Mentoring Programme

Professional Development Programmes for Creative Practitioners.

During 2009 a Training Consortia was established consisting of three organisations, Creative Futures Cumbria, Soundwave, and Prism Arts. The organisations worked together to provide a professional development programme for artists and other creative practitioners who were interested in using their professional skills to work in different contexts.

The course ran between October 09 – July 10. It included weekly evening sessions which covered topics such as Arts Award Advisor Training , Safeguarding and Project Development and Evaluation. These were led by professionals with expertise in these fields. Following the completion of this structured programme, participants had the opportunity to work in different community settings with the support of a lead artist as their ‘mentor’.

Each practitioner was required to keep a personal learning log to help them reflect on their learning and identify appropriate goals to further their professional development. Each of them completed an evaluation report about their experience of working in a community setting.

Twelve practitioners completed the programme. Five of them were particularly interested in working in the educational sector and with the support of their mentor completed short, school based projects. They are looking forward to expanding on this initial experience and undertaking more school based work in the future. Each ‘mentee’ completed an evaluation of their practical community based work. Follow these links to find out more about the experiences of the mentees who worked in schools. Click here to see reports and images.

Although the University of Cumbria was unable to accredit this year’s programme, Fiona Powley, Associate Dean for the Arts, presented certificates to the group. ( Discussions are continuing with the University for a similar programme to be accredited in the future through the new university-partnership training arrangements which will be in place from Jan 2011.)

We would like to congratulate all those who completed the programme and thank the course tutors, the lead artists and  the schools for their professional support. Click here to see the list of participants and leaders.

The 2009-10 Programme was a pilot and was extensively reviewed. Feedback confirmed that the programme was highly valued and with some adjustments should be offered again in the future. What they said about 2009-10 programme.

 We have taken on board the feedback, which indicated that additional on the ground support was required in specific areas eg planning a project, time management, budgeting, shadowing other more experienced artists. As a result this year’s training programme was offered to those mentees who took part in 2009-10 programme to provide them with that additional support. Two trainees have now been selected – Di Markham and Faye Metcalfe - and we will update you on their progress in the coming months. If you think you are interested in joining the programme, either as a ‘mentee’ or a ‘mentor’, please let us know so that we can send you further details when they are available.

Extracts from Mentee Reports