Our Experience: Getting into the Creative Arts

On Sunday 5 July, Artswork hosted United in Art, a free online workshop festival curated by our Youth Board. United in Art was designed to widen access to creative practice, focusing on a range of skills and creative approaches that the Youth Board felt would be especially inspiring for young people, while also showcasing the work of artists representing voices from the margins. The day concluded with a conversation between three artists: photographer and videographer Rosie Hadridge-Powell, multi-disciplinary artist and musician Cleo Savva, and visual artist and theatre-maker Nicolette Carter, chaired by Kaia Allen-Bevan from Youth the Gap CIC.

This is the third of four articles edited from a transcript of their brilliant conversation, which the Youth Board wanted to publish to widen access to their inspiring ideas.

Navigating creative pathways beyond financial barriers

Kaia:

When I think of barriers, especially, I think there’s a lot of financial barriers when it comes to creative careers. And I’d love to hear from you how you’ve made your creative pathway work without a budget. Because I think there’s a lot of misconceptions around if you are, say, a music artist, you must have this five-grand budget to spend on just this music video. How have you made it work?

Nicolette:

I think I’m going to talk about the theatre making side of it because I found it so, so hard to get into it and people would literally not even answer my emails or, if they would, then hiring theatres was thousands of pounds. And then I got to hear about what’s called a box office split, which I’m sure some of you know of. So instead of having to hire the theatre, they take a percentage of your ticket revenue. So that means you haven’t got that initial outlay, so it’s much safer. The way I’ve funded my theatre making is by selling my artwork.

I haven’t cracked the art of getting public funding yet. I’m very daunted by it. I have done one Arts Council application. It took me so long. And then it’s a thing of like, ​‘Oh, great project, really eligible. We’ve got so many other projects. Try again.’ That has been my experience. So now I think, well, I make my own money and then I make my own theatre. Does that work? And I think, ​‘well, why not?’ If that’s what I have to do, you know, if it pays and then I can subsidise it in that way. And hopefully the more I go on, the more ticket sales will actually cover.

If that makes sense, the more experience you get, the more people are willing to give you a go, and then, and it kind of grows, so that’s what I would say.

Rosie:

From an equipment perspective from photography and filmmaking, I think I learned quite quickly that I hated talking about gear. I would always be somewhere, and someone would come up and start talking about equipment. And similar to what I said in the chat earlier, because I was self-taught and a lot of the equipment, well, all of the equipment I was using was either borrowed or second-hand – I always felt that I was a bit less and didn’t really know what I was doing.

Yet the people that I was producing work for were happy with what I created, and they didn’t know what gear I was using and how I was doing it. So I think that was something that I then used to just focus on. It wasn’t about the gear that I had, but it was how I was using it. And I still do that now that although I’m able to buy better equipment than I was a few years ago. I still am using it as, I’m not buying the best equipment that you can. I’m kind of using stuff until it breaks or I feel like I’m, as an artist, unable to create the things that I want to create.

So for me, it’s less about the gear, because I have no idea. And yeah, it’s more about just creating the work.

I also do quite a lot of skill swaps. So if there’s something that I really want to do, like at the moment, I’m trying to do a bit more flash photography, because that’s something that I have no experience in at all. So I’m doing quite a lot of skill swaps with people where I’m offering flash photography for their time if they’re dancers or musicians. So they’ve got something to use in their portfolio. So if it’s in terms of like a low-budget thing, maybe there’s no budget at all, then actually you’re swapping one thing for the other, like the good old days.

Cleo:

I’ve still not quite worked out money in life. I’m not sure I ever will, to be honest. But I do make all of my, you know, a small amount of money from musical things, mostly, or music adjacent things. It’s quite a funny one [as a musician] not making tangible art. Because I don’t have material – the thing I have to sell is literally myself…

And with equipment, again, like Rosie was saying, no one knows what you use. Equipment in creative industries is like handbags at school. You don’t need a really fancy handbag to carry your stuff in as long as it carries your stuff and you like it. And with music now, bedroom producing and stuff that you can do is amazing compared to what it was even ten years ago. I was doing this project where I built a recording studio in the basement of a hostel for people experiencing homelessness in Westminster. And I met this guy when I was doing some outreach on the street, he was literally making garage bangers from his like phone, on the street, and they were amazing. And they were all on SoundCloud and they were all free to download.

And so yeah, equipment is something that people were definitely trying to scare you with. All of my equipment is second hand, all of my instruments, I’ve swapped stuff. Facebook Marketplace is where I live, trying to find things like that! And also mutual aid is massive. So make friends in your communities and beyond!

And, there also is something to be said about co-creating with people. So, an example of that is my record that I’m working on at the moment. Everybody that I’m collaborating with, I’m asking ​‘Would you like me to pay you up front for your time? Or would you like a split of the track that may never make any money? Or a bit of both? However – it’s your choice.’ Partly it was because I didn’t want anybody to be functional. I wanted everybody to be creative as a part of it. But I also wanted to offer people the choice to do what they needed, because sometimes we need the money. And sometimes you’re actually really creatively invested in this and want to do that.

But also skill swaps. So I’ve done all different kinds of things for friends as skill swaps. And sometimes they’ll approach me, sometimes I’ll approach them. And with a really open heart as well, being ​‘If you can’t do it, I totally understand’. Or ​‘If you need to have a fee, let’s talk about it.’ And being really open about money as well. I don’t come from money and I’ve never had it. So I’ve never been scared about talking about it because everyone already knows that I don’t have any. So it’s not like I’m trying to hide my riches. I’m rich in life! And I’ve also been lucky enough to live in alternative housing and squats and co-ops and stuff for a really long time, which has also enabled me to make more art. And also, I’ve had a million side jobs. I have them all the time. Like this week I’ve been like crazy busy with musical work, but sometimes I’ll literally just work in a cafe, or I used to clean nightclubs. I do not advise this! But you know, you got to do what you got to do. And then I would do what Nicolette was saying – I would Robin Hood the money. I would just work really hard over a summer being a lifeguard and put that bit of money away and then think ​‘Okay, right, what can I do with this? Or what do I need to do with this?’

So often the people that have all the power will often have the money. And if you’re not doing something that kind of adheres to their prescribed outcomes, then they won’t want to give you the money, no matter how amazing you are and no matter how great it is what you do. That is a really important thing to remember when you’re making art, is that if someone doesn’t want to book you or pay you for it, it doesn’t mean that what you’re doing is not good or that is not valuable, it just might not be the thing that that person can sell in this capitalist economy. So self-funding and crowdsourcing and reaching out and mutual aid are all equally valuable. You can’t pay your bills in exposure though, so, you know, try not to just always take that!

Rosie:

I just wanted to add that I also found it really helpful to reach out to people that were doing something similar to me and asking them. I know this is going to contradict me not wanting to talk about gear, but asking them what equipment they use because sometimes it’s hard to know what the best thing to use. And if you talk to people that are doing stuff that you do or want to do, you can find out what they use. And then you could do your research and see what that looks like so that you don’t end up buying something that isn’t actually what you need.

And also a lot of the time, when I was starting out, and maybe this is quite lucky of me, but some people were like, ​‘Well, actually, I’m just thinking about getting a new camera. Can I sell you my old one?’ And then all of a sudden, I’m able to get my hands on a cheaper camera because I’ve kind of prompted someone or I get first dibs just because I sort of messaged them on Instagram. So yeah, I think that’s sort of like, it’s not a skill swap, but a reaching out to someone in the industry that might be able to give you a bit of advice or also tell you not to get something because actually it’s useless as well. And so you’re spending your money more efficiently as well. So yeah, I think reach out to people and just asking advice about things as well can save you a lot.

Cleo:

And borrow stuff from each other because there’s also this amazing thing called the Library of Things. They’re not everywhere, but there’s quite a lot dotted all over England, where you can borrow things, literally like a library, but there are items, tools, cameras, equipment. I think you even borrow microphones and stuff like this now. And also borrow them from each other because, you know, if you have a friend who’s an engineer and they’ve got these really nice mics and you ask ​‘Hey, can I borrow those really nice mics that I’ll be really careful with and definitely give them back to you unharmed!’ And they’re like, ​’Yeah’, or they’re ​‘No, not without me’. And then I ask, ​‘Would you like to come and do this weird project that I’m doing?’ And sometimes people just do, so you don’t have to own everything.