Launched in 2013, Studio 54 is a professional development training portal for artists, designers & craftspeople.

Studio 54 is a place to share your knowledge and offer tips or comments and advice. Read advice from Patrica van den Akker, Director at The Design Trust about managing your time effectively and setting goals to hourly rates and pricing. Also, apply to contribute your own topic relating to artists’ professional development by emailing lucia@studio54ya.org.uk or suggest a topic that you would like addressed by Studio 54’s panel of experts via the Q&A section.

Learn by attending one of the Studio’s professional development ‘Starting Out’ programmes which covers business plans and models, marketing and selling and dealing with the financial aspects of your business. The course comprises of webinar presentations, interviews with creatives and exercise tasks.

There are plenty or resources to find on Studio 54’s site. Start by reading how Designer Maker Lianne Mellor got her work stocked in Liberty and House of Fraser. Also take a look at the benefits of collaborative working by contemporary textile and fibre artist Alice Kettle. Then see key points on raising funds from different sources by programme manager at Yorkshire Artspace Mir Jansen.

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

The Hidden Door Festival is a nine day pop-up event which sees twenty-four vaults on Market Street filled with art installations, live music venues, bars, a theatre and a cinema. The event will include over 80 visual artists, 50 live music acts, 40 filmmakers, 30 poets and 30 performers. Established with the idea of fostering experimentation and collaboration amongst artists, there will be several large scale installations including work from printmaker Bronwen Sleigh and artist David Cass. The festival will be free until 6pm every day. By night, the vaults will play host to a series of unique parties, one for each evening the festival runs.

The Hidden Door Festival runs from 28 March to 5 April in Edinburgh’s Market Street Vaults. For more information and ticket details see the Hidden Door Festival website.

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Alpha-ville launches EXCHANGE – a new series of events designed to give the London art, tech and creative communities the opportunity to connect, exchange ideas, get inspired and discover new talent.

The concept “EXCHANGE” underlines the notion of crossing talents and further connecting the frontiers of artistic expression with design and technology. The first of the series takes place on Friday 17 January 2014 at Rich Mix Cinema and Arts Centre and brings together some of the world’s most talented artists, creatives and designers of today to talk about their practice, influences and recent works.

“Energy Flow _ Life” (print) by Field.

The first set of artists include: Eno Henze, Field, Onformative, Quayole and Shantell Martin with more to be announced soon.

EXCHANGE 1 features a day programme packed with presentations, talks and social events alongside a music programme in the evening for attendees to network and enjoy. Work will be presented across: motion graphics, graphic design, illustration, interaction design, generative design, digital and software art, mixed media art, data visualisation and more. Professionals from across the arts, culture, digital media and creative industries spectrums are welcome to attend.

For more information, go here. To book your tickets, visit here.

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This is my favourite time in the festival planning cycle – when we not only know what’s going to be in the festival programme, but we can talk about it. This year is a particularly significant one for us as we celebrate our tenth edition – a kind of coming of age (although we are still the youngest of Edinburgh’s August festivals). Our programme reflects our growing ambition. We’ll have 45 exhibitions in over 30 venues across the city, as well as our largest programme of publicly sited commissions to date.

I’m really looking forward to having the time to reflect on what happens when artists collaborate with one another. This is something we have been considering in our Parley commissions programme, and there are some great exhibitions dedicated to this too. Inverleith House’s Mostly West explores the collaborations of the recently deceased Franz West with such major and diverse figures from the contemporary art world as Douglas Gordon, Mike Kelly, Sarah Lucas and Michelangelo Pistoletto.

Jupiter Artland is looking at the longstanding collaboration between Jeremy Deller and Alan Kane, in an exhibition which includes the amazing Steam Powered Internet Machine (and for people who didn’t make it to Documenta last year (or did and loved it), there’s a one in a lifetime opportunity to see Sam Durant’s Scaffold).

Paul Rooney with Leeds United at Edinburgh College of Art is another interesting collaboration. Paul Rooney originally studied at ECA, and has been attracting increasing attention since winning the Northern Art Prize in 2008. If Mostly West shows us jointly authored works, Rooney and the artist collective Leeds United are making an exhibition which deliberately blurs the edges between each other’s practice – less a collaboration than a deliberate obliteration or confusion of the boundaries of individual authorship.

There’s some great new work by younger artists featured in this year’s programme. Rhubaba’s project with Polish artist, Lucy Pawlak, is a definite must see – the artist will set herself up for duration of the festival in the role of a Producer of a narrative feature film, and visitors, as well as invited experts will be invited to become involved in the creation of the final piece.

National Museum of Scotland have the second in a series of commissions which invite contemporary artists to work with their collections – Ilana Halperin has been exploring the museum’s geological and mineralogical collections. The other must-see at the museum is the Mary Queen of Scots exhibition which explores the elaborately crafted myth around the Queen which still retains its power today. It’s just one in a series of exhibitions in the programme which offer a timely reflection (in view of a certain impending date) on Scottish identity and its constructions. Bourne Fine Art’s exhibition considers how for over two centuries, artists have been crucial in the building a visual picture of Scottishness. While Rachel Maclean’s solo exhibition at Edinburgh Printmakers offers a very contemporary response to some of those same questions.

And lest we think it’s all easily expressed with thistle and tartan, Talbot Rice’s Nam June Paik exhibition (which is also part of the Edinburgh International Festival) reminds us of the profoundly international outlook of Scotland as a nation. Pat Fisher, Senior Curator at the Talbot Rice recently gave a lecture at a Nam June Paik conference in Seoul, entitled ‘Nam June Paik; Honorary Scot’ – and faced with the enticing prospect of the first exhibition in Scotland (birthplace of electromagnetic theory and John Logie Baird) of the artist who incorporated the television into the world of art, it is hard not to see this as a homecoming of sorts.

The Space is also a place where everybody can experiment with ideas and play with images, text and sound.

Why we like it:
The Space provides access to all of the arts in one place where it is absolutely free to discover and enjoy. Their easy to navigate site allows you to find films including BFI Shorts, musical treats, contemporary dance and performance videos.

Find out more:
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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

Why we like it:
It documents past happenings – too many times we get caught up in making sure we’re in every events listing, but where do we document the event? People are more likely to go to your next exhibition if you have interesting images from the previous one. The images & reviews in this blog make us want to travel up to Aberdeen the next time there is something showing at Smart Gallery or the next time we hear Gayle Chong Kwan will be exhibiting anywhere.

Hidden treasure:
The links at the bottom are extensive and exhaustive with a super mix of bigger named artists, establishments & collectives listed as well as lesser known ones. A great resource.

Where to find out more:
Visit the Mood of Collapse blog.

Featured image from Mark McCracken‘s show at Smart Gallery

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Want to take a look at more suggested blogs by artists? Look here.

Nomads, Nuggets and Necrophilia*
The career path I’m travelling along is one not so much fuelled by choices made at school, as can often be the case, but moulded by everyday life and positive influencers. The five jobs I have chosen to share include a couple of part-time escapades that set me on the road to independence and others that have grounded me in the arts and cultural sector. Before going on to my jobs however, I thought a quick background preamble might be useful.

Having had a somewhat nomadic mother meant I moved between three primary schools and two secondary schools, with the longest stay at any one time being around two years. Erratic schooling (and fifteen house moves) is not to be recommended but I see it now as a resilience builder – a new playground, classroom, gym hall or dinner table can be a daunting space but after a couple of changes I became astute at sussing out the friendly zones. I was also drawn to the few teachers who were generous with their time, obviously enjoyed imparting their knowledge but importantly whose radar went wider than the loudest kids. One such early influencer for me was my first year art teacher (Dugald MacInnes) who included the phrase on my report card “Dianne is a very talented young artist”. Although Mr MacInnes’ ‘confidence nugget’ never laid the foundation for what I thought would be a pre- destined design career, his few words of quiet recognition still resonate. At an everyday level they attach an assurance to the decisions I make relating to visual communications but also remind me that there are other avenues still out there for me to explore. Now to the jobs…

One latke or two?
When I mention to some people that I worked in a Jewish ‘chippy’ it normally raises a questioning smile. It was essentially the base where the bagels, potato latkes et al were made to be transported to a shop a few miles away – chips were sold as a small side line. Probably breaking a few employment laws even in the mid-eighties, my entrepreneurial boss Seymour paid me £1 an hour when I was fourteen for up to twenty hours a week. I didn’t actually mind sharing third and fourth year with my chippy work (evenings and weekends only of course! ) because, as well as the bonus of one of the bagel-bakers being easy on the eye, I was able to afford new vinyl singles every week with my riches. As you might guess a school move ended my ‘love affair’ with the Jewish chippy.

Hey Presto…
By the time I was eighteen I had my own flat and rent to pay so a part-time supermarket deli job I’d had for a couple of years morphed into a full-time position. This is when art school got kicked to the touchline. It was also the place I encountered a tough female boss with an incredible work ethic but whose comments, usually personal, could cut like the proverbial knife. Fortunately the job brought two positives – one, I quickly acquired the skills/thick skin needed to work with a challenging boss and secondly, I sliced a chunk of finger off in the meat cutting machine prompting a hasty exit and new horizons.

Exploitation or Opportunity?
Always the knowledge junkie, over recent years my study/professional development has included areas such as business admin, marketing, management development, research, mentoring and social sciences (economics, sociology, psychology, history & politics) but it was through the much maligned Youth Training Scheme (YTS) that I entered the arts. I was a recruit of a renamed and repackaged programme in the early nineties and found myself as a marketing trainee at Scottish Ballet. Criticised as being exploitative, as pay was in line with unemployment benefit, I am still appreciative of this experiential learning opportunity. This was back in the heyday of the (jammed) fax machine, before email and when telephones rang all day. Between rehearsals the dancers could be found hanging out in the cigarette smoke- filled green room or perched expectantly on the desks in our office when the reviews came out. We kept mailing leaflets in a dark dungeon called George’s back passage (the thought of the place still gives me shivers). I have great memories from the Ballet – it was the first place I experienced being part of a close team where humour was the order of the day.

Life with an Idiot…
Marketing hundreds of traditional and contemporary opera, dance, drama, musical theatre and children’s productions and projects in my various roles at Scottish Opera and the Theatre Royal brought many new experiences (not to mention box office targets in the millions). I feel privileged to have been part of the company’s contemporary take on Wagner’s Ring Cycle – an epic rare release that drew countless commendations and boos from the die- hard traditionalists. There were other extremes – Alfred Schnittke’s opera Life with an Idiot shocked (check out the synopsis sometime – beware includes necrophilia*) and Inbal Pinto’s Boobies entranced. Jane Horrock’s peeing on stage in Mark Rylance’s Hare Krishna-esque Macbeth caused a furore and Bradley Walsh was peeved when he didn’t get a gold star on his dressing room door when the theatre hosted the BBC’s National Lottery (allegedly). From world premieres to community concerts, every performance came in for close scrutiny from the press, audiences, funders and investors, as did its accompanying promotional material. There’s no denying that marketing the work of a national company, in tandem with a large receiving venue, makes for pressurised days but I still miss having a box office terminal at the edge of my desk – watching ticket sales rise in response to marketing decisions. I also made lifelong connections with some unique individuals. We got through merger talks and the threat of part-time status. An eclectic twelve years – I loved it.

@CultureSparks #science #art
For the last seven years at Culture Sparks I’ve been interrogating all types of sector data and intelligence to create development and capacity building strategies with members and clients. My consultancies can range from short-term box office sales analyses with a venue through to more involved projects that integrate the many aspects of strategic audience development. Digital technologies and social media are a strong focus – here I combine science with art. Critiquing online conversations, measuring their impact, producing benchmark metrics and influencing strategies means finding creative ways to visualise often complex data that may on the surface appear meaningless. And there’s no standing still at Culture Sparks. A dynamic arts and cultural sector needs tuned into daily for the latest programming, dialogue, trends and opportunities.

One of our latest projects – VeloCityArt – combines all of these elements and more. This new public art initiative is bringing together local communities, artists and planners in Glasgow to create recommendations for a series of cultural programmes and interventions to take place in the city in the run up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Our role is to engage the public in conversations to help shape the long-term transformation of communities alongside project partners and we’ve designed new ways to get people involved in the discussions. You’re very welcome to contribute through our online space – http://viewfromhereglasgow.co.uk.

I’m off to look out my old sketch book…

Culture Sparks is the intelligence and innovation partnership for the cultural sector.

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

Like lots of people I’ve done tons of jobs including working in a pie and bridie factory (I’m from Forfar) but the jobs below are the ones that stick in my mind.

1.    Sales Assistant, Jeffrey Rogers

Ladies over a certain age will remember Jeffrey Rogers, a kind of wannabe River Island that didn’t make it through the ’90s. This was my job through my student days….

2.    Australian Jobs
I spent a year in Australia after graduating and did everything from data testing at Citibank to working in a coffee shop to washing dishes in hostels, all in between drinking too much Tooheys New and cheap wine.

3.    Sales Person / Administrator, ‘Neverfail Spring Water’ 

But my favourite of all these jobs and one worth mentioning was a stint at ‘Neverfail Spring Water’ in Sydney. It was a new company and my job was to call businesses and get them to take free trials of Neverfail Spring Water Coolers. You wouldn’t think it would be difficult selling free water in the summer in Australia but I struggled badly. After a few days the boss spotted my lack of sales talent and gave me one of the best jobs there doing admin work. Sometimes it pays to be bad at something.

4.    Customer Advisor, Scottish Power

I then went from the Technicolor of Australia to a call centre in rainy Glasgow. It was a dark time. For anyone who’s worked in a call centre you’ll know what an utterly sole destroying job it can be. I won’t dwell.

5.    Admin Assistant, Wasps
I needed to get some more office experience fast when I saw the job for Admin Assistant advertised at Wasps way back in 1999. I knew nothing about visual art back then but managed to win over my interviewers at the time (one of them was Chief Exec. David Cook who is also still at Wasps today). I actually said in my C.V. that I had a “real zest for life”. Every now and again David will dig out my original application for a right good laugh. I’ve been incredibly lucky at Wasps and have been able to develop my role as the organisation has grown over the past decade.

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.