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 a Fellowship to help create an art studio at my home that can also encompass a micro-gallery space for supporting fellow artists and makers in a setting that curates sensitively and charges a low percentage to artists, away from more commercially driven gallery models. (You can view my original prompt entry here)
Following completion of the studio renovation and with the creation of new works well underway, having established my own work as consistent, viable products that can be built upon, this proposal is for further funding the progression and production of these works for ongoing projects, product development and opening the micro-gallery.
'What, Why, How' etc have been merged across the body of text to avoid taking up your reading time repeating myself across separate sections.
(Though this is viewable on a phone or tablet, I advise viewing this page on a desktop not a device - thank you)
NEW ANIMATED SEQUENCE WORKS (Scan the QR's to see the animations)
Like our Fellowship meeting format - I'll begin with a catch up...
I’ll include some information that’s already been covered from the March catch up meeting with Gabriel and Grace, for the benefit of everyone reading. I’ll try to be as brief as possible to save on reading time.
At the start of September, my right eye suddenly struggled to see properly… long story short, NHS staff were very avoidant of safely checking this out, so I paid for a private ophthalmologist to check me out. Concerned, they referred me to another, and then because they also worked at a local hospital they helped push for an urgent MRI which I was told by the hospital in December, was ‘all clear’.
I asked the private ophthalmologist where they would advise I go to get the backup of a second opinion, (as we know the local hospital has an incredibly poor reputation for neglecting patients) Newcastle RVI was recommended and their neuro-ophthalmologist helped by giving me a fast appointment, by the end of January, this neuro-ophthalmologist had sent me on to a Multiple Sclerosis specialist because they identified that our local hospital had missed several markers on my MRI that diagnosed the disease. I was as you can guess, very glad that I asked for a second opinion.
It’s been a long hard interruption to the years plans, and a bad shock to deal with. The multiple appointments to attain this diagnosis made a dent in my years budget, but what hurt more was the cost of time that was supposed to be spent happily working and creating. It’s been a heartbreaking development.
I saw the new BSM prompt only in the last week… I’ve been slowly returning to ‘the grid’ sharing new works this last couple of months and when I saw the prompt, I had initially thought ‘I've already had some help... it’s someone else’s turn’ and thought I wouldn't apply for any further award to fund my work. The MS specialist tells me he thinks he can buy me up to 15-20 years before my faculties become more damaged… sadly this doesn’t include a promise to avoid further damage entirely, nor to avoid that damage further effecting my sight or ability to walk, sculpt or draw. But he says he is optimistic thanks to my diligence in seeking proper diagnosis sooner, (as meds are largely preventative) and after absorbing all of this chilling ‘life-math’ I took another look at the new prompt, and decided, this could not only help further the work I’m doing, in a prompt that felt very relevant to me, but could buy me more time doing my work before further damages are done by the MS, by way of allowing for more progress to happen sooner, as well as more comfortably affording to progress production at a better more cost-efficient pace, (ordering multiples at lower cost rather than minimums at higher cost etc etc) and developing this in to a fully fledged profession that bit sooner. I’d like to get the most out of the time I do have, after living with endometriosis I have the gift of hindsight and I’ve seen the ability of diseases in costing time, memories and access to creativity. So I decided to apply.
Ultimately this is about whether you think my work and work ethic is worth awarding further support, and I’ll note that you’ve already made a difference to me, and I understand that other people need support too, I know how kind the humans at Be Still Media are, and I don’t want these unfortunate medical facts to leave anyone feeling unnecessarily uncomfortable - I just had to apply, for the difference I’ve already seen these awards make to my work and life and for that I’m incredibly thankful.
EXTENDING ON THE FELLOWSHIP PROJECT - This year had to begin with some changes to the way I live and with readdressing how I will be working over the year taking in to account my diagnosis. Around and aside from this, I have managed to complete set up of the new studio and the adjacent garden room and hallway show spaces, (photos below) as well as continuing with the production of new artworks. I took time in December-January to look at where I was spending my energy and I've been able to rebalance the projects for the year to be able to continue with them, whilst taking in to account the advice to avoid stress and not overburden myself. With my health remaining an uncertainty, (I’ve been told to trial the immune suppressant medication for 6+ months to settle in to their effects and avoid extra stress etc) I not only wanted to reduce health risks by slowing the pace a little, but I didn’t want to offer to represent new artists and makers if I might be spending the time I’m meant to give to selling their work, on hospital appointments and recovery days. I think the responsible thing to do, is ease in to it slowly. I’ve spoken with the jeweller and a couple of artists who’s work I’m already going to be stocking, and we’ll be going forward as planned, but I will be waiting as advised, to make sure I know what my new routine looks like over the next few months, before I add any more artists to the list. Perhaps I’ll fit in a coffee morning here at the studio and manage to add a new artist to the space if things are going well in coming weeks, and despite all this stress I’m very glad the studio is up and running...
NEW PRINT RELEASES FOR SPRING - STEVEN MCRAE'S SEQUENCE ANIMATION AND NEW SWAN LAKE 'EXPOSURE' PRINTS RELEASING IN MAY.
CONSISTENCY & CONTINUATION - The images and video's scattered through this proposal show new finished pieces and releases, and I hope that this shows how hard I've strived to continue producing and developing new works, setting up the new studio, and how hard I will continue to work at the Fellowship project and indeed all of my work, as well as showing how Be Still Media has already helped both my progress and confidence as an artist.
In March’s catch up meeting, I spoke with Grace, Gabriel and the fellows about how I’ve adjusted my years workload to balance this lost time with medical disasters and get back to it. In all this I was able to find a positive conclusion, and improvement to the way I work overall... we take silver linings where we can find them. A typical artist, with a dose of imposter syndrome, I had previously been telling myself my projects needed to ‘do more’ be bigger etc, (because our work is never ‘enough’) but Be Still Media’s support had already helped me see things differently and this let me feel confident to stick with what I was already doing, and develop more of my line works in to more animations like the one in my initial winning project. I’ve called these my ‘Sequence works’.
I’ve developed a way to expand on and refine the concept and pair my 2D artworks with their animations, by framing these works with accompanying QR codes, which when scanned with a phone or device camera, link to the animations of the dancers ‘dancing’ through the choreography (see further images & video at the top of this page)
These pieces have now become a strong backbone to my work, their interactive properties allowing not only a deeper way to capture my ethereal subject, but an expansion on my desire to create ways for people to bring dance in to their homes and lives, exactly the goal in all of my work and the fellowship project.
With these individual works feeling stronger, I feel I can make high quality smaller projects at-a-time that hold their own, releasing them over a year, whilst building x1 larger in-depth project over the year. And being able to develop this working method has been a huge ease on the pressure I was putting on myself whilst allowing me to produce effectively and with more creative autonomy. So my more in-depth project on ‘Giselle’ (part of my Fellowship project) can continue, and we’ll see how I’m doing with production by the Winter, knowing that other works will be released in the meantime as well....
...Since the end of January I’ve had my first time braving being back at work more and the choice of subject for the 1st of the years small project pieces was decided by yet another inspirational dancer. Three months ago, I was terrified that when I sat down to work properly again with my vision damaged, I wouldn’t be able to focus for long or see well enough and my work would suffer. And for a month, I had avoided drawing. In that time I watched a newly released documentary called Resilient Man, about one of my favourite dancers, Steven McRae. He suffered a damaged ankle whilst performing Manon in front of thousands of people and subsequently has been mostly off the stage for the last 2 years, essentially he’s been dealing with the same fear of being cut off from doing what he loves most, and has also had to face some scary odds on how his life will look going forward. The way the Royal Opera House has supported his recovery reminded me of the difference my first award made. Knowing that some people believed in what I do, and how art makes people feel, gave me back a sense of possibility and confidence that the endometriosis had started to chip away at. I can see how Steven has survived this ordeal with his family and the opera house backing him, but I also felt incredibly moved at seeing him accept that he must handle this hardship himself, he knew that ultimately only he could actually choose how to deal with it. I felt less alone, and inspired.
Despite being one of the worlds most busy humans Steven has been very sweet and supportive of my work, and shares my posts and encouragement. The reminder of other peoples struggles and the grace I’ve seen them handle it with has a conflicting friction to it, and Steven definitely deserves a mention in this as someone who has quite literally stood up and embraced his fate. Threads from the original prompt of 'Art Saves Lives' remain stitched through arts ability to bring out the best in people during hard times.
So not only his beautiful dancing, but his bravery pushed me to try again. I made my first small project of the year (animation above) on a piece of choreography that Steven loves to dance, from the ballet Don Quixote. I have to work a little slower, to stop myself from getting sore eyes and tension headaches, but I managed to make a full Sequence piece, complete with the longest animation I've tried making thus far. I have just finished creating a set of prints from the animation drawings which I’m framing now and releasing in May along with my first greetings cards.
The release of these new works completes a target I'd set myself which would give me a portfolio that I felt permitted approaching galleries and stockists for my work, so I'm really pleased to be able to move forward to that new ground.
STUDIES FOR AKRAM KHANS' GISELLE
CONTINUATION, CONTINUED... (that's not even the worst pun I've made in 2026 so far)
A RECAP - ‘Giselle & Myrtha - Beauty in dark places’
In addition to setting up the studio and show space, my fellowship proposal included working over this year to create pieces that focused on a contemporary production of the ballet Giselle, and this remains my 'long form' project.
Giselle is in short, a tale of class barriers and of wronged women. It’s now classic horror imagery of ‘ghostly women in white’ first formed in the 19th century production as ‘the Willis’ spirits of vengeful women who punish the men that abused them, gave us our modern phrase ‘that gives me the willies’ for describing being spooked. Ironically the beautiful costumes set a trend for white wedding dresses as we know them. The then Queen Victoria took inspiration from the 'Romantic' tutu's for her own wedding dress after seeing Giselle, and ever since, this put a romanticised and light spin on the very deep and challenging themes addressed in the narrative. Akram Khans’ Giselle, and the original production both shine a light on a neglected demographic of women both in the 19th century and in Khan’s imagined semi-contemporary world. He brought into focus a sharper sense of acknowledging this, and he also turned this focus to echo a form of empathy and protection among women that hadn’t been written so clearly into the original. Myrtha, the ‘leader’ of the Willis is a fascinating character, who with Khan’s examination and consideration, is made more human and more horrifying, driven by her nurturing and protective qualities as well as her rage. The relationship between Giselle (the narrative’s protagonist) and Myrtha begins when Giselle dies from heartbreak, and Myrtha raises her spirit to avenge the man who caused it. In Khan’s production, I feel drawn to this closer study of Myrtha and the other female spirits and Khans fearless choreography which tackles the physical representation of anger, grief and empathy with beautiful accomplishment. Khan makes her unexpectedly beautiful in the growth that can come from pain.
I've now begun working on the production of this set of works, including animated Sequence works, their subsequent prints, and at least x 2 sculptures of the team at English National Ballet (with whom Khan created this work) portraying these women. I'm looking forward to the challenge of capturing this in my studies, hopefully completing the works roughly on schedule after the disruptions, but ultimately, I will keep going regardless until they're completed.
It remains my wish to approach Jamiel Lawrence (of Ballet Nights) about collaborating on showing these works next time he holds an evening of dance that shows exeprts from Giselle, but as the medical delays have left things uncertain for the time being, I am re-writing my proposal to him, and will be discussing a smaller first project and collaboration instead. Again, finding ways to continue...
THE 'BALLET PALETTE' PACKAGING PROPOSED IS NOW IN USE - CELEBRATING DIVERSITY IN DANCE.
STUDIO RENOVATION
STUDIO RENOVATIONS COMPLETED
BUDGETING USING MY TIME WITH EFFICACY
Aside from helping to navigate continuing to work with new health issues, having an additional budget to put to use for the sakes of cost-efficiency as well as an extra freedom to create, expand and make pieces that cost more to produce makes a dramatic difference to a new independent maker. A lot got done so far from the 'to-do list' despite the medical situation, but some areas also revealled themselves as being in need of more development...
- SCULPTURE - My dream of making some affordable sculptures is a big part of my fellowship goal, accessible art is so important and when traditional sculpture prices start at around £800-1000.00, using 3D scanning and printing to help produce affordable sculpture can be a game changer.
Through 2025 the amazing casting studio Scancast (an independent couple who provide both 3D scanning-to-printing services and traditional casting) have been wonderful to work with, a pair of very supportive people dedicated to working with artists for the best results. We began Spring with a set back when we learned that the PLA that the 3D prints are made of is too brittle to make the delicate figures I sculpt strong enough to make selling them a viable option (at least on more delicate poses). But, we took what positives we could, and we have learned that what the 3D printing does allow for, is printing smaller versions of my sculptures, which can survive the casting process in order to make mini versions of my work in batches which can be sold at a more affordable price than the larger original scale work. As it turns out these are incredibly endearing and I love them even more the larger original cast. I'm sad that we're having to continue without the PLA pieces for the time being, but the 3D printing has still provided a way to make owning a sculpture much more accessible and I'm so pleased. (Images below)
This means I'm now up-fronting the larger costs required for cost-efficient batches of these traditionally cast mini-sculptures, as well as casting the 2-3 larger sculptures I will be finishing over the next few months. The profit margins for artists selling sculptures are great, especially in cost-efficient batches but in smaller runs, on a tighter budget, the prices go up for both myself and subsequently my customers, and I'd like to be able to trim unnecessary costs / price increases and cast the new pieces.
The original budget for the fellowship noted any contingency remaining was to be used to contribute to the cost of casting new sculptures, and this sadly had to be allocated to my carpenter charging twice as much for the storage cupboard he fitted in the studio, this went from a quote of 'a maximum cost of £2000.00' to a bill of £3440.00 just before Christmas when he completed the work. So the contingency had to be used as just that.
MINI SCULPTURE TESTERS ON BASES - NEXT TO A FULL SIZED ORIGINAL CAST.
- INVESTING IN PIECES FOR THE MICRO-GALLERY - Last Summer I spoke with ceramicist Andrew Niblett who I'd met through ceramics festivals and asked if he would consider stocking a small independent like myself once I had set up the space. Andrew creates evocative pieces repurposing metal detecting finds from battlefields and using soil from the sites for his clay. These turn fragments created by volatile and violent incidents in to stunning symbols of peace and rememberence (pictured below). Andrew said he doesn't normally like dealing with galleries where possible but he likes me and as I'm a small independent that suits him more. He said he can sell me whatever I like when I come to the pot festivals and he'll 'do me a deal' and I can then sell the pieces ''as I see fit" The next Potfest is in late July so it would be lovely to let him know if I'm attending and enjoy my first official buying trip for the gallery with that extra bit of financial backup to know I can invest in appropriate pieces.
I can make a lovely start to stocking the micro-gallery with Andrew, Ruth Claydon my jeweller whos work is already selling, and one or two painters. (works shown below)
- FRAMING - Originally mass production enabled people and possibilities, offering a cheaper way to do things that otherwise would have been inaccessible, but as traditional production methods were replaced with manufactured ones, the pricing of mass produced goods ironically continued to increase and with few other options surviving, a monopoly formed on a great deal of goods. Framing costs are a point of contention to many artists, not least myself, upon exactly this point. I took an afternoon with my fiancé Elliot to visit Brougham Hall last week, and chatted with the brilliant female artists who have collectively bought and are maintaining the historic property near my home by way of arts and crafts workshops on-site. They blew up at my mention of the cost of framing artworks, ''Oooooh such a huge up-front cost every time I want to do a show or top up a stockist!'' ...''I wouldn't mind if they were hand made but they arent'' ...they all had things to say.
The worst of it was to all our minds that even good quality framers with higher prices, almost always use mass produced, imported and pre-made veneered frame strips, roughly stapled together instead of joined, and turned around in minutes for hundreds of pounds, ironically earning framers as much or more of a percentage than the artists they supply by the time a piece is sold, and putting our customers prices up. We had a jolly good moan about it and they concluded 'it is what it is'... or is it?
Elliot, who loves wood work as a hobby, realising what a pointless hole this leaves in an artists budget, responded by pointing out that 'I could create frames made from real hand-picked wood, with real joinery to construct it to a higher standard, finished to suit artworks individually, with no middle-man import fees lost in that price tag, that's madness!' and so he's been clearing out space in his shed to start making frames, so that we can start by framing my works (I've learned to cut my own mounts now too) and offering some framing to artists we know, at least giving them the option of better quality and individual choice, while Elliot enjoys developing a skill he previously felt he had no reason to give ''serious'' time to.
I spoke to Freddy Husbands (a previous finalist with Be Still Media) who's work I would like very much to support and stock, and when I asked if he'd like to let me buy and stock/show a couple of his pieces, he felt moved to apologise because he couldn't afford to risk the cost of sending them framed and would have to send them unframed for me to do at this end... right away I can see how all artists hit a point of struggle with this, and how, at least within our own small operation, Elliot and I can create higher quality frames that artworks deserve and save any artists I stock the extra daunting costs that would otherwise stop them from being able to sell / show via locations outside of their own studios and local circles - which in a global market, seems so silly. So a portion of the budget can improve on some of Elliots current tools, buy specific new ones, and buy some wood stock in from our local timber yard in Stainton.
This just seemed like a problem that can be solved with a positive ethical solution, and not just for my own artworks.
RUTH CLAYDONS' JEWELLERY AND ANDREW NIBLETTS' WORK
BUDGET
Further sculpture casting and 3D scanning new works
- Casting mini sculptures in a batch - £500 casting + around 60+ each to cast + bases.
- 3D scanning new sculptures x2 - £ 450.00
- Casting new sculptures x2 - 1000.00 + 100+ to cast dependant on materials + bases.
- Framing tools and materials including glass, clamps, router saw, miter saw, wood, stains an dhand tools from local timber specialist - £650.00
- Buying trip for 1st studio stock - up to £2000.00
- Future sculpture casting on any additional sculptures made this year and in to next.... (see above pricing)
TOTAL - £5000.00 - with some contingency for additional sculpture casting + some display pedestals for the studio.