If that all sounds a bit meta, I promise you it’s super practical and packed with ideas.

Join me, Francesca Baker, for a workshop focused on how to market your workshops. Whether you’re running writing workshops, poetry sessions, an expressive arts series or something entirely new and cool, this workshop will help you reach audiences and sell tickets.

We will cover

• Finding your target audience
• Writing engaging copy
• Using social media
• Growing your personal brand
• Potential partnerships

My skillset and experience are varied – covering copywriting, journalism, marketing, research and PR – but always centred around communication and creating a connection. Ultimately, I work with stories – and creating the right messages to resonate with an audience.

I’ve been working in marketing for over twelve years, with a particular passion for the arts. Clients include The National Lottery, The National Trust, Margate Bookie, Lapidus International, Moving Pieces, Fairtrade, Tesco, Mitsubishi, Carers Trust, Lord Mayor’s Appeal, Takeda, Diabetes UK, The Times, BBC, Metro, Stylist, Australia Times and more.

You can find out more at www.andsoshethinks.co.uk and follow me on all social media @andsoshethinks

Thursday 21 January 5pm-6pm

Saturday 23 January – 11am-12pm

Friday 5 February – 10am-11am

Cost is on a sliding scale.

• I’ll pay what I feel, thank you very much
• I’m nailing it this year, I’ll pay full whack – £15
• I know this is worth a lot, so I’ll pay a bit – £10
• Can’t quite stretch, so here’s a fiver – £5
• I’m a creative, I’m skint, but I’ll leave a review – free

Get your ticket here – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-workshop-on-marketing-your-workshop-for-creatives-tickets-132707773523

Sat 18 Nov / Quarterhouse Folkestone

I’m thrilled to be running a workshop at this year’s Folkestone Book Festival, all about Writing for Wellbeing. My workshops at previous festivals have completely sold out, so book now!

The BUST Craftacular London summer session brought some of the best in the capital together to share their skills and wares at York Hall in Bethnal Green. Nearly seventy stalls filled the Bethnal Green venue, including wooden jewellery from Lucie Ellen, quirky postcards by Lucy Wilkins, lovely sewn bags by East London’s Olive Road, some organic haircare courtesy of Glasshouse and prints on offer from Su & Miah.

As well as all the opportunities to part with your cash for something beautiful, workshops throughout the day let participants try it out themselves. London Craft Club set up plant pots for individuals to paint, the colourful thumbs being a giveaway as to who had given it a go. The retro art of friendship bracelets was there with Mollie Makes and The New Craft House, and Live It. Love It. Make It. has brightened up homes (including my own!) with some paper cut wall hangings.

Tatty Devine is one of the success stories of the homegrown creative business. Started by best friends Harriet and Rosie in 1999 as a panicked reaction to a Vogue buyer asking Harriet to see her collection after spotting on her wrist the leather cuff she had made, it’s now a global jewellery range, specialising in bright and bold design. Using acrylic I was taken through the steps of making a bunting necklace, that will jazz up even the blandest of black work outfits.

Most of the designers and makers at BUST Craftacular sell and run workshops throughout the year. From the oooohs and smiles around the fair, it seems like new and old crafters alike will be sampling what’s on offer, and joining the cool crowd.

‘A craft workshop.’

He rolled his eyes. Craft has an unfair (although shifting) reputation as being old fashioned and irrelevant, more WI than people of the world.

‘We burned wood and drank wine.’

Now he was more interested.

Pyrography literally means fire writing, and is one of the most enjoyable, accessible and accessible crafts I’ve explored. With origins dating back to cavemen and the Chinese Han Dynasty, it involves using a heated tool to burn the surface of wood and leather to create patterns. Nine of us gathered together with London Craft Club to learn how to do so, trying different techniques, drawings and tools to embellish the goods provided. Although not easy to create beautiful designs, it’s pretty simple to get somewhere in just a two hour workshop, and whilst some of us stuck to stencils and patterns, others got more artistic and drew entire scenes. The smell of autumn bonfires was soon enveloping the room and the satisfying images began to appear.

The other awesome benefit of pyrography is that what is produced is often very practical. I’m now the proud owner of kitchen spatulas, pegs, a chopping board and a key ring – handcrafted versions of which I would not be able to buy for the workshop price, let alone be taught how to do. The only danger is how I’m eyeing up everything I see as a potential canvas. Doors, watch out…

London Craft Club run workshops all over the city, featuring a range of different tutors and activities, for all abilities.

Photos from London Craft Club.

Changing Minds, the weekend festival at the Southbank Centre about the role of arts in mental health and the intersection between the two was a fabulously balanced collection of events curated and presented by experts (whether that’s professional or from lived experience). Entertaining and informative, the six story building was awash with people curious to learn more.

A complex blur of physical, emotional and environmental triggers, there is no one size fits all solution. It’s the same for physical health of course, but we can see that, so as visual beings tend to find it easier to understand. Art and creativity can do everything from take the edge off to literally saving a life by providing a lifeline. There’s evidence that the arts can have significant impact upon health outcomes in studies by Arts Council and the National Alliance.

The programme was filled with talks covering everything from how humour can take the sting out of shame with comedians Jack Rooke and Sofie Hagen, how therapists can be ore creative (a panel including Nicola Crooke and Paul Gurney), the place of art versus chemicals (Jo Marchant, Rachel Kelly, Danny Cunningham), what the words ‘mental health’ actually mean (Bobby Baker, David Adam) and more.

There was also the opportunity to try some of the ways in which art can enhance wellbeing, and participants were invited to move the body through dance with Yunkong Song, read poetry alongside Ellie Stamp or craft in Amy Brown’s workshops. Stalls from Mind, Rethink, Time To Change, CALM, Biblio, Bethlem, Lambeth LivingWell, B-EAT and Articulate made for a vibrant area of exchange and inspiration. There was also the opportunity to try some of the ways in which art can enhance wellbeing, and participants were invited to move the body through dance with Yunkong Song, read poetry alongside Ellie Stamp or craft in Amy Brown’s workshops.

The weekend was a reminder than open and honest dialogue, mutual partnerships and curiousity are crucial to changing the perspective of mental heath, but also that it is happening. The spectrum between illness and wellness is a grey one. Good mental health isn’t about not being crazy. It’s about being comfortable, communicating, and connecting.

Sometimes art can be the tool to make that happen.