Week two of MakeMarket: A Creative Industries Takeover sees one of the Island’s most successful young creative entrepreneurs, ceramicist Katy Mitchell, setting up her wheel as Potter-In-Residence at the Market Hall, Douglas to offer a rare opportunity to see behind the scenes of a maker’s practice and gain some insight into the design and production process of her very popular tableware. And for her residency – which runs from Wednesday 3rd – Sunday 7th August – Katy is taking the Market Hall, and the neighbouring Quayside as inspiration for a small collection of items.
But she’s not the only potter in town: Faye Christian, whose work graces private homes and the tables of many Island restaurants, and whose own studio is on the family farm in Crosby, will be displaying her own work and offering ‘throwing’ classes to those interesting in having a go themselves.
“Transforming a ball of clay with only the spinning of the wheel, a little water and the movement of my hands into an elegant functional piece is thrilling,” says Faye. “MakeMarket is a great opportunity to promote pottery as part of the creative industries, and encourage others, young and old, to try it for themselves. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Both Katy and Faye started their businesses with the help of the Isle of Man Government’s Small Business Start Up Scheme (or Micro Business Grant scheme as it is now) and Katy is enthusiastic about the opportunities open to creatives here:
“Starting a business, however large or small, is daunting, but the help I’ve had from DED and from the Arts Council since I first established Kathryn Mitchell Ceramics nearly three years ago has meant I’ve been able to call on advice when I needed it, but at the same time get on with what I do best – create. No one starting up a creative business here should underestimate the amount of support available,” Katy continues. “All you have to do is ask, apply for all the courses and every grant and take the plunge. You won’t regret it.”
And for a different sort of creativity, everyone is invited to a special ‘Poetry Bomb’ on Saturday afternoon (6 August) when some of the Island’s best known – and some previously unknown – poets will take to the specially constructed stage to entertain visitors with their own, often humorous, poetic takes on life.
But if neither pots nor poets are your thing, there’s more. If you’d like to help create the MakeMarket Zine, workshops open to anyone, professional, student or just enthusiastic amateurs of any age are taking place every Monday afternoon in August.
“For those who don’t know what a ‘zine’ is,” says Helen Fox, Programme Manager, University College Isle of Man, “it’s probably best described as a young ‘hip’ anarchopunk DIY self-published magazine, usually produced in editions of less than 1000 and more often in the low hundreds. Our Zine is going to capture the MakeMarket project in images and text, and, like all good zines, be reproduced on a photocopier. And you never know, it might become a collector’s piece in itself!”
Furthermore, and in keeping with the MakeMarket promise to offer workshops and hands-on sessions for professional creatives and those who’d like to add to their existing skills, there are a number of dates to look out for this month. If you’re interested in digital creativity, on Tuesday mornings there will be Digital Drop-In Workshops when you’ll be able to use some of the UCM’s own equipment to have a go creating your own digital images, or just watch and listen to expert tutor Gary Myers. On Thursdays you can learn all about laser cutting with UCM 3D design tutor Kathryn Scarlett and from 9 August, artist and yoga teacher Bryony Harrison will be leading ‘Yoga for Creativity’ sessions at 6pm every Tuesday evening.
Of course, as befits a pop-up ‘takeover’, events and extras are being added to the MakeMarket programme all the time. All the information about workshops – including how to book Faye’s pottery classes, who’s performing at the Poetry bomb and how to sign up for the yoga sessions - is on the MakeMarket Facebook page www.facebook.com/MakeMarketIOM, and you can follow @MakeMarketIOM on twitter to get up to date notifications.
The Creative Industries is a recognised economic sector which is growing here on the Island and Helen Fox sees this summer’s MakeMarket events as an opportunity to promote it:
“It is about bringing together a community of practice to see how we can work together to enable more creatives to sustain a career here on the Isle of Man,” she says. “Art, crafts, music, poetry, we’ve got them here in abundance, but we do tend to to take it all for granted sometimes. MakeMarket: A Creative Industries Takeover is one way of showing off what’s available, what we, as creatives, do and equally importantly raise awareness of how much we bring to the Island not just in terms of talent and skill, but also in financial terms. The Creative Industries sector is growing and creatives like Katy and Faye contribute to it, both in selling their own wares but also by playing their part in circulating money around the Island’s economy. There are no losers here.”
MakeMarket: A Creative Industries Takeover is supported by the Isle of Man Arts Council, Department of Economic Development, Culture Vannin, Manx Lottery Trust and UCM. The initiative is being co-ordinated by UCM and local events and marketing consultancy Revel.
Photo - Katy Mitchell’s Market Hall inspired collection (credit: Katy Mitchell).
