Free one-to-one advice for London-based artists. Delivered by Artquest and freelance artist career advisors.

Artquest One to One’s are currently paused, please read here for more information. We currently have no plans to release sessions. If any sessions are released in the future they will be promoted via our newsletter. Sign up to stay in touch.

Artists in London can book a free one-to-one advice session to:

  • answer your career-related questions,
  • get feedback about your work,
  • talk about how you work as an artist,
  • make a strategy about your future career,
  • find out about other arts organisations that can help you.
Paint and pots in an artist studio
Paint and pots in an artist studio

Book one-to-one advice

There are 28 bookings available each month. There are no sessions in August and December. You can choose who you want to speak with when you book, based on the advisor’s expertise.

  • Meetings happen online and are booked on a first-come, first-served basis. Each session lasts 40 minutes. Meetings can take place on Teams or Zoom, or on Skype if you don’t meet with the Artquest team.
  • Advice is delivered by 2 of our 3 regular advisors and a monthly changing guest advisor, along with the Artquest team.
  • Due to the popularity and limited sessions available, artists can book no more than one session each year. Artists who have significantly developed their practice are welcome to book another session the following year.
  • Sessions are only available to artists that are not currently studying for BA or MA qualifications and who are based in England.

Artists early in their careers can access PRIMER, our free ebook for those starting our. It covers everything you need when starting up a career as an artist. It is for artists new to the art world, of any age, and might have some answers to your questions.

Cancellation

Artquest One to One sessions are heavily oversubscribed and sessions where artists do not turn up is a waste of limited time and money. Sessions are provided to artists for free, but Artquest pays artist advisors for their time.

We understand that things come up and schedules change, but please do get in touch so we can offer the space to an artist on our waiting list. In cases where an artist has booked and does not tell us they cannot make it, they will not be able to book a session for a year.

If you book a session and have to cancel, please contact Tom Pope at Artquest or the advisor you are booked to meet. We will try to rearrange your session, but this cannot be guaranteed.

Booking Confirmation

Upon making a successful booking you will be redirected to a confirmation page. After pressing the button to submit your application, if you have not been redirected please read over the application to make sure you have not missed any of the required questions.

On submission of your form you will receive an email within 30 minutes after making the application to confirm you made a successful booking. If you have not received a confirmation email please check your junk mail folder and if you can’t find one, please email Tom Pope.

Regular advisors

Mary Cork (she/her)
Mary has over 15 years of experience in not-for-profit and commercial parts of the art world. She was Head of Development at Wysing Arts Centre and Gallery Director at Pilar Corrias Gallery and The Approach. She is a fine art lecturer at Arts University Bournemouth and Central Saint Martin’s. Mary holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London.

In February 2020 she co-founded ZELDA, an arts advisory service. ZELDA is a free professional development platform for artists who are not widely represented by current commercial models. ZELDA works with artists across the UK in different practices and ways, including curating commercial exhibitions, selling work, grant writing support, and free nationwide mentoring.

Rosalind Davis (she/her)
Rosalind is a curator, art consultant, artist, and writer. Her art practice includes painting and installation and she has exhibited int he UK and abroad. She is a graduate of The Royal College of Art and Chelsea College of Art. She was Curator at Collyer Bristow Gallery and founded Zeitgeist Arts Projects and Core Gallery. She has curated over 30 exhibitions.

Rosalind is co-author of the book What they didn’t teach you at art school. She lectures at universities, galleries, and arts organisations across the country like the Royal College of Art, Firstsite Gallery, The De Le Warr Pavilion, ICA, Camden Arts Centre, and UAL. She has been an independent artist mentor for over 10 years and also for a-n, Artquest, Shape Arts, The Independent Art School, Plop, and UK New Artists. She has also worked as a consultant for arts organisations, charities, and corporations such as BBC4 and E4.

Sophia Kosmaoglou (she/her)

Sophia Kosmaoglou is an artist, organiser, tutor and researcher who works collaboratively and across media and to address the construction of identity through relationships. Blurring the boundaries between art, education and activism, her current practice questions the ontology of art, its social functions and institutional contexts, and creates opportunities to experiment with collective economies and collaborative learning environments. In 2015 she founded ART&CRITIQUE, an alternative art education network and in 2019 she co-founded the Radical Pedagogy Research Group. She is currently working on a participatory action-research project to start a co-operative art school. Sophia has a degree in sculpture and a practice-based PhD in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, where she taught studio practice and critical studies. She is a visiting tutor at Chelsea College of Arts UAL and has decades of teaching experience.

The Artquest team are:

Russell Martin (he/him)
Russell is a visual artist and writer. He has run many different kinds of art projects including peer mentoring, artist workshops, residencies and artist-led galleries.

Nick Kaplony (he/him)
Nick is a visual artist and freelance curator. He has curated many exhibitions including at the Arts Gallery London and Pump House Gallery.

Tom Pope (he/him)
Tom’s art practice combines performance and photography in a collaborative and playful manner. He tends to do large-scale participatory performance projects.

Guest advisors

Each month we invite a different guest to lead 7 sessions. The invited specialists cover a broad range of practices and topics. There are no sessions in December or August.

The Artquest pool of guest advisors on the programme include: