Cibas – Artist’s Breakfast Meetings

Over the summer I have attended a couple of artist’s breakfast meetings run by Cibas at Portsmouth University. Cibas offers a free service to artists, assisting them in their businesses.

“Cibas supports artists and creative enterprises by providing one-to-one creative business advice, professional development training, events and opportunities.”

Once a month Cibas runs an Artist’s Breakfast Meeting where you can have a croissant and a cup of fair trade organic tea and meet other artists and creative professionals. The meetings are held in Purple Door at Portsmouth University between 8.30am – 10.30am on one Friday a month and are free to attend.

Recent subjects have included:

• The Knowledge Bank – Sharing ideas about opportunities in the arts
• Making Statements – on writing an artists statement
• Creative Marketing
• How not to get ripped off – Copyright issues

I usually run an embroidery group on a Friday morning and so miss meetings that run during the term time but I did manage to attend ‘The Knowledge Bank’ and ‘Making Statements’. Cibas also runs one to one sessions, networking events and all day training events. This is such a brilliant service for artists who often work independently at home. The advice is useful and the events are well run, being sponsered by Portsmouth & South East Hampshire Partnership, SEEDA, Arts Council England South East, and the University of Portsmouth. It is hosted by Steve Fisher who also led the ‘Making Statements’ meeting and other guest speakers also come and share their knowledge and expertise.

The ‘Making Statements’ meeting was a very useful session. A lot of work went into the meeting which had around 15 people attending. A Cibas factsheet about writing an artists statement was given out and Steve took us through some main points that could help us out. Writing an artists statement is always the last thing I do before I have a show and this is because they are so difficult to write! At university we were given advice and lots of information about writing a statement which was very helpful but I still find it difficult and wanted some fresh ideas and needed a bit more confidence.

So here are a few helpful ideas that I came away with (and I have Steve’s permission to share them here.)

Information on writing an artists statement / biog / mission statement / business plan:

• The statement allows you to be creative in words that you cannot write on your CV.
• If writing a cover letter – take the time to find out what the person you are writing to is called.
• If possible keep the CV and statement separate.
• If sending a statement with a CD of images and other information put your contact details on the statement just in case they get separated.
• Date your statement so you and the person reading it knows when you wrote it.
• Practice. Jot ideas down about your work when they come to you rather than thinking about it all at the last minute in a panic and not knowing what to write.
• Have a list of words that relate to your practice. Tick them off as you use them in the statement and try not to use the same word too many times.
• Don’t write too much. 200 – 300 words should be enough unless the gallery/residency etc has asked for a specific amount. (I had one this year which was 50 words!)
• Write in first or third person. This is up to you and depends on the context. If you write in the third person you can have fun by adding in quotes from yourself!
• You can add images of your work to your statement. Unless you have been told not to provide images with your statement feel free.
• Ask a friend to edit it.
• Title – the artists statement doesn’t always have to be titled ’statement’! Choose a readable font. Have a look through different publications to see what types of fonts and colours work well.

Structure of a statement:

• Introduction: Who you are, where you studied etc. “I am a textile artist and graduated from University College Chichester in 2001″ for example.
• Context One: What you make. What inspires you. “I make embroidered landscapes from handmade felt and freehand machine embroidery”…”I am inspired by the sea, rivers and landscapes that seem to never end”.
• Context Two: Who you might be influenced by: “I am influenced by Monet’s use of colour and textile artist Alice Kettle.” Some information about what happens once you have been inspired, what you make exactly – how big is your work etc.
• About You: Something personal / relational / spiritual about your work – the main point that will attract their attention. A piece of information that will make the above paragraphs make sense. “I was bought up in Dorset where I visited the coast regularly as a child. It was through my local landscape that I became fascinated with the idea of creation and existence.”
• Looking Ahead: What are you doing at the moment? What are you planning to do in six months? It will be interesting to the reader (for example a gallery) when they read that you are perhaps planning to travel for a year. They gallery may keep you in a file to come back to after you have been traveling to see how your work has developed.

You are allowed to be creative in your writing with the statement and the presentation of the statement. Be careful though as although there are no set rules, if you do do something out of the ordinary to draw attention it has to be good.

For more information on Cibas visit them here. You can also subscribe to the monthly newsletter which includes information about events, job opportunities, exhibitions and future breakfast meetings.