This blog was written by Future Culture Arts Worker Intern, Kirsten Maglalang, and has reflections from Future Culture Artist in Residence, Emma Pham.

On April 16th, CuriousWorks had its second Future Culture session of the year based on marketing, online presence and pitching yourself as an artist. This session was led by Rizcel Gagawanan, a multi-hyphenate artist, producer, content creator, writer, director and performer. 

Here is a link to her website: https://rizcel.com/ 

This session was an opportunity for everyone to come together, share our goals in terms of marketing ourselves as artists and find ways to improve our websites. Rizcel emphasised the importance of having a website as it is a much more personalised space where we have the most autonomy over the kind of work we want to share. 

We began the session with Future Culture Artists in Residence, Emma Pham and Cassandra Li who took us through their works in progress. Here are some words shared by Emma Pham: 

“As always, it was super lovely being with the team on our all-in Future Culture day. Cass and I had the opportunity to officially share our WIPs that have slowly been taking shape during our residencies. I enjoyed the time a lot as communicating my work to others helps me to make sense of certain approaches I was consciously and/or subconsciously taking. Like Cass, I had prepared a presentation slideshow aimed at capturing the various elements of my piece which is a visual novel game-inspired and set in Cabramatta. These included some pixel art backdrops, a half-finished avatar, scattered writing, and sound bites. I really appreciated the team for receiving the piece and offering their thoughts while at the same time, still holding space for its unpolished-ness. Getting to share my work like this, despite being in its partially fleshed out form, allowed me to let others in on my process — and I realised how fulfilling this can be!” 

Following this, there was discussion around our personal feelings around social media, from its overwhelming nature to its ability to reach wider audiences. As artists, we may experience conflictions regarding how to present ourselves online but Rizcel reminded us that social media is simply highlights of what we do.There is no immediacy required when sharing our personal work. 

This led into the final activity of this session where we each shared how we perceived each other based on our social media presence – a vulnerable, but ultimately rewarding exercise. From here on, we were able to offer advice on different ways we could share our art-making and creative processes.

Below are some of the key takeaways from this activity: 

• Be intentional – Who is the community I want to connect with? What is it that I want them to take away from my work? How can I tend to my online presence at a pace that is compatible with my own needs, boundaries, and lifestyle? 
• Documenting for others/yourself – Sharing our personal documentation can be vulnerable, but it can also be a way of connecting with others by offering an in-depth look into our artistic processes. This does not have to be shared immediately. It can sit in the archives, ready to be drawn upon when the right moment calls. It does not even have to be shared at all. It can just be a way of quietly paying witness to ourselves. 
• Lean on friends and family – For those who struggle to pitch ourselves as artists, Rizcel reminded us that we can always seek support from our closest circle. Ask them what they enjoy seeing from you when it comes to sharing your work/ practice and what they would like to see more of. Words of affirmation can go a long way!

Most importantly, we should always follow joy because in doing so, we become more intentional in what we do as artists. Identifying our call to action whilst also following what we love the most is what will ultimately lead to more fruitful ways of navigating dynamic social realms.