Artquest and Emerge partnership

Artquest is delighted to be partnering with Emerge on a new professional development seminar series for emerging artists.

Emerge is a visual arts initiative for emerging artists based in the London Boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Waltham Forest and Westminster, supporting artists' networks and professional development. Emerge is for emerging artists; whether you've just started or you've been practising for a while but could do with a fresh perspective. The Emerge seminars are informal and driven by practical exercises giving participants the opportunity to apply the seminar content in real contexts.

As well as this series of seminars/events Emerge offers online features on artists projects and help and support through its growing artists' network. To find out about these as well as the future events, join the emerge website here. Its free.

For more information on this event or for information on bookings please visit the emerge website. Please note that places are very limited and that Artquest is not administering bookings for these events.

I want to 'Dodge the Shredder', but I don't know how!

Date: Monday 15th March 2010, 6.30 - 8.30pm

Venue: The Gallery at Willesden Green, Brent

Bookings: Tickets £5 to register and book your ticket visit the Emerge website

This event is for artists making funding, commission, exhibition or any kind of proposals. Through practical exercises and advice artists will gain tips on how to make the most of their project and skills. This event is for anyone who wants to give their proposal the best chance to succeed. A well-structured and effective proposal can make all the difference when applying for funding and support for contemporary or ephemeral art projects particularly in time-based, conceptual and media arts. This unique combination of peer critique forum, funding strategy and proposal writing workshop has been devised especially for early to mid-career artists. It is designed to help improve writing techniques and to increase the chances of successful proposals to galleries and grant giving bodies by adopting a 'dodge the shredder' approach to application making. Artists are invited to bring their recent proposals for review and discussion as part of the workshop.

Dodge the Shredder is devised and led by accomplished Visual Artist, Writer and Broadcaster, Emilia Telese. Emilia is an Arts Council England South East Regional Council Member and an Artist Advisor and Artists' Networks Coordinator for A-N: The Artists Information Company. Her blog was one of the top 4 most read on the a-n website in early 2009. Her own work includes her 'Life of a Star' project (pictured above) which she exhibited at the Venice Biennale.

I want to talk about my work but I don't know how

Date: Monday 22nd March 2010 6.30 - 8.30pm

Venue: Tate Modern

Bookings: Tickets £5 to register and book your ticket visit the Emerge website

This session is about establishing what your practice is about, who you want to reach and how. This is for everyone who has a practice but doesn't yet know who their audience is.

This will be a practical, hands on workshop run by artist Noëmi Lakmaier, using listening and drawing to understand your own practice. This workshop will focus on giving participants a better understanding of what their work is about, to better guide decisions about who you are trying to tell about your work, and why. Participants will learn about identifying and prioritising opportunities that fit with their practice and come away with a plan for targeting specific opportunities relevant to your work. The workshop is aimed at providing artists with a better understanding of the impact of how we choose to represent our work.

Noëmi Lakmaier studied for her BA and MA in Fine Art at Winchester School of Art. She has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally including; ‘We Are For You Because We Are Against Them', The LAB, Dublin, 2009 and ‘The Works of Others', Whitechapel Gallery Project Space, London 2006. In 2008 she was artist in Residency at Camden Arts Centre, London and from 2008 - 2009 she held a studio residency at the Fire Station Artists' Studios in Dublin. She has won awards and bursaries including; NAN New Collaborations and Arts Council England Grant for the Arts.

 For more information about these events visit the Emerge website

 Past Events 

‘I know I'm an artist, but I haven't made a work in six months'

Date: Monday 11th January 2010, 6.30 - 8.30pm
Venue: Arts Depot, Barnet

How do you get 'unstuck' ? What are our ways of  avoiding making art ? How do we get past them? Who can help? This session took a critical and useful look at our strategies for avoiding making work and becoming unstuck. Campbell Works presented their performance of avoidance tactics for artists, followed by a participatory workshop on how to get new ideas moving. The event opened with a talk by Ed Pien, on the eve of his solo show 'Momento' at the Artsdepot.

We're in a group show with nothing in common!

Date: Tuesday 9 February 2010, 6.30 - 8.30pm
Venue: The Tabernacle, Westbourne Park

This session ‘We're in a group show with nothing in common!' considered approaches to curating a disparate and unconnected collection of works and advised on key issues to consider and exploit such as who or what goes where? How do you make it coherent for your audience? The session was led by Nick Kaplony, Artquest Programme Co-ordinator and Exhibitions officer at Pump House Gallery, along with invited guest advisors. Matt Roberts, from Matt Roberts Arts, and curator Susie Gray

I want to run an artists' run space, but I don't know how

Date: Monday 22nd February, 6.30pm-8.30pm
Venue: Dugdale Centre, Enfield

This event was for anyone wanting to put on a show or project in a space that isn't already a gallery. The event will addressed crucial questions in getting a space up and running - How do you find a space? What do you need to insure? And, of course, why am I doing it? This course will covered all aspects of setting up an artist run space, look at the advantages and potential pitfalls of such an activity, taking participants through the practical and philosophical reasons for embarking on this kind of project. The course was led by Russell Martin, Advisors  on hand were Katie Schwab and Roger White from Raw Canvas at Tate Modern and Clare Moloney a writer and freelance arts consultant.