GOOD NEWS! The Arts Council have made me very happy (and relieved!). I have succeeded with my big funding bid. The 7 weeks of work it took to put it together has finally paid off, after keeping me on tenterhooks for 3 months. PHEW. So now the whole project in its entire glory (we hope!) can happen without having to make drastic cuts or compromises. I am truly relieved because, as usual, the time was so tight, I have put so much work in already and many aspects of the project had to happen regardless. There was just no other way to do it. I had to keep positive and believe! Now they will be fully funded happenings, which is a massive weight off my shoulders, I can tell you.
The main things that we can now do (which absolutely could not have happened without funding) are: the entire sound element of the project and the trip to Korea for myself and Joseph Young, including an exhibition, two concerts and collaborating with the Korean sound artists. The sound app will involve Joseph working with UK and Korean sound artists to create a geo-locative audio guide in Stoke-on-Trent and Seoul sited in places of significance for ceramic production (historical and contemporary). It also means the residencies can be properly carried out and managed. The Korean artists succeeded in raising some funds towards it, but I am so relieved we can now supplement that and the work they produce for British Ceramics Biennial can be achieved with support.
The publicity side of things can now be ramped up. There is just time for me to include an advert in Crafts Magazine on top of the listing I have already submitted. Luckily the flyer has just been designed by my graphic designer, last week, so with a few alterations it will be print-ready to send off before the deadline.
I’m still beavering away one day a week in the studio trying to finish the tiles for the new grand entranceway that will announce that The Ceramic House is HERE! Just realised, when looking at the tiles we made in January for one of the floors in the back garden, that I really should make some more that are thicker. The list really does never end.
And all the time, in the background, I know I need to be designing my own work for the Sladmore show. It’s not until July but it must be a good piece of work and I am not exactly able to take my time. As for my public art commission…! At least I have no deadline looming for that, apart from a personally imposed one that I have now superseded.
I’ve got a full-time apprentice starting with me in the studio in a week and an Erasmus student coming for two months in the summer. I’ve also just been contacted by another ceramist who wants to come and help before starting at the RCA in the autumn, so at least, by putting the public art back, I am reassured to know that I have capacity to get a lot done this summer. But all this juggling is a stress. And I want to do it all at 100% of course. What other way is there?
