FACTORY is an ERDF funded project that supports innovation-led-practices for the SME Creative Industries in Stoke-on-Trent. Our partner organisation BCB has also a webpage dedicated to FACTORY available here.

Coming up

Portfolio Ready – Photographing your work, 21st May 10.30-12.25am
The session will be delivered by photographer Jenny Harper and photographer/creative director Ben Farr of IFSOBCZWHY studio at Spode. It will include useful tips for photographing work on a budget, in situ and in a studio setting.

Most recent workshop

16/04/2021 In touch – Delivering creative workshops online (Experts: Sarah Fraser, Steve Mattisone, Mel Bose) (info) (pdf) (video)

And if you have a moment of time, please do consider leaving us an evaluation at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FFWZJT9

Resources from our speakers:

Season Autumn/Winter 2020

26/03/2021 The poetry of your work (Experts: Gabriella Gay and Becki Kremer) (pdf)
19/02/2021 Make Networking work for You (Experts: to Bisila Noha and Rebecca Davies) (pdf)
29/01/2021 Imposter syndrome makes us human – here’s how to make friends with it (Experts:Gemma-Louise Walsh) (info1) (info2) (pdf)
04/12/2020 Creative Recovery – How can artists, arts organisations and addiction recovery services work together? (Experts: Vicky Lomas & Joanne Ayre) More info (pdf)
13/11/2020 Prepare to Sell: Retail and Auctioneers (Experts: Designer Reiko Kaneko and Studio Ceramics specialist Jason Wood of Adam Partridge Auctioneers, Macclesfield) More info (pdf)
09/10/2020 Creative Studios and Shared Spaces (Expert: Dan Southward, ACAVA) (pdf)

Season (Lockdown) Spring/Summer 2020

FACTORY COVID19 UPDATE: During lockdown in spring/summer 2020 we organised online meets, where we had the opportunity to come together and chat informally about topics around current challenges for our Creative Communities. In the era of Covid19, we and our creative sectors have specific challenges when wanting to connect with audiences, creatives, customers, networks and each other. Each meet had a speaker, and there were opportunities to share experiences and network within our communities. We collated a list of resources from those meetings that creative professionals in our regions might find useful.

03/07/2020 Socially engaged art – extending your practice to work with the public (Experts: Alice Thatcher and Sarah Fraser) (pdf)
19/06/2020 How to look great in your next video conference (Expert: Richard Mellor) (pdf)
05/06/2020 How to win at social media – for artists and creatives (Expert: Gabriella Rhodes) (pdf)
2/05/2020 Photography for locked down artists (Expert: Jenny Harper) (pdf)
01/05/2020 ‘Not a Pub Crawl, but…’ Video conferencing tools for creative professionals (Expert: Carola Boehm) (pdf)
20/04/2020 Funding and Finance Update
17/04/2020 From Physical to Digital During COVID-19 (Experts: Rhiannon Ewing-James and Sharon Roberts) (pdf)
06/04/2020 Links and Resources for our Creative Communities (pdf)