Funding from Arts Council England
Back in April I received the very exciting news that my application to Arts Council England for funding under their Developing Your Creative Practice scheme has been successful. The fund supports individual creative practitioners and want to take time to focus on their creative development.
For the past few years I’ve been balancing my time between my graphic design practice and illustrated wedding stationery commissions, alongside creating linocut prints in my spare time.
I often found myself wishing I had more time to dedicate to printmaking to really develop my creative ‘voice’ and have the ability to create a larger body of work. As many creatives know, it can be a tricky balancing act between doing work that gives us an income and that which allows as complete creative freedom and the chance to experiment any direction we so wish. When I discovered an article online about the Developing Your Creative Practice funding scheme I was intrigued - I had no idea such funding opportunities existed for creatives...
Needless to say, I spent a long time crafting my application - it was not just a quick job as the Arts Council require a fully detailed submission including an activity plan, examples of your work and a full cost breakdown. My inner critic kept reminding me of how competitive the scheme was and that I probably wouldn’t get the funding - but I also knew that I’d invested time in putting together a strong application and had given it my best shot!
I plan to work on my printmaking practice part-time, whilst also continuing my work as a freelance designer and offering illustrated wedding stationery. I’m so excited to have a period of time with full creative freedom - don’t get me wrong, this is also quite a daunting prospect! But the funding will help me on my creative journey in so many ways and will allow me to:
Undertake 6 months of research & development to evolve my printmaking practice
Enrol on a 10 week course with the Open College of the Arts called ‘Investigating Place with Psychogeography’ that will provide a framework for my creative practice
Attend a local printmaking club to work alongside and learn from fellow printmakers
Financially support myself for the duration of the development period
Receive mentorship from a tutor
Buy a press - the brilliant Jan from Woodzilla makes amazing presses. Stay tuned for another blog post about my new A3 relief press!
Allow me to do research trips and much more...
I’ll be posting regular updates on Instagram - check out my work and give me a follow: @createdbyjen.
Interested to read more about the fund? Check out www.artscouncil.org.uk/dycp for more details.
Jen x