Education & Training

Workshops

Workshops can range from one to two days or be designed to run once a week over several weeks, depending on the needs of the group/individual.

Autobiology: NEW 2008 - a one-week intensive programme looking at one’s biography in direct relation to one’s biology. Through collaboration with a neuroscientist, Professor Qasim Aziz, Curious is developing biofeedback techniques for accessing the brain through the body and the body through the brain, enabling them to facilitate the telling and sharing of new kinds of stories and images, generated from the body. At the end of the week, participants will have a deeper understanding of their own biology and how ‘mind’ is a system that operates across their entire body, not just in their brain. They will have learnt a series of techniques for consciously manipulating psychosomatic networks, allowing them to tap into higher states of creativity. They will also have generated a wealth of autobiographical and autobiological material and performed some of their material using biofeedback sensors so that they can see their own psychosomatic networks in action. The development of this programme has been funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Guerilla Retreat: designed to revitalise, inspire and tone artists who are interested in taking a weekend out to re-examine or re-define the politics of their practice as the first step to assessing their current skills base. To be eligible to participate, an artist has to identify at least one issue or idea they feel strongly about. This is the starting point of the retreat - the micro-lectures, brown bag workshops and strategic planning sessions all follow from this central focus. Developed as part of 'DIY' with funding from Live Art Development Agency, Artsadmin, New Work Network and London Arts. (link to: Reviews)
(link to separate review page)

Guerilla Retreat reviews
published in the DIY summary report

I believe that 'DIY for artists' is a really productive form of training, as it is so specifically tailored to what I need. I've been on many training courses before but none that felt so relevant to me. To carry on the tailoring analogy - it's the difference between a bespoke suit and an off the peg outfit!

I got so much out of the retreat - it was a real booster creatively. The spirit of sharing amongst the group was a powerful tonic, and made it a really comfortable environment in which to ask questions and discuss ideas without feeling foolish. I picked up so much new information and am already applying it to my work! By far the most fruitful/enjoyable two days training I've had to date! (Clare Thornton)

Due to the eclectic/hybrid nature of my practice I have found myself attending training and the only thing I have in common with the other participants is the fact that we're all there on the training. With the guerilla retreat and its agenda, it meant that the participants had more commonalties due to the beliefs and interests that inform their practice/life.

As an 'emerging' artist in a live art context it was wonderful to meet warm, funny, intelligent, generous, caring and committed artists - a reflection of Helen and Leslie's reputation, the training design and hopefully the live art scene in general. I felt before the weekend that I was reaching a new point of arrival but as one participant so sharply put it, I was still hanging out in immigration. I really feel the weekend has given me the rubber stamp in my passport to actually get out and explore the new place confidently. It really has been like a key to a door maybe I was a little wary of fully opening. (Anita McKeowen)

Helen and Leslie managed to create an open and sharing environment where artists of different levels of experience were able to share experiences and support each other. This doesn't always happen when artists get together... I found it really invigorating to be in such a caring and non competitive space. (Gini Simson)

Professional Development for Artists: This course is designed as a bridge between university or college work and life as a professional artist. It is geared to offer participants the tools for developing professional skills necessary for creating, funding and promoting their work including: grant writing; publicity; researching and developing contacts with venues, festivals and funding bodies; designing homepages; documenting and editing material from performances and exhibitions; writing for publication; and compiling professional portfolios.

Solo Performance: this course focuses on the ‘whole artist’ process, encouraging participants to create and develop original performance works combining text, movement and visual art. The relationship between form and content is constantly explored and challenged through ‘workshopping’ and critique, and through discussions of an international range of contemporary artists.

Performance Writing: Participants create a collection of short performative texts through a range of different approaches.
Individual mentoring:any of the above workshops can be adapted into one to one training sessions.