• Listen to the seminar online, here.

(Artist) Life School is a series of seminars at The Physics Room that bring together contemporary artists to further develop professional skills, and sets out to answer the curly questions around maintaining a practice out in the world. Ideal for recent graduates and emerging artists, each workshop will host an industry professional to discuss the realities of making, funding, and showing your work.

The first seminar, available to listen online, addresses proposal writing. You’ve got the idea, you know what you want to do, but how do you write about your ideas? How do you translate them into practical terms? What are the elements of a strong proposal? This seminar is led by Objectspace Director, Kim Paton, who will share guidance on how to transform what’s in your head into a concise, structured proposal.

Other seminar topics include: How to get funding, install and documentation, tax and GST, how to talk about your art, and working within Aotearoa/cultural competency. Dates and speakers to be confirmed.

Downloads:

Notes from (Artist) Life School: How to write a proposal with Kim Paton (pdf)

Tips for proposal writing (pdf)

––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Kim Paton is the Objectspace Director, a public gallery dedicated to craft, design and architecture. For 2021 she also holds the position of Artistic Director for Toi Moroki Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA). She has previously held academic positions at Massey University, Wellington and Wintec School of Media Arts, Hamilton where she was lecturer, Research Leader, and curator of Ramp Gallery. Paton holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (honours) in sculpture from Massey University and a postgraduate diploma in Business Management from Waikato University. She has curated and written extensively on craft and contemporary art, and is co-author of the book Contemporary Jewellery in Context, published by Arnoldsche Art Publishers and released in July 2017.