As stage one of our project closes, a huge thank you to our partners, selected participants and artists for taking part in our Autumn 2022 workforce workshops discussions.
In September, we launched our new 'Creative Workforce Workshops' project - an Arts Council England supported programme designed to gather evidence on what's it's like to be freelance, self-employed or in atypical employment within the creative and cultural sectors in different parts of England.
Across October and into November, we've been lucky enough to travel to Truro, Croydon and Rotherham and meet diverse and dynamic groups of creative freelancers to find out about the highs and lows of freelance life in 2022 and discuss the changes they want to see for 2023. We are building up a picture of how different places are supporting or hindering their creative and cultural workforce.
We've been working with our partners at ArtULTRA to commission three incredibly talented artists, working across different artistic mediums, to visually capture and interpret the workshop sessions. We are looking forward to sharing the new art works in early 2023. At Culture Commons, we strongly believe that freelance, self-employed and atypical workers should be paid for the time they spend advocating for their needs and for the improvement of their sectors: that's why we're pleased that everyone involved in our workshops have been paid for their time and contributions.
Special thanks go to Hall for Cornwall and Tyller A Nerth (Truro's Cultural Compact), Stanley Arts in Croydon, Rotherham's Children's Capital of Culture 2025 Team and FLUX Rotherham for working with us to connect with the workforce on the ground and for hosting us so brilliantly in each area.
Now the workshop sessions have concluded, our artists are working on their commissions and the Culture Commons team are pulling together initial findings into a report ready to share with key local and national decision makers and cultural organisations in early 2023.
To the creatives we meet along the way: we cannot thank you enough for sharing your wisdom, worries and dreams with us. We hope you enjoyed it as much we did!
Thank you for a really great and frank discussion. I hope you've taken away some useful information and new perspectives for debate and lobbying...I know we also very much enjoyed meeting with each other, so thank you for a rare paid opportunity to network with my colleagues!
- Workshop participant, November 2022
If you'd like to know more about our 'Creative Workforce Workshops' series or partner with us on the next stages, please email contact@culturecommons.uk
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