Photo credit Yeshen Venema
If you’ve spent any time on Instagram lately I’m sure you’ll have noticed that there are a lot of coaches out there. And not only that, but they all have quite specific niche aspects that they work on. This is fantastic for you, and for them, as it makes deciding who to work with quite a bit easier and reduces the chances of the relationship not being a good fit.
It makes a lot of sense to narrow things down when you want to work on issues in your life, relationships, health, work, so why not with your creative practice? The reality is that there aren’t a lot of people out there offering specific coaching or mentoring for contemporary craft makers. There are quite a lot of people who support ‘creatives’ in general, or offer creativity coaching. And then there are those who offer coaching/mentoring as part of their wider practice (think curators or consultants, lecturers or creative practitioners) but this can often be discipline specific to other visual/fine/performance arts.
Within the craft sector there is quite a lot of support out there for artists/makers/designers who are looking for specific business or finance support/guidance and this role is filled ably by organisations like The Design Trust, the Crafts Council and many regional or professional membership organisations. There may even be coaching/mentoring components within those offerings or programmes.
But when it comes to individuals offering coaching and mentoring within a craft context I’ve yet to find that many. Which feels like a shame. If I’m looking for some support dealing with self-doubt within my business I could always choose to see a general life coach, or maybe one who specialises in small businesses, or self-employed/freelance entrepreneurs, but having the option to also explore my doubt with a specific self-doubt coach adds so much more nuance to the discussion.
I think it’s the same with coaches/mentors working in art, design and craft disciplines. Yes, you would probably get a good experience with any coach, but how different would it be to be working with someone who specifically understands the experience of artists/makers/designers? Who might themselves be a practicing artist or have a background working with objects?
With that in mind I’d like to highlight the work of 2 coach/mentor practitioners who are themselves practicing artists working within a craft context: Ruth Singer and Sharon Adams.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with both of them in a coach/mentor relationship: I supported Sharon as a mentor as part of her Jerwood Bursary and Ruth took me up on one of my free 1:1 sessions during lockdown. Since then I’ve been coached by Sharon during her training and received mentoring from Ruth. Although their styles/approaches are very different, I’ve felt at ease with both of them knowing we have a mutual understanding and appreciation for craft making, objects and communicating about creative work. So much of the explanation that might otherwise be necessary to contextualise my practice was unnecessary with these two and we could get straight down to work. I can whole-heartedly recommend both of them, depending on what you are looking for!
So, to make things a bit easier I asked them some questions about their coaching/mentoring practices so you can learn a bit more about what they offer in case you ever need some support.
Click here to read about Ruth
Click here to read about Sharon