British Council launches creative industries workshops

The British Council in Russia will be conducting a series of workshops for creative entrepreneurs in Moscow’s iconic Central Telegraph building this autumn. The organisation will hold a four-day workshop each month from September to December to teach participants how to run an effective business, covering topics such as finance, marketing and service delivery.

The most promising participants from each workshop will be chosen to continue working with an assigned mentor for up to three months after. Those that take part in the workshop on business consulting will also have the chance to compete for a grant from the British Council in the following year. Full details of the workshops and deadlines for applications can be found here.

Eugenia Gerasimova, head of creative economy at the British Council in Russia, said: “These workshops are designed for the young creatives who want to set up a business in the area that they love, from music to architecture and fashion to contemporary art. We offer this opportunity to graduates who lack this kind of business training, as well as established creatives who want to go down a more commercial route.”

For the project, the British Council has teamed up with Theory and Practice, a Moscow-based education platform that provides information about lectures and seminars in Russia, and Nesta, a UK charity that promotes innovation. The workshops will be based on Nesta’s Creative Enterprise Toolkit, a resource that contains tried and tested methods for teaching skills to creative individuals thinking of setting up a business. The toolkit was tested in a pilot workshop in Russia last year.