Mentorship program runs by professional artist Christophe Canato

Facilitated through Artsource as part of the Educational program, City of Belmont Art Awards 2022 has included a 24 hours mentorship Prize with an established visual artist and I am pleased to have been offered the role. Congratulation to winner Sky Edwards emerging artist. Recently graduated with a diploma of Fine Arts, Sky Edwards already have a number of art projects to their credit. Also graduated in chemistry first class Honours, the practice of this experimental artist in multi-media focusses on ecological and queer issues.

 

My focus as a mentor was to create a relationship based on mutually beneficial exchange that supports both mentor and mentee career development. In this case, place attention on visual art perspective in order to enhance personal and professional growth. The goal I set myself was to establish a relationship for a pre-determined period and to grow with an artist interested in being mentored by photo media professional. Also working with them on professional exchanges as well as on creative development perspective and concepts, offering my advice and taking an interest in the person’s needs. 

 

The outcomes to be achieved in a mentor perspective were a sense of satisfaction by supporting artist in needs. Giving back to a young artist what I have learnt from my peers. collaboration and development of original work. Improvement in own practice as a result of mentoring them. To the mentee, the upshot was to access to an established artist who has been using digital medium. Gaining confidence in abilities to growth in their practice. That also includes public recognition, networking opportunities from long term art practitioner and deepening knowledge of the arts sector.

 

I had no doubt that Belmont Mentorship program would give Sky the opportunities to grow and reach the next level of their career. After consulting the interested party, I proposed to work in two directions. Part of the program was devoted to the logistics of an artistic career and communication to name a few;artist resumes, writing effective artist statements, portfolio, printing materials, art prize applications and developing and curating your show as an artist including installation, exhibition catalogue, room sheet preparation… But the biggest challenge in my opinion was to centralize their multiple artistic facets in order to propose a course of action that would allow Sky to refine its profile as an artist. Through exercises such as Brainstorming, we have put in place tools that have allowed us to define a predilection subject for Sky's artistic research, to determine the appropriate techniques and mediums or to draw up a list of key words as a guideline.

 

Included in the Belmont Mentorship Prize an exhibition at the Belmont library exhibiting space.

Belmont Art Officer Belinda Cobby has suggested Sky to present some of their film photography. In this context, we have focused the last few hours of the program on how developing and curating your show as an artist. That included viewing and selecting some Sky's images, what to show, what title and options for printing and installation/presentation including framing process, optionalexhibition catalogue. We finalised the program by a couple of hours in situ.