We fund skilled artists who have no livelihood. What does an artist skilling programme look like?
It looks like a residential cohort in which twenty five artists ideate, prototype and present products built out of their own practice, in front of peers and the body that funds them. An artist spends years achieving proficiency, and proficiency seldom creates a livelihood on its own. The bridge between the art and an enterprise can be practised, and it is practised the way any idea is: made, tested, discarded, made again.
The short answer. It looks like a residential cohort in which twenty five artists ideate, prototype and present products built out of their own practice, in front of peers and the body that funds them. An artist spends years achieving proficiency, and proficiency seldom creates a livelihood on its own. The bridge between the art and an enterprise can be practised, and it is practised the way any idea is: made, tested, discarded, made again.
- Its name in a budget line
- Livelihoods. Skilling. CSR. Cultural programming.
- The programme
- Artist cohort, sustainable art practices. 1.5 to 2 days, residential, for a cohort of 25 traditional and independent artists.
- Where
- On your own site, in Kochi and across Kerala, and elsewhere in India for a full day or more. Eight people or more. No artistic background is assumed and nothing is graded.
What is actually going on.
A traditional or independent artist has usually spent longer acquiring their skill than a surgeon, and has no equivalent of a hospital to walk into. The proficiency is real and the market for it is intermittent: a season, a festival, a temple calendar, a wedding. What is missing is not skill and it is not talent. It is the bridge between a practice and something a buyer can buy, and nobody teaches that to an artist because everybody assumes it is beneath the art.
Funders see the same gap from the other side. A grant supports a performance and the performance ends. A skilling programme teaches a second trade and the art is set aside. What a funder rarely gets to buy is the thing in between: the artist's own practice, turned into a product, by the artist.
Proficiency is real and the market for it is intermittent.
What a session does about it.
The cohort ideates, prototypes and presents products built out of their own practices. A percussionist and a Theyyam performer do not leave with a business plan template. They leave with a thing they made in two days, tested in front of peers, the facilitator and the hosting body, with honest feedback on whether anyone would pay for it. The design cycle runs several times, because the first product is usually the obvious one and the third is usually the good one.
The work is led by working artists, which matters here more than anywhere. Artfulness is delivered by artists paid properly and trained into facilitation, and artists in the cohort who want that work are told so, because facilitation is itself a livelihood built out of a practice.
How you would know it worked.
The products presented at the end of the cohort, recorded with the hosting body. Then, at sixty days, what each artist has actually put in front of a buyer, which the hosting body is best placed to see and which is the only number that matters.
What we do not claim.
We do not claim an income outcome, and this is not a grant. Two days produce a tested product and a cohort that has practised the bridge. Whether the product sells depends on the artist, the market and the season.
We do not set the art aside in favour of a second trade. The product comes out of the practice or the cohort has not worked.
The full list is on one page, alongside the evidence and the claims we have retired.
In Kochi and Kerala.
Kerala is where this began, and the forms the cohorts come from are the state's own: Theyyam, Kathakali, Panchavadyam, Kalaripayattu, chenda melam, and the independent and folk music that the founder has performed alongside for twenty years. Livelihood and skilling programmes are a recognised category for corporate social responsibility in India, and cohorts have run with funders and hosting bodies on that basis.
We work from Kochi and run sessions on the client's own site anywhere in Kerala. Elsewhere in India we travel for a full day or more. If you would rather meet before you book, here is how.
Related questions.
We fund skilled artists who have no livelihood. What does an artist skilling programme look like?
It looks like a residential cohort in which twenty five artists ideate, prototype and present products built out of their own practice, in front of peers and the body that funds them. An artist spends years achieving proficiency, and proficiency seldom creates a livelihood on its own. The bridge between the art and an enterprise can be practised, and it is practised the way any idea is: made, tested, discarded, made again.
Who is the cohort for?
Twenty five artists, traditional and independent, from any domain, hosted by a funder, a foundation, an academy or a cultural body. It runs residentially over 1.5 to 2 days so that the cohort works and eats and argues together.
Is it eligible as a CSR activity?
Livelihood and skilling programmes are a recognised category for corporate social responsibility in India. Whether a specific cohort qualifies is a decision for the funder's CSR committee, and we supply the outline and the record that decision needs.
Can artists in the cohort go on to facilitate with Artfulness?
Yes, and some do. Artfulness is delivered by working artists, paid properly and trained into facilitation rather than dropped into it. A performer's craft points inward; facilitation points the same instrument outward, and learning to reverse it is a real apprenticeship that we run.
Proficiency is not a livelihood. The bridge can be practised.
Eight people, one room, no preparation.