It’s challenging to schedule, organise and preserve time for training and personal development work, whether that’s in a large or small creative studio or even as a freelancer. But, I believe it’s important to set time aside to understand yourself as an artist better - to dedicate time to an ongoing journey of artistic self discovery.
Even though we all know how important it is for individual artists and the company, it’s all too easy to let the training and personal work slip under the radar with production pressures and looming deadlines. Those last minute, high pressure projects that sometimes arrive when we least expect it, do usually take priority. Which is why last year, we set out to reimagine how we approached the Artists Development Programme. The aim was to make it more consistent and less disruptive to the production schedule.
Rather than taking artists out of production for longer periods of time throughout the year, we decided training should be woven into an artists daily routine. Allowing artists dedicated time every day for learning and researching enabled them to identify and work on their personal goals and passions. This way, artist development became a habit, rather than a hindrance.
Now that 1 year has passed here are some of my thoughts on how to strike that balance and keep a good healthy creative mind:
Take small steps and keep going.
I believe consistency is much more important than occasional one off efforts. Surely there is a place for time intense courses when needed, but having a routine is much more sustainable and will pay off in the long term. Call it microdosing.