June Musings; it’s workshop time!
How fast is this year going? It seems only last week I was writing May’s blog; I guess this is what happens when life is a bit bonkers! The building work in our doer-upper continues; I have a working sink with tiles and a shelf up in the studio and the garage is now an actual room with plastered walls and a chimney breast!!! We are now at the stage of choosing colours, curtains and flooring - the exciting bit! We need to get all of this decided before we go on holiday in a few weeks as we don’t want to hold up the builders when we are away!
It very much feels like the count down to the summer holidays in my house as my eldest finishes year 7 and my twins finish year 5, and I have soooo much to do before it arrives! I have been working hard on a series of original pieces for Art:Surrey in October and when I factor in how long each piece takes and then the whole ‘squeezing in work when I can’ during the summer holidays it isn’t long at all - eek! As well as this I have been visiting libraries and running workshops to promote the Neuron Series which has been a lot of fun! Before having my eldest son I was an Art teacher and Head of Art and Photography so it was both strange and surprisingly easy to slip back into teaching again; just without the targets, paperwork and constant monitoring;)
I recently ran a workshop at WERFA Pavillion and it was such a great afternoon. There were two 45 minute sessions which were booked before the event with limited places. I had thoroughly planned the sessions with included a quick introduction and movement activity on what a neuron is and does, a reading of one of the books from the Neuron series, a chat about neurodiversity, superhero headband creating about each child’s superpowers, and finally a design your own neuron activity. I also set up a ‘Senses Room’ where children could explore their senses with different activities as well as neuron colouring sheets for after the session. It was a jam packed afternoon with a lot of activities. The afternoon whizzed by, the kids were fantastic and so engaged, and even the parents got involved.
The whole experience from booking in the date was made so easy and WERFA was just lovely to work with. They promoted the event through social media, contacted schools, helped set up the event on the day, supported the kids during the activities and even made neuron biscuits which were delicious! To have this kind of support and belief in the books was just fantastic. It got me thinking about what makes a successful workshop event whether it’s to promote books or running a creative workshop. So, I thought for this month’s blog I would share my experience with some tips!
Tips for running workshops:
At the very start get in a date, time and confirm the price! Once you know the date you can plan other work around it to make sure you have time to prepare for this workshop. It is also important that you are paid for your time - you should not work for free unless you will get something out of it to make it worth while! Your time is just as valuable as the next persons, don’t forget it!
What are you teaching? What do you want your clients to gain from this workshop? Once you know this you can create, decide on and develop the task.
Agree a rough plan so both parties are happy with the direction the workshop is going in. Your client is paying you and so needs to know what they are getting for their money and you need to feel confident that what you are offering fits those expectations. Good communication is crucial as well as building a positive relationship where both parties can be honest.
Plan and prepare! Develop a structure for your session and include timings so you know what you are doing, for how long and in which order. This will give you confidence and your workshop pace.
Create resources, examples and visuals. Make the workshop visually interesting, show examples and demonstrate what the task is to make it clear for everyone who attends.
Be organised! Make sure you have everything you need plus spares. You will feel more confident, in control and professional.
Practice before hand, even if it’s just in your head.
Be flexible during the workshop if you need to. Things happen and sometimes you might need to adapt slightly.
Enjoy it! If you have fun it will show and people will get swept along with you.
Ask someone to take photos during the workshop. These are an important way to promote future workshops and show what you do. Photos of past events along with feedback/quotes can be shared on social media, newsletters and on your website.
If you are thinking of planning and running a workshop I hope this has helped. I have learnt so much from talking to artists and reading their blogs and newsletters who are happy to share their thoughts and experience. It has saved me so much time and trial and error!
I am now starting to expand and develop this workshop for a several two hour sessions in September for classes of year 3 students as well as gearing up to contact schools for bookings in the next academic year. But first, I need to finish my current piece of work and pack for my much needed holiday!
See you in July!!!!