Signpost: Stepping Out as a New Artist

This summer 4,000 new BA visual and applied artists are graduating from courses across the UK . To aid their transition to professional artist, a-n The Artists Information Company has brought out Signpost: stepping out as a new artist - a new free-to-view online guide designed to improve their chances of sustaining a career.

As Central St Martin ’s (UAL) News tweeted on publication “This is a really excellent resource for newly-graduated artists. Recommended reading.”

Edited by artist and lecturer Anna Francis, Signpost is both a practical and inspirational guide. As Anna comments: “Creative arts and design courses offer an amazing array of subject-specific skill acquisition, but what is less celebrated, are the transferrable skills such as flexibility, resourcefulness, creative thinking and problem solving, time and project management gained alongside.”

Starting out as a new artist is all about being ambitious and taking risks, advises Kevin Hunt of Liverpool ’s Royal Standard: “We had no idea how to write a funding application or secure a lease but we all had the great desire to make things happen and it’s paid off.”

Signpost draws on a-n’s wealth of professional material complimented by profiles and tips from artists including Johnny Gailey, Ellie Harrison, Mark Gubb, Jack Hutchinson, Masa Kepic, Bethan Lloyd Worthington, Trevor H Smith, Emily Speed, Emilia Telese and Jamila Walker. With partner pages that bring in advice from a range of organisations and professional bodies including Artquest, Axisweb and DACS, this is a resource that will sustain new artists as they negotiate the first few years out of higher education.

a-n Director Susan Jones said: “We value artists and art education highly - they are vital ingredients in a healthy culture and society. As well as being a resource for brand new graduates, this new online guide is designed to deepen our relationship with university art and design courses that already make subs tantial use of our online materials as tools for teaching.“

View and download Signpost by going to www.a-n.co.uk/signpost.