Blog post 2: Graduates in Creative Practice Talk

I attended a creative practice talk at Grand Parade. Two artists, Rosie Penny and Miranda Forrester spoke about how they started their careers after graduating from their courses at Uob. They gave lots of inside advice on working in the professional art world.

Rosie Penny was the first graduate to speak about her creative practice.

• Studied illustration.
• A writer, but also still works very visually. For example Art on a Postcard https://artonapostcard.com
• “Research can be a practice in itself”.
• She highlighted how applying for ‘open calls’ is a great way to meet people and get your work seen.

The second artist was Miranda Forrester.

• Studied on the painting course.
• She is now an artist/painter.
• Had a solo show last year with the work she made at an artist residency.
• Made a textile design for Brighton Soho house and a mural for Meta offices.
• One of her key points of advice was to learn how to photograph your work well to use it for your website.
• She advised to look at a favourite artist CV, what residences or what galleries they have worked with, and take notes from it.
• Similarly to Rosie Penny, she advised that applying for ‘open calls’ is the best way to get your work seen, especially when initially graduating from University.

Both artists have been very successful since graduating and the main point that they reiterated is important to do is apply for ‘open calls’.

Research on Open Calls

Photography specific, a wide range of current opportunities – some of which do not have a deadline:

https://www.londonphotography.org.uk/opportunities/

A link with a number of different calls, from around the world. When clicking ‘submit’ you are also asked to ‘say something about your work’, so it is important to have a succinct artist statement:

https://www.loosenart.com/pages/calls\

A link to a specific open call with PHMuseum, however this one has an entry fee:

https://phmuseum.com/awards/belfast-photo-festival-2024

For female and non-binary photographers only, they state you have the opportunity to sell prints at the museum as well, indicating that being a part of these exhibitions is great coverage for your work:

https://www.fotofemmeunited.com/article/580-photography-the-universal-language/

Including both artists and photographers, the call states the production budget and also awards a commission fee of 500 pounds to help develop work further:

https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/open-call-create-exhibition-activity

Researching the many open calls that are available for me to apply to has encouraged me to start thinking about the kind of work that I could enter and how this could be beneficial to increasing my works’ visibility within the art world.