Arts Council of Surrey

[by Sarah Power] The Work of Art conference was held on October 14th at the Newton Cultural Centre and was a huge success. Many thanks to our distinguished and insightful speakers; Kathy Ramsay, president of ArtsBC, Leah Murray, Leslie Kuny and Jill Nadon from Shift Handmade Market, Cristy Watson, Patricia Dahlquist, and Ben Nuttal-Smith.

The conference started all together in the black box theatre with our Key note address from Kathy Ramsay and from there attendees could choose the talks they wanted to sit in on based on their interest and arts disciple.
The choices of workshops were as diverse as our participating artists and the industry as a whole.

Arts BC’s Kathy Ramsay opened the day with the ‘Top Arts BC Hotline questions – and answers!’ and was followed by a compelling presentation by Leah Murray on STEAM [Science, Technology, Engineering, ARTS and Math] Hot on the list of topics was the use of social media. Leslie Kuny and Jill Nadon of Shift Handmade presented their insights on ‘Navigated your On-line Presence’, as well as hosted a discussion geared to the Visual artist on how to ‘Master your Merchandising’- offering a more pragmatic view on selling art.

For the Literary participants, a workshop specifically dedicated to their craft was offered. Cristy Watson, an award-winning author, shared her knowledge on the ‘Business Side of Being an Author’. Specific to the Performing arts, accomplished artist Patricia Dahlquist shared her career notes on how to take the step to ‘Becoming A Professional Performer’. Finally the day finished with an important self-improvement exercise directed by Author Ben Nuttal-Smith. Ben presented a two part series entitled ‘The Dynamic Presenter‘ designed to make the artist a better speaker and communicator – a critical aspect of taking your artistry to the next level.

We had a lot of positive feedback, it seems no one left the conference without new ideas to inspire them to grow in the business of being an artists.