Midland Atelier, located in the old Foundry Building and Pattern Shop of the former Government Railway Workshop site in the historic Perth suburb of Midland.

Mentoring comes in many forms, from its place in traditional education frameworks such as university or TAFE institutions, to less formal workshops, to the networking and skills exchanges between colleagues or community members in an unofficial, at times inadvertent capacity. Mentoring may not always be overtly referred to as 'mentoring' but it is an essential component to any sector because it enables skills, experience and knowledge to be exchanged, thus keeping these valuable elements alive and active from one person to another/one generation to the next.

This is especially true within the cultural sector. Mentoring is a key to the successful evolution and progression of the cultural sector and creative occupations more generally. In more traditional artisan and practitioner-related industries, a strong (if unofficial) mentoring network can be the difference between the life and death of a specialised technique. Without this human transferal, a time-worn practical technique can be lost and forgotten - thereby shirring the edges of the cultural sector by gradually diluting the broader knowledge and skills-base across disciplines.

In Western Australia this 'shirring' is particularly acute for various reasons. One factor is the alarmingly high net loss of creative professionals overall in this state - a highly talented, predominately young demographic who leave the state to work in, and contribute to, creative sectors interstate and overseas, taking their skills, innovation and knowledge with them.

Meanwhile, technical facilities and studios in many local tertiary institutions have been downsized, leaving an array of creative professionals ₁ who either already possess certain technical skills but no longer have a space within which to practice these skills, much less refine them, or a glut of creative students rising through the ranks with a lack of technical expertise or knowledge because of the lack of opportunities for them to learn in the right environments .

The repercussions this has on the cultural sector and creative industries are significant. If the creative professionals we do have are leaving due to lack of investment; the 'emerging' creatives are graduating with holes in their knowledge; and the older creatives will eventually retire, where does it leave the sector and industries in question? A depopulated cultural wasteland?

This may seem melodramatic but it does not dance far from the truth, and points to the need for not only a rigorous mentoring process but one combined within a stront networking framework.

Mentoring combined with networking creates powerful benefits within the creative/cultural industries. While mentoring allows the transferal of skills and knowledge, networking creates the connectivity and conditions for mentoring opportunities to arise and expand. A good mentoring program encompasses an interactive web of innovative people across industries, regions, countries. This exposure ensures the benefits of mentoring move beyond the people directly involved in the mentoring relationship, to filter across and spread new ideas and shared skills.

It should be noted that while Western Australia may experience a net loss of creative professionals, that is not to say they have entirely vanished, nor that the local cultural sector is not fighting back. The key is not only to keep our most talented creatives here, but to position and utilize them in such a way that influences the broader industry they practice in, while offering opportunities across other sectors and industries. Ideally, this involves connecting the past with the future in terms of learning and skills transferred to 'up-and-coming' creatives to be adapted in innovative ways; but it also involves more collaborative learning and ideas exchange via the development of creative networks.

Two examples of Western Australian creatives - who actively contribute to their sector while representing the crucial middle-step between traditional artisan skill/knowledge and innovative creative directions - come to mind: glass artist Kevin Gordon and jeweller Bethamy Linton.

Bethamy Linton is a fourth generation silversmith. Her family is renowned for its contribution to silversmithing in Western Australia, and since the 1900s have been passionate advocates of local design. Bethamy recently opened her own workshop and gallery space in Perth's CBD; her brother and father continue to create work for Linton Silver.

Work by Kevin Gordon from his exhibition, SYSTEMA NATURAE: New Works by Kevin Gordon, at FORM Gallery.

Kevin Gordon is one of Western Australia's most accomplished glass artists, with work collected internationally and with an expansive CV citing a host of high-profile international exhibitions. His eminence in Australia's eastern states and international arena is breathtaking - and highlights the economic benefits of building a strong international network comprised of artists, commercial and non-profit galleries, media and other creative professionals.

This network reach is not only beneficial for the likes of Gordon and Linton, but has positive, wide-reaching effects both for the Western Australian and national industries they work in, and for the cultural sector at large.

Added benefits arise from a local cultural sector that is internationally perceived as connected and exciting, as this asserts that the place the sector is linked to is similarly connected and exciting. This thus draws in visitors and innovative professionals from a diversity of sectors attracted by the notion of relocating to a desirable, vibrant metropolis.₂

However, despite Gordon's international reputation, until recently he had never had a solo exhibition in his home state. This stresses the need not only for international networks but networks which link back to their place of origin. FORM curated Gordon's first solo exhibition - Systema Naturae - which opened in February 2008. It is in part through initiatives such as this that Western Australia can begin to reposition itself as a key component of the cultural picture. After all, if creative professionals like Gordon and Linton are creating in Western Australia and contributing to the local knowledge (and broader) economy, then why shouldn't the state maximize the benefits of this community by investing back into it?

Like Linton, Gordon comes from a strong family background in his discipline; with both parents renowned for their work with glass and possessing techniques now considered extremely rare (Gordon's father is the last living practitioner of cameo engraving in Australia). Both Linton and Gordon are therefore in a unique position as they have learned the highly involved, specialised skills of their familial occupations and are thus able to function as 'connectors' between people and skills - as well as imparting less tangible but invaluable industry experience to their counterparts. Actively involved in local Western Australian creative communities, Linton and Gordon are indicative of the finer, less measurable modes of mentoring and networking.

Both Linton and Gordon have also been involved in FORM's Designing Futures cluster development program; Linton as a participant in the recently concluded jewellery cluster and Gordon as a lead mentor in the 2007 glass cluster. Established in 2001, FORM's Designing Futures cluster program offers focused networking and mentoring opportunities outside of conventional design education avenues for 'clusters' of Western Australian designers at various stages of their careers. The program is based on two modules: business/market development and product development. The cluster construct is designed to encourage the development of local networks of designers, and through this, a long-term platform for creative engagement, ideas and innovation, and ongoing mentoring/learning opportunities.

Linton's role in the jewellery cluster as a participant rather than a mentor is significant and illustrates the interchangeable nature of a strong mentoring framework, whereby those considered accomplished designers are still able to learn new skills and benefit from the networks created through the mentoring process. Rather than a teacher-student framework, a strong mentoring program is highly collaborative and interactive and nurtures a two-way street of skills, experience, ideas and knowledge.

Midland Atelier, workshop

Linked to these concepts is Midland Atelier - a creative industries development initiated between FORM and the Midland Redevelopment Authority (MRA), which aims to provide a space for high-level, collaborative mentoring and develop international networks that link directly back to the state. Midland Atelier is located in the old Foundry Building and Pattern Shop of the former Government Railway Workshop site in the historic Perth suburb of Midland. Scheduled to be fully operational within 18 months, some studios at Midland Atelier are already home to working designers. Kevin Gordon and furniture designer Jon Goulder will be among the designers based at the Atelier as permanent artists-in-residence, highlighting the focus on creative excellence and innovation. Also incorporating interdisciplinary design studios, a gallery space and innovative learning programs, Midland Atelier will channel an ongoing dialogue of design excellence between Western Australian and international creatives, while offering tangible investment and policy models for innovation and the creative industries.₃

Cultural programs embodying collaborative mentoring and network development are also highly valuable because of their role in sustaining facets of culture, society and historical knowledge in a contemporary environment.

The Canning Stock Route Project is founded on solid network and mentoring programs including artist workshops, community meetings and employment, education and training models.

Another FORM project, The Canning Stock Route (CSR) Project, is one such example. In development since 2006, the CSR Project is a contemporary arts and cultural initiative that celebrates the lives and stories of Western Desert Aboriginal peoples from countries surrounding the Canning Stock Route. Brokered by FORM, the project sees a large-scale alliance between nine remote Aboriginal arts and cultural organisations: Tjukurba Gallery, Martumili Artists, Yulparija Artists, Mangkaja Artists, Ngurra Artists, Paruku IPA, Warlayirti Artists, Papunya Tula and Kayili Artists.

The Project is founded on solid network and mentoring programs including artist workshops, community meetings and employment, education and training models, all of which are designed to engage Aboriginal professionals in a range of areas. The CSR Project will launch in 2010 with an exhibition at the National Museum of Australia. The exhibition and accompanying book, multimedia projects and academic research will contribute to the transfer of knowledge between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities and enrich Australia's understanding of itself as a nation.

Central to the CSR Project are two mentor programs: The Emerging Aboriginal Curators Program and the Emerging Aboriginal Multimedia Practitioners Program. These two programs are 'leadership incubators', offering atypical, artistically innovative career experiences for six young Aboriginal people in remote and regional communities: Murungkurr Terry Murray (ex-Mangkaja Arts) from Fitzroy Crossing, Hayley Atkins from Newman-based Martumili Artists, and Louise Mengil from Waringarri Artists based at Kununurra form the Emerging Curators, while Morika Biljabu from Punmu, KJ Kenneth Martin from Halls Creek and Clint Dixon from Broome make up the group of Emerging Multimedia creatives.

Both programs offer skills that can return great economic, cultural and social benefits for the individual participants, the out-bush enterprises they currently work for and the wider community. Guided by a host of eminent professionals, these emerging curatorial and multimedia talents are not simply mentorees but are actively shaping the content of the CSR Project through a structure that is collaborative, interactive and practical and designed to nurture leadership, innovation and incentive.₄

The key to any successful cultural sector mentoring project is to aim higher than 'better' and broader than one sector or discipline. Also integral is thinking in terms of leadership - designing mentoring that develops the leaders of the cultural sector who will champion its cause and have the vision to see the broader social and economic picture. This is akin to Donne's no man is an island adage; the individual designer or artist does not - or should not - operate within a silo, and neither should the cultural sector. To progress, grow and remain sustainable in a global economy, the sector must embrace its value and role as part of the broader picture.

Elisha Buttler
July, 2008

Elisha Buttler is a curator at independent cultural organisation FORM. She is also a freelance writer.

Footnotes

1. See Comparative Capitals. Comparative Capitals is a research project published in partnership between FORM, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Comparative Capitals tracks how successful Australia's capitals are in attracting and keeping young, educated and creative workers; fostering innovation; and nurturing socially well-adjusted and liveable city environments.
2. See Comparative Capitals.
3. See www.midlandatelier.com for more information
4. For more information on the Canning Stock Route Project go to www.form.net.au