Guildhall Creative Entrepreneurs
In 2014, Guildhall School and Cause4 set up one-year business incubator to help people in the performing arts launch and advance their own enterprises. Since then we have supported the creation and upscaling of over 40 businesses spanning performance, production, education and digital.
The programme comprised of face-to-face teaching, mentoring and guidance to help you turn your creative idea into a sustainable, long-term enterprise. Unlike other incubators, Guildhall Creative Entrepreneurs offered focused support for businesses working within or for the performing arts.
We used our combined industry networks, business expertise and deep knowledge of the performing arts to help entrepreneurs turn their creative ideas into successful businesses.
About the Scheme
Guildhall Creative Entrepreneurs was a one-year part-time (one day per week during term time) business training programme which offered personalised teaching, mentoring and guidance to help turn your creative idea into a sustainable, long-term enterprise. Our partnership with award-winning social enterprise Cause4 meant we could offer a unique combination of artistic, professional and business expertise specific to the performing arts.
Over the course of the year, participants attended expert-taught seminars and peer discussions covering the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with tailored 1-1 mentoring and guidance. Topics covered in these sessions included developing your business plan, marketing & PR, pitching & presentation, legal guidance for entrepreneurs, and more.
The course culminated in a pitch event in which all participants were invited to present their business plan and pitch to a panel of experts from the business and performing arts sectors. Winning pitches were awarded a prize fund to further supplement the start of their entrepreneurial journey.
Case studies
Drum Works is a music project based in east London that encourages social cohesion and improves educational and aspirational outcomes for its participants. Our vision is to build a community where every individual is empowered to make positive choices about their future, to aim high and to take responsibility for their role in supporting others around them. We confront disengagement within schools and youth culture by using dynamic teaching processes and culturally relevant material to engage and inspire all young people from any background, demonstrating that positive action, hard work and commitment can achieve amazing results.
Drum Works now involves around 400 people every week through six East London schools, two senior bands and anadult ensemble. The core of our activity is the work that takes place in schools: this is the heart of the project. Our senior bands, Drum Heads and Drum Heads Training Band, provide progression routes for students who want to take it further. An Assistant programme offers some of the older, more advanced players the opportunity to develop their music leadership skills while undertaking a mentoring programme to support their personal and professional development.
In response to popular demand we have also recently started running a wider programme of activity alongside the core work in schools, including bespoke schools workshops, corporate training and a public adults ensemble.
Song in the City uses the power of song to change people's lives in all parts of our society. We devise projects that use the talents of classical musicians to make a real difference in the world at large, and to stretch these artists, and our audiences in creative ways.
Our projects include Creative Madness in Song, which sees young composers create new songs from the poems of mental-health service users. The songs are brought to life by singers from Guildhall School in workshops and performances. We've already performed in many hospital settings and other festivals.
Another project, One Creation, creates new performance pieces by inviting artists and musicians born into different faiths, but not necessarily practising, to choose secular or religious texts and songs from their own heritage on shared themes. The next phase of the project will premiere a new piece at Southwark Cathedral in early 2020, with musicians from Coptic, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu backgrounds, and will also feature the Choir of King's College, London, and The Girls' Choir of Southwark Cathedral.
Our flagship project is Healthy Lunchbreaks; to date we have staged more than 150 FREE lunchtime concerts, bringing talented performers (mostly from Guildhall School) to the heart of the stressful City. The performances are designed around socially engaging themes allowing us to connect with new audiences that might not otherwise attend a song concert. Commissioning is also at the heart of all these projects; in particular, our song-cycle
Voices of London was written by four composers setting poetry inspired by London. We have recorded all these new songs for public release.
Sound Castle is a Guildhall graduate arts collective which supports people and communities to make positive change through creative music making, coaching and training.
After completing the Creative Entrepreneurs scheme, the four graduates received their first Arts Council England grant, and have since expanded beyond London to Bristol and the South East. Their flagship programme Musical Beacons has now expanded to over three locations.
Gestalt is a contemporary performance company working with unique places and people to create art which questions the world today. With a bold, colourful and irreverent voice we combine opera with a wide range musical influences, physical theatre and outdoor performance — creating experiences and communal spectacles that change the way you see the world.
Gestalt partners with the world’s leading minds and organisations. Partners have included The Eden Project, The Lawrence Batley Theatre, Totally Thames Festival, Snape Maltings, York University, Green Man Festival, The British Ecology Society and anti-terrorist organisation The Active Change Foundation. Gestalt's work has appeared on BBC Radio 3, BBC Wales, ITV and Channel 4 News.