Continued Professional and Personal Development - evaluation.

Here is a brief summary of the career prospects research I have been doing over the past year. It focuses mainly on how I intend to substain my practice as an artist, when I leave college.

Prospects for the self-employed are challenging in the current economic climate. However, in my favour I have been self-employed for 20 years, so have experience in business, dealing with HMRC and teaching adults. It is also helpful that I am adaptable, organized, motivated, and have other income streams.

My career plan is to continue my existing businesses and develop as a freelance artist who sells and teaches arts and crafts. I have four exhibitions coming up in the next 18 months and three bookings at Conferences and Events locally. These will enable me to exhibit, facilitate workshops, lecture, and network. I also plan to keep learning, adapting, reviewing, and developing. I have secured two positions within community arts, one online (employed) and the other in person (freelance). These are at Swarthmore Education Centre and Reveolution.

I have been researching funding to help me sustain my practice. I have attended talks and consulted with my mentor and discovered that I can apply for a National Lottery Project Grant. It’s an ideal time to apply because there are no current requirements for match funding. The ‘protected characteristics’ of being female and a member of a marginalized religion are to my advantage. I plan to use this funding to make contacts relevant to my artistic identity and engage the public in community arts. I also intend to apply to the Eaton Fund to help me pay for my forthcoming exhibition at Lytham Heritage Centre.

I have been improving my online presence, particularly on my website and blog. Also regularly updating my blog, Instagram, Linked in and Facebook. I look online for career and funding opportunities and have joined a-n and subscribed to appropriate websites. I am aware that these are ongoing tasks like networking, self-promotion and researching.