croK.

Kite, Poppy and I decided to hold each other to account weeks ago, and find out how to set up as self employed artists, support each other and share resources. We've looked at business literature together and jumped into a licensing session but were getting generally frustrated at how the industry seems to operate and the lack of funds that were slowly forcing us to look outside of our practice to support our lives and studies.

 This accumulated on the 16 Jan in a decision to set up an Art collective together called croK.

This name is inspired by an artwork, so in part its a satirical response. It also lends itself to crock of shit (calling out bull shit) and crock pot - women cooking up ideas.

croK.  Business Plan

30 January 24 - spoke to Clair at Career Connect re setting up croK.  notes:

CIC - Community Interest Company

• Separate from sole trader
• Big venture.
• Not "for profit" -Is "for surplus" to be put back into CIC 
• Eligible for funding 
• Co founders details have to be public information
• Would be eligible for new be inspired programme which potentially starts in May and has £1000 start up
• Best way to create this and not be out of pocket is to invoice your time from your own sole trader business.
• This doesn't have to be minimum wage - its not a charity - its a community interest company!

Art Group

• Start small and manageable as support group for each other separate from sole trader
• Establish the shape and business plan of croK.

Sole trader

• This is your income/ practice

Actions

• Work out your day rate. (You have information from mentor Katey / links to follow- have shared with Kite and Poppy)
• How do you invoice for time
• Set up business account with Natwest
• Change your account settings on website so can be found
• Show and sell some art
• Set up as a sole trader

Poppy's playing with croK. imagery for branding

..and I've had a Canva play to put some posters in the studio ..

Poppy left the course and coms stopped -other than for her to say that she still wanted to be part of the group - which we were positive about - we're in a strange place where we feel our wings are clipped slightly. 

Spoke to an Art Dealer at the artUK launch evening for Connecting young people with Art.. He has 80,000 followers on Insta but makes his main income from storing and dealing art with galleries. He doesn't use Linked in, which I find is a theme in creatives - but it's used heavily by the createch industry. I think artists just have a different way of operating, we want to connect with our audience - theirs more emphasis on the process of creating visual language and how it lands - other business/client based creative industries are PR/ Brand focused and they network in different ways. 

Keeping an eye on other C.I.C's and how they operate -

• Urban Wilderness Longton (Looking at helping with the Pig Walk with them.
• Galleriet Agnes Denmark (Looking at how they do open calls using insta)
• Radical Art Collective Stoke
• Dust Rising - Stoke based 

March - croK. 

Poppy hasn't been into the studio and there's been minimal communication since leaving. Kite and I have decided to pursue opportunities and invited others in to benefit/contribute. See Short Supply labels.

Applied for the Short Supply open call.. I'm not positive that we'll get this.. I don't feel we've been set up for long enough, the websites not live and the insta is very new - We've limited time working together (ne and kite have worked on lots of projects but we wanted to open the application up to others on the MA that we felt would benefit and make us a stronger group. but we'll see.... the post is here

Website in progress, croK. email established and a social media account set up.