Lindsey Smith is a photographic artist and freelance facilitator. Her professional sector exists within public engagement in the arts, part of the cultural sector which has value nationally and contributes to the UK economy. It is possible to make an average income working as a freelance facilitator, which is around £34,000.
The role is diverse. Some days she runs workshops in schools, either ones she has pre-designed herself or bespoke ones, linking directly to the students curriculum. The outcome of such workshops is to get the students enthusiastic about making art. Other days she may deliver skills based workshops to staff in order to raise the expertise of the teachers. She also spends time making resources for teachers to deliver. In other cases she plays the role of enabler so people can make artwork of their own. This may occur in galleries or outside of conventional learning environments and may culminate in a public exhibition. It’s all about widening participation in the arts. She also works with early career artists or young professionals working in galleries, giving them opportunities to improve their skills in marketing or develop their own practice. She is a mediator, making things happen, taking agency and being a driving force. She recently collaborated with the corridor project (https://www.corridorprojects.org.uk/whoweare) on a socially engaged project, part of her own personal practice.
She spoke about the importance of short term volunteer work, testing out if the career is for you, picking and choosing relevant opportunities because you never know who you will meet and keeping in the loop with what’s happening through signing up to newsletters. She said the most important thing to express as an early career creative is enthusiasm and getting volunteer work can be as simple as sending off an email concerning your interest. The idea of being a freelance facilitator and delivering workshops sounds like something I would enjoy doing. This summer I plan to reach out to Kitty Bew, Danit Ariel and Claire Wearn about opportunities where I could assist the delivery of workshops.