Bursary opens path to arts career

Grace Denton, iShed Coordinator at Watershed in Bristol, explains how the DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursaries scheme enabled her to take part in an internship and kick start her career in the arts.

I began my job as iShed Coordinator a month ago. Funded through the DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursaries scheme, I could not have tailor-made a more perfect role for myself at this stage in my life.
I graduated in July 2009, and spent a year juggling stop-gap and voluntary work in order to gain the experience I so badly needed, while supporting myself. Eventually I worked up enough expertise and money to move to Bristol – a new and exciting hub of creativity and innovation. Although I originally moved here for the DIY music scene and the thriving arts sector, I began to realise there was a whole host of companies, schemes, organisations and initiatives linking everything together and forming a positive breeding ground for cross-sector work.
I found this placement with iShed, part of Watershed, which brings together my skills in event organisation, marketing, administration, production, online publishing and being an active and open networker. Watershed spearheads and encourages many things within Bristol: experimentation within digital media and innovative community work are just two aspects of their wide reach.
I have already begun work on a number of different exciting projects: development of the new Watershed website; facilitating the Media Sandbox commissioning scheme by organising events, meetings and film-making for promotional videos; providing PR support for Knowle West Media Centre’s Media Hothouse scheme by organising a presentation and workshop; writing copy for both internal and external websites; and assisting in the coordination of the Pervasive Media Studio and its community.
Being part of this whole, with Watershed and the bursary scheme behind me, I feel like I can make confident steps towards my ambitions and the time I spend here will help me focus on, clarify and make paths towards those ambitions.