Be Still Media Fellowship Proposal
'WHO?' Samantha Somers - I received 1st place for my studies of Fumi Kaneko dancing the role of Odette in January '24 for the Art Saves Lives prompt and I would like to apply for a fellowship to help expand and progress these works and to create a larger, safer work studio at my home. ​You can view my prompt entry HERE
I began writing this proposal strictly following the 'What, Why, How' in order, but found I was repeating myself a little, so I have stuck to that breakdown loosely, writing the answers across the whole body of text where most appropriate, to help it read efficiently and clearly. Beginning mostly with the 'why and what' and then going on to pair the 'how' with budget information.
(Though this is viewable on a phone or tablet, I advise viewing this page on a desktop not a device - thank you)
SCULPTURE OF FUMI KANEKO AS ODETTE - Part of my prompt entry work
LINE WORKS - Greeting Card Designs & Prints
WHY - A DREAM COME TRUE​
I’m going to start discussing this with a direct referral to my ‘Art Saves Lives’ entry, quite simply, this set of works was the first step toward my dream and thus, my fellowship project is a continuation of that work and my prompt entry remains my best expression of why I do this on a more personal level.
It's been a crazy 4 months since winning the award and the opportunities it gave me shone a light on how many possibilities this work has.
I spent January in a haze of acceptance, from the wonderful feedback and a sense of the response people had to my work, to the affirmation of its worth. I had been in such a restricted autonomy and mindset for the last few years that I cannot tell you how much that has changed everything for me, but I think everyone involved with BeStillMedia knows how wonderful it is when art and the people who love it change your life. My long time dream suddenly had legs because of the award and I could start to move forward.​​
I started to make decisions about how best to put my passion in to the right pieces and be businesslike about it. I got my head down and started to wrap my brain around what I was now able to do, I researched different options for the sort of products I could make from my artworks, including casting my sculpture (I'm now basically addicted to sculpting) and put that in to action, which leads in to my next 'why'...
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- ACCESSIBILITY, AFFORDABILITY & QUALITY
Aside from my own personal passion for this work, I feel strongly about art as a whole being accessible to everyone and I want to make sure there are always pieces available to all budgets.
When making any passion in to a business there are always compromises, but with consideration and reducing outsourcing and middlemen as much as possible, I'm determined that the quality can be great whilst remaining affordable. Though things like original works must always come at a price, there are so many ways to make sure art is something that anyone can bring in to their lives and be inspired by. I know the worth of that myself and I want to prioritise making options for anyone who enjoys my work, made with sincerity and quality and I'll cover the 'HOW' of that below.
- A BALLET PALETTE - CELEBRATING INCLUSION
''A dancers complexion should be pale as a freshly peeled apple'' Contrary to this statement, for which the choreographer George Balanchine still receives fair criticism, he invested in the dream of a diverse dance company cast. Despite that though, 50 years later the idea of how a dancer looks remains a somewhat imbalanced narrative.
My work is not only about my response to dance, it is about shining a light on other artists, and in that it can be a place to strengthen and support one simple truth, beautiful dancers are not just one colour. It's strange writing this, it seems too outrageous to think it's still an issue, but there's so much evidence to the contrary of that idea, so many stories with sad endings, or stories that go untold, that I decided to find a positive way to support this truth, not only through the pieces I create, but in to how I present my work.
In 2018 Freed of London collaborated with Londons' Ballet Black to create it's range of 3 flesh-toned pointe shoes that were for the first time inclusive of non-white dancers, ''Although it may seem like a very small change to the outside world, I believe this is an historic moment in British ballet history and another step forward for culturally diverse dancers across the globe'' Founder & Artistic Director of Ballet Black, Cassa Pancho MBE. Bloch, another huge company soon followed with an inclusive range of colours across their dance wear. More important to mention however is the fact that Dance Theatre of Harlem, or to be more specific, Arthur Mitchell, dancer and founder, Wardrobe Mistress Zelda Wynn, and Wardrobe Assistant Vernon Ross created bespoke dyes in no less than 6 different shades for their dancers shoes and tights as early as 1971. When I think of how slow big dance wear companies were to start investing in this, and when I thought of how I've heard so many dancers of colour discuss their experiences of racism or simply feeling that they do not belong, I decided that I would follow suit and put a range of 6 'Pointe Shoe' colours across all of my packaging. Representing (and on some special edition items actually being made from) used pointe shoe satin, this pointe shoe packaging will be used in everything from labels to book covers and are a simple statement about the contrast between the elegance and grit of a dancer and the 6 'pointe shoe' colour variations, which I've begun referring to as the 'ballet palette' will be randomised on all packaging and book covers.
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''You see everyone else get a job and you're like, 'Why not me?'... sometimes the boards who hire have only seen ballet in one specific colour, so they're not ready. Every now and then I struggle with the thought of going back to dance, but it came to the point where I was just mad and I don't want to hate dance'' Bianca Fabre, former ballerina.
''There's a strong visual element to ballet that makes people stop and ask 'I don't know if it will look like ballet if there aren't 12 identical swans with exactly the same bodies and skin' when actually what matters is that you embody the same intention, the same spirit and movement'' - Virginia Johnson, former Artistic Director and Founding Member of Dance Theatre of Harlem
''Ballet is based on lines, and when a dancer tendus, you want to see the same colour from the fingertips to the toe and when you see a dark brown skinned dancer with pink tights, you break the line at her hips'' - Vernon Ross, Dance Theatre of Harlem.​
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THE BALLET PALETTE
- A GAP IN THE MARKET -
''My sister would get everything in pink, tutus... and of course boys get blue, boys have football, there's nothing related to dance for boys and so you tell people that you're doing ballet an everyone's mind goes straight to pink tutus and they can't see it any other way, so to imagine a boy doing that must be feminine and bad'' - James Large, The Royal Ballet.
''Most adults they don't know what ballet really is, they think it's only girly, and that that means it mustn't be hard work, but people that know and love ballet they realise it's strength and grace combined'' - Jeremy Chan, Hong Kong Ballet. '
'Men At The Barre' Documentary 2020.
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Ballet is a subject which the mass produced market largely treats with a sort of neglect that results in incredibly generic products, aimed at or specifically for young children, largely girls. We all know the ones, teddy's wearing pink tutu's and tiaras, pink clothing with a dance related print saying 'BALLET, exclamation mark' and there is simply very little else in the space between this type of product and a much smaller selection of high-end traditional artworks like bronze sculptures, and biographical books written about Margot Fonteyn and or Nureyev, that fans can indulge in. The effect of this can infantilise, negatively gender and generally reduce the art form or worse, peoples interest in and respect for it.
As a relentless fan I've found myself considering buying childrens ballet products in the past because nothing else was really available, I had collected the 'adult' options in a very short span of time, or what remained I could not afford to buy as frequently as I wanted - opera house tickets, bronze ballet sculptures (I have a small one) rarer collectables etc. My main surviving dance related spending goes in to collecting ballet programmes (even those are scarcely produced as they used to be) and tickets when I can afford to attend.​
One obvious reason for this 'gap' is that dance is so niche and its fans, so die hard and educated, that to employ knowledgable creatives to dedicate time to designing a product that can fully resonate with this audience becomes something most 'cash cow' companies simply do not want to front the cost for, nor do they know how to do so, with very little established guidelines to follow.
When the biggest donators to theatres, those purchasing tickets, and those with any free money to give to a passion are adults, the teddy in a tutu just isn't enough, certainly not when quality dance related products can generate donations as well as support and encouragement to get involved as a fan.
The irony that such a fantastically multifaceted subject, who's audience is a deeply obsessive one, (willing to invest with all the passion and commitment of a football fan to their team) remains without more points of access, especially in products and 'memorabilia' is frustrating and inescapable.
The opportunity to 'fill this gap' might well be a financially lucrative one, maybe not... but when I've grown up hearing statements like the ones above, especially from male dancers who's fathers stop speaking to them because they chose ballet over football, or who's friends cut them out because there's virtually nothing speaking for them about how Olympian their strength needs to be, or how fantastically beautiful a male dancer can and should feel proud to be, (at least rarely with the direct and immediate impact of art) I can only feel moved to support these fantastic human beings.
My goal therefore simply had to become refining and expanding on my niche and obsessively detailed work and finding ways to spread the word through it. Tailoring my studies of dancers & choreography in to both 'high-end' traditional pieces and investing in making affordable, accessible pieces & products that share the joy of dance, is something I am chomping at the bit to develop to the height of it's potential.
On my desktop, there currently sits a folder, containing a further 62 folders, with all of the ballet, burlesque and theatrical choreography that I wish to spend the rest of my life working to capture & share through my artwork and it keeps growing.
My entry for BeStillMedia's prompt was the first tester for the format of creating these works and a fellowship will mean I can progress in leaps and bounds, a thing which to say the least, after the 6 year long interruption of surgeries and learning to live with a chronic illness, has taken enough time from already and as with January's award, a fellowship will help me catch up and make up for much of that lost time.
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STUDIES FOR A SET OF WORKS ON MATTHEW BALL IN THE BALLET APOLLO, FURTHER NEW STUDIES OF FUMI AS ODETTE, AND A TRIPLE FIGURATIVE STUDY OF TOBIAS BATELY IN ROMEO AND JULIET
WHAT Pt 1 - My project goal consists of two main parts... 1 - To connect locally with my creative community, by creating a fully functional home studio and show space and 2 - Nationally and internationally collaborating with and showing works with dance events companies. In to these two sections, I have detailed 'HOW' elements, by breaking down how my artworks translate in to products and how that interconnects with these two driving goals.
1 - ADDING TO A LOCAL ART COMMUNITY
I live in a place called Hutton in the Forest. Being perched on the edge of the Lake District national park we tend to fall off the highly marketed lists of places to visit. Despite this, and some other trappings of being in a Northern community where dance rarely reaches our stages, I do have the fortune of living in what I consider to be a stunning rural location, just 2 minutes from a family-run art gallery that has been here since I was a child and even less distance from a hauntingly beautiful historic house, not only is this house an outstanding tapestry of architecture from the 12th century through to the late 19th century, but it hosts many art, pottery and local business fairs in its grounds. If I can establish a little micro-gallery and studio as a 'third point' in a little local triangle, it can further bolster our location as 'worth stopping by' and needless to say, could be hugely personally rewarding.
HOW CAN I START TO DO THIS?
I currently work from a spare bedroom in my house. This house is 'my house' because my father built it, and after he passed away in 2020, me, my fiancé and my mother all pitched in to convert part of the property in to an annexe for her and we moved in to start paying for the remaining part of the property. I count myself very lucky to have had this option, when so many of my friends are looking at never owning their own home. However, a spare room is not safe or practical for working with most art materials, nor is it large enough to contain a business, and receiving visits from clients involves people coming in to the most private spaces in the house, via a staircase.
I do however have a garage at the front of the property which has both easier access for people visiting and would make a safer work space for me as a person working alone from home. I spoke with my friend (who is a carpenter with a small team of electricians and plumbers) and we have budgeted converting the garage in to a studio, (in budget details below) Once this has provided for a time in the form of a fully functioning work space, I plan to extend it in the future, into a ‘micro gallery’ (designs also shown below) using the footprint currently taken up by a car port on the side of the garage. This larger work space has direct access to outside and a locked-off space behind the garage where a small shed sits which can be turned in to a well ventilated spraying and painting 'room'. To have a proper work space, separate from the home environment will be the most wonderful affirmation of what I've accomplished in the last 12 months+ and will also create a space I am proud of professionally as part of my local art-hub and can welcome clients into, to view or collect works.
The addition of the micro-gallery space will also allow me to sell a small selection of pieces by some fellow artists and jewellers, (who have already kindly agreed to stock the space as soon as it is ready) with a 'slow paced' approach that means a carefully curated treatment of their work, rather than cramming in and constantly refreshing stock as many retail galleries feel pressured to do and a higher percentage going to the artists from sales.
(Full garage conversion details below in budget)
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LOCAL ART LOCATIONS & THE BEAUTIFUL LAKE DISTRICT
WHAT Pt 2 - CONNECTING WITH AND SUPPORTING DANCE INTERNATIONALLY
To list the dance companies, individual dancers and choreographers I would love to connect with and work with long term, would take up too much of your time, there are simply so many. So I will start with the immediate plans I have, what I'm making, how that works and who that involves. ​
- SHOWS - I would like to start stocking and showing my works in art galleries, of course, but I feel this work is just as well placed in dance company lobbies, theatres, theatre gift shops, and perhaps even dance wear stores, as it is in traditional art settings. When I've found my feet and my selection of stock has expanded a little more, I plan to show and stock my work with as many companies and locations as I can.
As my work grows and I start selling, I want to join in with those dance communities wherever possible. This will include things like selling special fundraising sculpture pieces and prints to support groups like The Frederick Ashton Foundation, The Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and more. I also want to take a more active part in collaborating with companies who celebrate dance, such as Ballet Nights, Jamiel Laurences' outstanding ballet events company.
- SINCERE ARTWORKS THAT FUNCTION COMMERCIALLY - It has been a huge priority not just to balance affordability with quality to support accessibility, but in doing so, the products I've chosen to create have potential to sell internationally and to an endless scope of people. Each set of works is a show of support for all of these creators, dancers and choreographers who have made exceptional works, and there is so much to celebrate, yet from new choreographers such as Valentino Zuchetti to masters like Sir Kenneth McMillan, there are little or no products which really focus on their beautiful work in detail and my books, prints, paintings and sculptures are made to shout about it, holding their work up to the light in spaces outside of the theatre and bringing it in to peoples homes.
THE PRODUCTS
BOOKS - I have expanded the works on Fumi Kaneko dancing as Odette, because I still had a little more to 'say' about that and because I decided that every set of studies I produce will suit being collated in to 'editorial art books' that can showcase the way the work is designed to speak in detail 'as a whole' about beautiful choreography and the artistry of individual dancers and productions.
So in addition to making individual prints and greetings cards from my works, they can remain as a collection when formatted in to books.
I am hugely passionate about leaning in to how niche and detailed my approach to the subject is, because I know as a ballet fan that this will likely be something other ballet fans enjoy as much as I do. At the same time they can very much be enjoyed as a 'coffee table' book, accessible to anyone who just enjoys figurative artworks in general and available at a good price.
- PRINTS AND SMALLER PRODUCTS - I want to make my own affordable quality prints and select my own papers from companies who produce high quality paper themselves (like G.F. Smith) instead of drop-shipping and overcharging for it, and again, by cutting out middle men as much as possible I can keep retail prices lower. There are two professional grade printers that I could buy for this, but one is much more expensive and so I have hung back on deciding which one to buy until I know what my budget is going to be this year. So my apologies if the images of the print designs remain (as shown) low quality tester prints and shots of the originals at the moment. ​
- PUTTING SCULPTURE IN TO THE AFFORDABLE CATAGORY - As I researched options for casting my sculpture, (an expensive process) it occurred to me that scanning and 3D printing may be a great way to offer some affordable pieces across the board and so I have spent time working with an amazing casting studio in Manchester who are passionate about fusing modern tech with traditional casting and I've been developing ways to finish PLA and resin 3D prints to create works with as much love as the more expensive traditional casts. We've hit some snags that we're working through to improve, and we've concluded that I will need to contribute to editing the 3D scans myself to properly replicate my original sculptures details. You can see in the tester images below that many details are left with bulky areas (between fingers etc) or are overly smoothed where the scanners cannot fully capture details, and being able to purchase software and improving my tech kit can resolve those issues and make it possible to create stunning, affordable sculptures. Once individually painted with the methods I've created, these can sell at a RRP of around £190.00 - £350.00 compared to traditional castings which start at around £500.00-£5000.00 and upwards and I am so excited about this. With the scans edited properly to include full detail, prints with simpler finishes that I have also tested, can even sell for around £55.00-£75.00. The first traditional moulded casts are due to be ready mid May,​ and none of this would have been possible without Be Still Media's award and I thank you from the bottom of my heart...
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BOOK COVER DESIGN & PAGE LAYOUT MOCK-UPS
ORGINAL SCULPTURE & 1ST PRINTED SCULPTURE TESTERS, APRIL '25
WHAT Pt 2 Continued... HOW CAN I START TO DO THIS?​
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As mentioned, there are collaborations I'm preparing for and I already have planners for the first few, and have already started to work on the first.
When you invest in collaborating with great people I think so much more is possible for both parties than if you stick solely to creating works and placing them randomly in to the world as an individual.
The subject of my next project has been chosen not just from the passion I have for the ballet itself, but with two dance companies I admire in mind. The first company is called Ballet Nights. Ballet nights was founded by former dancer, Jamiel Devernay-Laurence. Jamiel began the company in 2021, with the wonderful concept of taking dance from the usual theatre setting and dropping it much closer to the audience in intimate and exciting locations where people could feel more invited to mix and share their experiences of dance, whilst revelling in an evening of selected performances, often created under a theme or on a dancer, or choreographer.
I cannot tell you how revolutionary this is, in terms of inviting everybody in to the world of dance and in giving audiences a new experience of it. This company, in my opinion, is going to change so much about how we view dance. Laurences' perspective on dance is that, like myself, he cannot see why 'we' are not approaching how to celebrate and enjoy dance with all the funding and confidence of a Formula 1 or Premiere League football event... I think he is brave, visionary and I simply want to be involved in this fantastic step in to the new way dance can live and breathe.
In my first year of creating dance artworks, I had my first exhibition (shortly before lockdown) and the support that received shocked me, with my esoteric subject, I expected to be lurking in the exhibition space mostly on my own all day, but the time flew because I had so many people stopping by to buy works, chat to me about it and support me. I even made new friends who I've been to ballets with since.
The Ballet Nights team are an inspiration, not least because they openly discuss how they also had to brave asking for funding in order to get started and to see where they have already gotten to, makes my heart fly!
The second company - Some of the works in my first exhibit studied an amazing contemporary version of the ballet Giselle, choreographed by an outstanding UK artist, Akram Khan in his own collaboration with English National Ballet. The beautiful forms and expressions Akram creates with the human body are frankly haunting and I hope Ballet Nights will want to collaborate with English National Ballet, Akram Khan and myself to create an event on it, inviting English National Ballet to perform some excerpts from it, and selecting event spaces that also have a little room to show my sculptures, prints, and paintings from this project, all celebrating Giselle.
This project involves multiple sculptures, and a fellowship will cover 'stage one' of this project in setting up a fully functioning art studio which will enable me to create and start casting / selling the pieces that will go on show (as well as my others from smaller projects)
This will help fund casting the remaining pieces I've designed for it and we (Ballet Nights and I) could even begin collaborating on a smaller event first, building toward this one, which I aim to be ready for by mid 2026.
I hope to approach Jamiel in a few weeks to start discussing this, and to create some guidelines and deadlines for getting it in to production ahead of creating the actual event. I wish to collaborate with Ballet Nights in lots of ways, offering artworks exclusively for them, but that will be discussed and in the end, up to them to decide if they wish to do any of this (they have kindly followed my socials so I am hopeful). But that is just one project among many that I am preparing to organise and create, in order to be involved in this amazing world of dance.​
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STUDIES FOR AKRAM KHANS' GISELLE - THE FIRST PROJECT OF '25
GARAGE CONVERSION - STUDIO SET UP AND BUDGET
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I will spend the next 6-8 months whilst the garage is converted (trades workers are always on unpredictable demanding schedules so the work may be ongoing until Winter '25) getting everything properly up and running, working on the studies for Giselle, and publishing the first of my art books, finding my feet... making and selling my prints, and starting to sell and approach stockists whilst the garage gets done.
As these next projects are finished and Christmas draws near I will be able to confidently approach the first companies with whom I'd like to collaborate and support to discuss ideas... and then simply go on and on from there with the next collections...
I have detailed the budget breakdown below, along with some Sketchup designs for the garage conversion... Thank you for your time and consideration
Samantha
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GARAGE CONVERSION PLANS (Sketchup & Drawings)
BUDGET - A fellowship will allow me to...
- UPDATE TECH - My low-power iMac is currently struggling to keep up with my workload and cannot handle software like Blender or ZBrush - software which will enable me to work with my sculpture casting studio to digitally refine his scanning work and achieve the best results for my affordable sculptures. I also currently have no backup computer if my iMac breaks. Having a second computer with working studio capacity will enable me to work and let me feel safer about emergency tech breakdowns.
- MacBook Air with full storage capacity and Unified Memory - £1600.00
- Yearly licence to rent ZBrush software for digital casting work - £358.00.
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CREATE SCULPTURES SAFELY AND AT A LARGER SCALE​
- Large countertop Adexa oven for setting sculptures - A safer unit separate from my domestic oven which is not safe for either the work or members of my household to continue using. This also lets me sculpt at a larger scale which helps my casting studio make higher quality scans of the pieces - £320.00
- PUBLISH MY FIRST ART EDITORIAL BOOK & SET UP PACKAGING - A cost efficient print run starts at around £160.00 per order (via two options at similar pricing, PixArtPrint & Print.Works UK print companies)
- A cost efficient run of packaging labels will cost approx £100.00 via Fast Printing.com
- PROFESSIONAL QUALITY A3 CANON PRINTER £700.00 - A large format printer with a large amount of inks and high quality image reproduction, which will enable me to produce my own fairly priced prints and other products, (and keeping my IP as safe as possible) on my own selection of quality papers from G.F.Smith Papers in Leeds.
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- GARAGE BUDGET ESTIMATE (Having spoken with a carpenter, plumber and electrician) - Fitting a glazed front door £2000.00 - Fitting stain resistant flooring approx £500.00 - New side door £200.00 - Update basic electrical fittings, £200.00-£300.00 - Plaster and paint walls around £400.00
TOTAL Approx £3500.00 GPB. ​
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TOTAL - £7000.00 GBP - Leaving small contingency toward more sculpture casting / extra costs in garage renovations.
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NOTE - I will add a general note on casting more sculptures and garage contingency, rather than exact costs for this, as not only is this cost spread over time as new sculptures are made and not an immediate full cost, but because I have saved some money from my Art Saves Lives award money to contribute to this and thus this remains a variable.
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