Newcastle Common Room

On Tuesday 12th September, we welcomed 60 creative people from Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland to the first Art with Purpose Conference. Together, they would be exploring how they can use their craft for good and get paid to do so.

During the morning session, participants were invited to respond to real challenges set by The People’s Kitchen and Streetwise. Led by Design Thinking experts Helen Simmons and Nick Devitt, the Artists were split into two groups to explore how they could apply their unique talents to the challenges at hand. Our aim was to give people the transferrable skills to be able to develop projects in partnership with VCSE organisations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the breaks, the building was buzzing with people chatting and making new connections. With a creativity range from data-led jewellery design to immersive 3D art productions, there was much to discuss!

The afternoon session was held in the beautiful Woodhall with all 60 participants coming together in one space.

Using mini-master class style activities, participants were led through topics such as;

• Telling your impact story (Matt Wilson from Goodlabs)
• Deciding your business legal structure (Kate Welsh from Social Enterprise Acumen CIC)
• Building partnerships with VCSE orgs (Jeremy Cain from Connected Voice)
• Finding your purpose with Ikigai (Kate Duffy from Junction Point CIC)

A highlight of the afternoon was hearing from successful Artists with purpose; Martin Wilson (Tin Arts) & Corrine Lewis-Ward (Creative Heritage Studios CIC) who shared their highs, lows and lessons of their career journeys so far.

What’s next:

The next stage of this project involves working with NE based VCSE organisations to set challenges that they’d like Artists to assist them in solving. For example; how do we use creativity to support our young people to feel more confident.

Our job is to provide a match-making service to ensure the right Artist is matched with the right cause.

 

If you have a VCSE organisation and you’d like to get involved. Please email info@junctionpoint.co.uk to find out more.

The support doesn’t stop there! For the participants of the Art with Purpose Conference, we’re now moving onto more in depth training sessions and 121 coaching around ‘doing good and getting paid’. This will involve project management, evaluation, grants, pricing and sales.

“The aim of this project is to see ideas moved to action. To us, success is an Artist matched with the right cause and a funded project taking place where both Artist and VCSE organisation are paid appropriately for the impact they will achieve together”. Kate Duffy, Managing Director of Junction Point CIC.

Find out more here.

This project has been supported by Creative Central: NCL, funded by the North of Tyne Combined Authority and Newcastle City Council.