It’s a week now since I took a train to Colchester for an interview for participation in a mentoring scheme run by the Activator initiative. Called ‘Information Highway’ it’s an interesting scheme in that it works on a pyramid principle, and successful applicants are expected both to receive and give mentoring. I was on the bus home after the train journey to Norwich, tired after my day out, when I got the phone call to say that I hadn’t been successful. It seemed like a lot of time, effort and expense, and I wasn’t sure what had really been gained. I do think it was a worthwhile experience overall, but my feelings are mixed. Part of me has the drive to keep pushing on with this profile-raising thing (which after all is what my Arts Council funding is for) but part of me wants to spend time doing all the other things I rarely get around to doing and which are also important to me. And family commitments both to children and to elderly parents mustn’t be neglected. Not to mention the need to work and earn some money.
I’m still processing the experience, anyway. In fact, I’m lucky enough to have funding allocated for studio visits and mentoring, so perhaps this will be the nudge that gets me approaching an artist to see whether they would be interested in a day’s paid mentoring.
The day after the Colchester interview, a piece about my performance at Cromer Museum appeared in the local paper. It was odd to see it highlighted (in a slightly over-emphatic way, maybe??) as the headline outside our village post office.
