Clare Arts Office is committed to supporting artists in their professional development by offering numerous opportunities for upskilling and professional development.
We work with local, regional and national partners to assess needs and deliver supports that are relevant and current. In recent times all supports and training has been delivered online.
We also provide studio spaces for artists at our EASI Studios facility in Ennis and our Tulla Stables Studios, both of which are currently full.
Current Supports
1. First Music Contact Regional Development Project
First Music Contact is the leading national music organisation for resourcing popular musicians and the independent music sector in Ireland. They deliver projects at key stages of an artists’ development, helping them develop real careers. This new project, in association with Clare Arts Office, aims to develop a way of offering equal access to professional development services to musicians in Clare as well as developing a framework for supporting artists locally.
This is a musician-first project in which we consulted with musicians locally as we wanted to find out what they need to get their music career off the ground or to take the next step – what are the practical things they need and what kind of advice they are after..
Having analysed the results of this survey we have designed professional development panels based on what you’ve asked us for.
A series of workshops and sessions will be delivered online February 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd with the second half of the series scheduled for late March. These workshops will provide practical advice by music industry panels.
February 20th Online Marketing
February 21st Gigging outside Ireland,
February 22nd Management
February 23rd Approaching Media
The Clare panel will be Monday 20th February at 5pm and will be a two hour panel with an hour “introduction to the Music Industry and First Music Contact supports” and a panel on how to reach your audience online as you develop your professional practice in the second hour.
You will also be able to attend panels on Gigging outside Ireland, Management and Approaching Media which last for an hour from 6pm on 21st, 22nd and 23rd February respectively for an hour each.
For clarity, if you are a musician from Clare the night to attend both hours of the webinar (5pm – 7pm) is Monday 2oth February and for 21st, 22nd and 23rd you can join at 6pm for further professional development webinars
Click here to register for the webinars (you need to register for each one separately)
2. Regional Professional Development Series for Visual Artists
In 2023 we are again working with Visual Artists Ireland in conjunction with our colleagues in Limerick Arts Office and Tipperary Arts Office to devise an annual Professional Development Series for visual artists. Our next webinar – Starting and Re-Starting Your Career will take place on March 2nd at 11am. Details will be announced on our What’s On page shortly.
3. Speed Meeting for Slow Art
We have rescheduled our postponed Speed Meeting for Slow Art to June 22nd, 2023 and it will take place in glor If you are an older artist, or an artist interested in working with older people, you may be interested in attending to see what organisations in Clare may be interested in working with you.
Previous Supports
1. Digital Marketing Training
Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Clare organised digital marketing training for Artists/ Makers. Creative Ireland funded these workshops and training was delivered online by Evan Mangan of The Marketing Crowd.
The following items were covered:
- 1st June (9.30am-12.30pm) – How to create marketing videos for your website/social media – Level 1
- 8th June (9.30am-12.30pm)- How to use Canva to design eye-catching images for your website/social media posts
- 15th and 22nd June (9.30am-12.30pm) – Instagram for Marketing – Part 1 and Part 2
2. Tyrone Guthrie Centre Bursary
Clare County Council offers an annual bursary to the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Co. Monaghan. The call for applications closed on April 4th, 2022. Gerry O’Mahony, visual artist, was the 2022 recipient.
3. Platform 31
The Association of Local Authority Arts Offices, in collaboration with the Arts Council, present PLATFORM 31 2022: a national opportunity for artists to reflect on and investigate how they might significantly develop their practice or make work in a new way, while being connected with and supported by peer practitioners, advisors and mentors.
Designed to support and enable career development for 31 mid-career artists (one artist in each of the 31 local authorities around Ireland), there are two elements of support for participating artists in the scheme: financial and developmental.
In 2022, participating artists received an €8,000 bursary to invest in themselves and their practice, combined with participation in a developmental and networking framework.
Outcomes-focused and not output-driven, the scheme provides coaching and advisory support and create networking opportunities for participating artists, introducing them to a pool of critical thinkers to share their work and learnings, encouraging a national conversation about creating work in local contexts.
The exact content of this artist support framework, which will last for approx. 6 months from May to October 2022, will be informed by the interests of the 31 artists selected.
The deadline for receipt of applications was March 30th, 2022. Poet and environmentalist, Grace Wells, was the 2022 Platform 31 recipient from Clare.
Click here for further information.
4. Digital Upskilling Workshop Series
Michael Fortune from folklore.ie devised and produced this workshop programme which is an ideal way for participants to build on their digital skills over a long term programme.
Held on Wednesday mornings from December 2021 to February 2022, the 10-week course saw participants introduced to a host of digital skills from film and editing on their mobile phones to screen recording and animation.
Workshops were delivered online via Zoom.
