Becoming A Creative- Tackling The Art World Head On
Written by Cady Davies.
For most of my life, I put off the idea of having art be my career. Even though I was confident in my skills, and had the support of friends and family, there was always something holding me back.
Over the past year, I made the decision to give art more of a go and see where it got me.
Personally, volunteering at Comics Youth led me to gain the confidence to sign up for the Safe Spaces: Reclaiming Community Spaces programme. We decided to host a pop-up exhibition as part of our event, and I created a comic to be exhibited in it. From this, artists in my home town reached out to ask me to be an illustrator/graphic artist on an upcoming publication, because they saw I had the skills necessary for the job. It’s interesting to see what doing new, different things can lead to!
I’m going to share some top tips I’ve learned over the past year to help you get started on your creative journey. Some of these tips may help you, some may not! The path you pave will be suited to your own wants, needs and aspirations. Everything is completely up to you!
Getting started as a creative is said to be difficult, but that doesn’t have to be the case!
Go to free events in your local area, you never know who you may meet! Arts markets, performances, exhibitions, workshops; there’s plenty of options to choose from. Meeting like-minded creatives can make you feel inspired, less alone and empowered in your own craft. You can discover local events through social media, such as Instagram or Facebook. Local organisations will also have knowledge on events and may be able to provide advice on events that will be up your alley.
For events that aren’t free, organisations that are local and linked to the event may provide free or discounted tickets, so keep an eye out!
Sign up to workshops and programmes in your area. You don’t need to sign up to a year-long course to learn something! Local collages will do night classes in all sorts of things, such as jewellery making, ceramics, photography, life drawing, the list is endless! Museums, galleries, charities and youth clubs all have programmes and workshops to offer. For example, Comics Youth runs the Safe Spaces: Reclaiming Community Spaces programme, which includes creating an event with other young people over the span of 12 weeks. Another example is the organisation *Young Homotopia*, who run skills workshops in the Liverpool city region.
Lots of creatives have a speciality they stick to when it comes to their practice. For example, a creative may refer to themselves as an illustrator, photographer, writer, graphic designer, amongst many more! Whilst you may be confident in what creative pathway you wish to go down, it is always good to explore other practices to broaden your creative knowledge, possibly go out of your comfort zone, and maybe find a new creative practice you enjoy! That being said, you may find you don’t enjoy a certain practice, and that’s perfectly fine. You don’t have to enjoy everything!
Try and do something creative every day. Even if it’s doodling or writing for ten minutes before bed, this is better than nothing! Letting your creativity flow regularly can massively improve your practice in the long run, and you will notice a difference over time.
Pace yourself, and let yourself have breaks. You may feel a pressure to practise your craft as much as you can, but this should not be at the expense of your physical and mental health. If you work on something for a long period of time without taking breaks, your view of it can become distorted. Stepping away from your work, taking a break, and returning with a fresh pair of eyes can make you view it in a completely new light.
Being marginalised can also bring lots of barriers to establishing and maintaining a career as a creative.
Not having a disposable, comfortable income beforehand can impact pursuing a career within the arts. Not having the money to spend on art supplies, travel and ticketed events can greatly impact someone’s motivation. Lots of careers within the arts don’t provide a stable income for a long time and can be competitive compared to other career paths.
Not having the time and space to be creative can also have a heavy impact on those who wish to be a full-time artist. Whether this is because of a full-time job, not having enough space within the home/living situation to make artwork, being a full time parent or carer, not having a comfortable place to live, amongst many other reasons.
There isn’t enough funding provided for organisations to help marginalised people through their hardships. Over the years, youth clubs and art organisations have had to close their doors due to the cuts in funding, which was there to ensure they had the means to empower people, and help them find their place in the world. With less and less active organisations that focus on empowering current generations along with the next, there are less options for marginalised people to have access to something that could change their life.
Personally, I have felt many of these barriers when approaching the idea of art being my career of choice. As a carer, there have been times I’ve been directly told there was not enough funding given to organisations to help with issues I’ve faced. I’ve felt like the path ahead of me was broken and blurry for a myriad of reasons, all because there isn’t enough support available.
There are ways both individual creatives and organisations can help reduce the barriers marginalised people face when getting involved with the arts.
Provide free and accessible events for creatives to meet each other. Oftentimes, events are London-based, which prevents those who live far away from attending. Travel can be costly and draining, both emotionally and physically. Hosting events in different areas that don’t have as many art organisations would open doors for those who live there.
Ensure your events and venues are as accessible as you can make them. Educate yourself on a variety of access needs that can be put in place. This will ensure as many people as possible can attend your event. If you are unable to make a part of the event accessible, make people attending aware beforehand. This can be through advertising and signage on the day. If guests have signed up in advance, communicate with them to give them the option to share any access needs they require for the day.
If you are an individual artist, being open to helping other artists and being a person to speak to can be a very enriching experience to both you and other artists. You may have more experience than others, and even the littlest bit of advice can be invaluable. Whether it’s a casual chat at an artist meet-up or over social media, or more formal through an organisation, such as Arts Emergency as a mentor, there are plenty of ways to share your expertise, no matter how much or little you have to offer! Even newer artists will have a story or two to share, never doubt your knowledge!
Listen to marginalised people, and hold yourself accountable. Learning from marginalised people and their experiences can give you a wider perspective, and inform you on what you can do to make things better.
At Comics Youth, the Marginal Publishing House and Marginal Changemakers programme aims to open doors for marginalised young people to let their stories be heard.
The Marginal Publishing House runs a publishing programme, which allows the author to lead the way through the creative process whilst learning the ins and outs of the publishing world. This leads to authentic, beautiful publications where the author’s ideas and passions are brought to life.
The aim of the Marginal Publishing House is to tell stories not usually heard, due to the barriers in accessing the publishing world for marginalised people. These barriers range from publishers not wanting to ‘risk’ their business in publishing stories that could be seen as ‘controversial’ to simply not wanting to take a chance with a new author that does not already have a platform, and rather focus on ‘big names’ that have a platform already.
One of the ways we are challenging these issues is through the Marginal Changemakers programme. Emily McChrystal, published author and Youth Empowerment Director at Comics Youth, is leading the programme, which involves several passionate marginalised young people leading the fight in making publishing, and the media people read, more accessible. I myself, am one of the young people that will be involved in creating a national campaign to share our thoughts, feelings, ideas and questions on why everybody should be listening to young marginalised people when it comes to social change. Another goal is to create an inclusivity charter, which publishers across the UK will sign to declare their support of our demands. Keep an eye out over the next few months to see what we’re up to next!