Powering Through..

I have been rather preoccupied with work placement this week, but have managed I think to complete most of my aims. As previously mentioned I have completed my website, my contact database, had my meeting with Mark Webster, and began to create more of a brand for my project. 

• Another aim I set for myself was to find out about possible ways of funding if I were to need this for any projects/ workshops or events in the future. And I am waiting for a reply from Stoke City Council creative arts department. When looking into creative arts, there are a few options available for funding. 

1.  Arts and Humanities Research Council gives opportunities for funding for research grants both pratice and applied led. 
2. British Arts gives details of companies offering funding for people involved in arts.
3. Arts Council is probably the most well known for a range of funding opportunities.
4. British Council-Arts sector gives resources for researching funding.
5. The Prince's Foundation for children and the arts offer funding themselves and give resources for additional funding.
6. Arts Quest offers a range of sources and funding options.
7.   Community Arts Fund-Staffordshire offers up to £800 of funding for arts projects which benefit the community and aim to enhance involvement in creative arts.

• The next aim was to consider my personal brand and what that could be as this would be important to find out when considering an overall brand for what I want to achieve throughout the MA. I have been using the guideline sheet that we received when Jackie Hartley gave us a presentation on personal branding. The first box on the sheet was 'Meaning, things that matter and that I care about' in the box I came up with Theatre, people having arts in their lives, and arts in education, people having access to the things that they deserve, animals and animal welfare/cruelty. The next box was 'Strengths, what I consider myself to be good at,what people come to me for'  in this box I wrote things like listening/advice, humour, communication, trustworthy/reliable, passive, willing to do things for people-doesn't say no very often, busy, hard-working. One of the boxes detailed things you would like to achieve in the next few weeks/months and years- so I have written myself a lot of lists on each of these detailing my goals and have been crossing them out as I complete them. Another box on the sheet that I have filed in is 'Interests' for which I put Drama/Theatre, musicals, animals-especially dogs, art, creativity, music, photographs, magazines, fashion, documentaries and quizzes, creativity. This are all things to consider when thinking about my personal brand and the area I would like to work in. I have also been asking people about how they see me and words they would use to describe me so far these words have included:

1.  Artistic/Creative- in being practical with crafts, arts, drama, baking, sewing.
2. Determined- wants to see things through
3. Friendly- makes friends easily and likes talking to new people
4. Helpful- in home and the work place-wants to do the best she can
5. Hard worker- gets through lots of work and makes the best use of time
6. Sensitive- lets things affect her which maybe shouldn't
7. Dramatic- can take things seriously when needed
8. Reliable- willing to do stuff for people-nearly always says yes
9. Responsible- good at looking after people and other things
10. Organised- good at time manging, making lists about what she needs to get done that day. 

• As mentioned in a previous aims review I have been working on a logo for my project 'Community Matters' so that if in the future I was to have my own company that ran workshops on different subjects each set of workshops would have there own project logos, proposals and aims under the main company name. Below are some examples of what I have been working on: 

 

I did these using software called 'Scrapbook Factory' where you can use templates or start from scratch and they provide you with lots of different fonts and graphics. My favourite so far though is this one :
 

I like the way that the graphic and lettering link together and that the graphic to me reflects people and gives off the right vibe. I will aim to incorporate this onto the provisional workshops I have been working on, as I have been trying to plan more with a variety of different ages and groups in mind, but this could link them as one 'subject' if they were ever to be used. 

• The last aim I set for myself was to do an action plan of things I would need to consider in the future if I were to launch a much bigger project similar to the kind of thing I am looking at now, and obviously things like this would be tweaked as I went along: So far this action plan includes: