Working Space

Do you have a business, social enterprise, or community-focused concept and want to make it a reality? In this session, we are joined by two creative practitioners who have made their ideas happen. Come along to hear from two GSA graduates and discover their stories and gain tips and advice about the challenges and rewards of getting ideas off the ground and how you can do it too.

Trudi Donahue studied Sculpture and Environmental Art at GSA, graduating in 2015. Since then, she has navigated the challenges of building a social enterprise, experiencing both growth and setbacks while adapting to changing economic conditions. Today, she runs a community-driven creative studio that offers CoWorking and studio spaces in Bridgeton, with a mission to support neurodivergent creatives and social entrepreneurs. Her practice brings together creativity, resilience, and social impact, fostering a collaborative environment where individuals can thrive. Trudi’s journey reflects the realities of entrepreneurship as a creative while championing inclusivity and creative empowerment.

Additional Speaker to be announced soon

This session will explore the current funding landscapes and how you can support your creative career. For this event we will hear from two  practitioners with a wealth of experiences in the creative industries. Attend this session to discover the strategies they have adopted to support their work, including; portfolio building, applying to funding streams and securing commissions.

Guest Speakers:
Molly Hankinson is a Glasgow-based artist from London. Her work interrogates and celebrates ‘safe spaces and the people who occupy them’, weaving narratives of collective gendered experiences into her bright, bold and unapologetic artworks. Overall, Molly is particularly interested in how her art can evoke a feeling, offer comfort, and serve as sites of power. She has painted at mural festivals across the UK and Europe, exhibited in group shows across the UK and has artworks as part of private collections in the UK, Ireland and the US. Selected clients include Tramway, The Glasgow School of Art, The Body Shop, Chivas Regal, the FA and SFA, and Lucozade. www.mollyhankinson.com

Medeia Cohan-Petrolino is a fundraising expert who specialises in helping artists and organisations turn big ideas into reality. She has raised major investment for ambitious cultural projects, built innovative patron programmes, and created partnerships that open doors to new opportunities. A natural connector, Medeia believes fundraising is less about asking for money and more about building meaningful relationships and shared purpose. She has taught these skills internationally, encouraging creative people to see fundraising as not only possible, but as an essential part of sustaining their practice.

The creative industries have a high percentage of self-employed professionals who freelance and work for themselves. In fact, statistics show that 40% of the workforce is made up of freelancers* For this session, we are delighted to welcome a multi-award-winning silversmith and GSA graduate, Scott Smith, and Rekha Barry-Houston, who will discuss their journey to becoming self-employed, what they have learnt along the way, and provide advice and tips to support you to launch your creative business too.

Guest Speakers:
Rekha Barry-Houston is an Architect and founder of Rekha Maker, a creative studio exploring form, materiality, and storytelling through handcrafted objects. Her architectural and artistic work inform one another, with projects exhibited at the V&A Dundee, London Design Festival, and Los Angeles, and commissions including the Scottish Album of the Year Award. Rekha is passionate about design as a tool for social impact and continues to combine practice, research, and craft to push the boundaries of how architecture and art intersect. Read more about Rekha here.

Scott Smith is a contemporary silversmith based at Deemouth Artist Studios, Aberdeen. His work combines traditional silversmithing techniques such as raising, planishing and chasing with a clean, contemporary design aesthetic. Drawing inspiration from Pictish stone carvings, Scotland’s landscapes and ancient metalwork, Scott creates functional yet sculptural silverware that explores connection, heritage, and ritual.

A QEST Emerging Maker Scholar and Visual Arts Scotland Trustee, he has exhibited widely across the UK and continues to advocate for Scottish silversmithing through mentoring, public engagement and new collections. www.scottsmith.design