subject better and to offer practical tools to help you visualise your business model and test your abilities and knowledge. It is entirely up to the participant to complete and hand in the worksheets but we can offer feedbackshould you wish for it. In return for feedback we ask you if will allow us to showcase examples of completed worksheets as a helpful guide for other (future) participants -  you can stayanonymous if you'd prefer.

Our experts and colleagues will write blogs for the SHARE section to provide extra information on certain topics we cover in our programme.  But, we also want to hear from you.  Once you are a subscriber you are able to share your knowledge or offer your personal tips in the comments box attached to these blog posts.

Finally, as course participants you will also be able to get 1 free one-to-one general advisory session with Mir Jansen, the programme manager which can be provided face-to-face (but you will have to come to Sheffield), via Skype or by telephone and/or email. Other experts may be willing to offer ongoing mentoring support but are likely to charge for this. Mir will be able to pass any such requests on to the expert of your choice and he/she will then contact you directly if they like to offer further support.

JOIN NOW : read, share, learn or ask your question on any aspect of your professional develoment.  We also welcome your stories on topics we have not yet covered. Email mir@studio54ya.org.uk to offer suggestions.