Day 2 started with Ginny Kim, from Seoul,  talking about her work as Producer, Associate Producer and    co-Founder of a restaurant.

The similarities between her different work became clear, creating experiences that people would value so highly they would give time, travel to and  leave with new memories. She spoke about her work giving fresh perspectives on ingredients – whether these were the literal ingredients of the food served in the restaurant, or working with creative teams to ensure work was culturally relevant, or in supporting team members to see their strengths.

Ginny shared many inspiring insights – “never negotiate what you truly believe in” and  taking a pragmatic approach to risk. She shared that she had learned to share her vulnerable moments, as well as achievements, and    that strong collaborations were built on Communication, Transparency and    Acceptance.

Jim Pope from Playing On delivered a workshop to support us to find ways to ensure people often marginalised found a voice. Ensuring this was through authenticity, co-creation, creativity, personal growth and    communities.

Two words keep resonating this Festival, Kindness and    Community – finding your community, honouring it (and  the community’s history and all members) and  bringing work to them. Kindness through compassion, empathy and    an active response to what is possible.

Tomorrow, Day 3, we will hear from Rose Kue – a designer and  death doula and    Daniel Carpenter from Heritage Crafts.

Today the SELFestival started with speakers from Zimbabwe and  Uganda. Rudo Nondo (pictured) spoke about the work she has done as a cultural entrepreneur, activist and    leader of an organisation, one that is built on voluntary labour. Letaru Dralega talked about her own practice that showed how mixed mediums reflected her messages about the dynamics of displacement and     her work with others to create new forms of support structures to develop artists and    the markets/audiences.

Both inspired with how they are designing approaches that support creatives, not following Western models, but creating work that reflects the needs, ambition and    potential of their communities. Leturu spoke of the emotional labour of her work.

Community was a word that was present throughout the day, and  the ingredients for collaboration were summed up by Rudo as “Respect, Honesty, Trust and    keeping promises”. Rudo also shared when working to ensure complex systemic transformation “I want to change the world and    its outcomes, I will do it in bits and    pieces.” – The impact Rudo makes, and    how she prioritises joy as she develops value together uplifted.

More tomorrow, from two different approached to the performing arts. https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/selfestival-2024-3461069?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=creatorshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=odclsxcollection&utm-source=cp&aff=escb

SELFestival starts today and runs until 12 July, promising another two weeks of creativity and innovation, curated by ICCE’s Siân Prime and Adrian De La Court, with support from Goldsmiths Design Department.  The opening week brings a packed line-up of a diverse range of entrepreneurs from the worlds of fashion, music, theatre, craft, design, tech and finance. They’ll be sharing their unique insights into teamwork, how they manage change, antifragility and optimism. 

All sessions are free to attend and tickets can be booked via the links below. 

Monday 1 July   

11am – Rudo Nonda 

A creative entrepreneurship consultant working at developing entrepreneurship networks within creative communities in sub- Saharan Africa. Rudo has contributed to the Circular Design for Fashion book by the Ellen McArthur Foundation. Rudo is Managing Director at Fashion Revolution CIC and Fashion Revolution Zimbabwe. Her interests lie in building networks for community development through creative practice.  

2pm – Letaru Dralega 

Letaru Dralega is the director of Afrofuturists, a group interested in exploring the cultural aesthetics, philosophies of science and history that are borne of the developing intersection of African/Africana diaspora culture with technology. ​ A ‘Co-Arts’ space for artists, researchers, thinkers, experimenters, developers & doers, providing space and community for any and all explorers of African futures.  

Tuesday 2 July  

11am – Ginny Kim 

Managing Director and Producer Theatre Bridge International, South Korea and Founder/CEO of RESTAURANT EVETT. Ginny Kim is a distinguished theatre producer and promoter with a profound expertise in cross-cultural collaborations between Korea and the UK. Renowned for her role as an associate producer for musicals such as “Dear Evan Hansen” “SIX” and “Hadestown” in Korea, Ginny Kim’s visionary contributions continue to shape the landscape of international theatrical endeavors, introducing innovative projects to diverse territories.   

2pm – Jim Pope   

CEO and Artistic director of Playing ON, a theatre that transforms the lives of disenfranchised people using practice and performance. The company translates their authentic voices and real-life stories into high quality writing, dialogues, and transformational workshops. Playing ON engages and inspires a wide range of audiences through its urgent and truthful portrayal of life in contemporary Britain.   

Wednesday 3 July   

11am – Daniel Carpenter   

As Executive Director at Heritage Crafts, a Trustee at Arts & Heritage and the Ambassador at the Fathom Trust, Daniel has extensive experience in the heritage and arts sector and is passionate about preserving and promoting traditional craft skills as a vital part of the UK’s cultural heritage and a source of wellbeing and creativity. As the Executive Director of Heritage Crafts, the national charity and UNESCO-accredited NGO for Intangible Cultural Heritage, he leads on strategic development, fundraising and advocacy for the organisation, working with a diverse range of stakeholders, partners and beneficiaries. Daniel is also a judge for the Global Eco Artisan Awards.  

2pm – Rose Kue  

Staff UX Researcher at Honor, leading mixed methods research to enhance digital products and care services. My mission is to bridge user needs with business goals, ensuring that customer/client insights drive innovation and growth while always centring the humanity of the people who receive and those who deliver care. Leadership experience within the Clarity Pillar at Asana, providing strategic direction across multiple key areas, has honed my ability to lead with clarity and foresight, ensuring that every project is aligned with our overarching vision for user experience. Rose started her career as an opera singer.  She is also a Death Doula providing end-of-life support and vigil for humans and animal companions.  

Thursday 4 July   

11am – Rezia Wahid MBE   

Rezia Wahid is a master weaver with a practice spanning over two decades. Her work is a demonstration of the breath and combination of ideologies, sensual and visual resources on which she draws the development of her personal aesthetic. The development of her work is born chiefly out of the creative interplay of memories, travel, literature, nature, old masters, the art of weaving, and concrete experiences of Britain, Islam and motherhood.  

Her work is unique in that it celebrates traditional weaving of Bangladesh with innovation in hand dyeing and weaving. She specialises in weaving with fine natural fibres: cotton, linen, silk and wool. Whilst fibres such as Organzine, spun silk, filament and gummed silks are her main choices of yarn, as through her dedicated research she has found that they are the best fibres to capture light and air. She combines her love of weaving with creative participatory community textiles work.  She was awarded an MBE in June 2005 for her services to the Arts in London.   

2pm – Norma Banton  

Former lecturer in Business, Jewellery designer and philanthropist Norma has been based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter since 2004. She is creative director at The Silver Fish Jewellery Co., founded by her in 2004. She is also founder at MasterPeace Academy and Treasured Foundation. She has achieved much accolade for her faith-based jewellery, being featured several times on BBC TV Songs of Praise.  Norma has recently set up the Black Jewellery Quarter Guild (Black JQGuild) with the aim of preserving, protecting, celebrating, and promoting the legacy of African Caribbean culture in the British Jewellery Trade. Norma is the founder of MasterPeace Academy (2021) a culturally relevant jewellery academy based in Birmingham’s famous Jewellery Quarter U.K   

Friday 5 July   

11am Anna Meredith MBE  

Scottish composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music. She is former composer in residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and former PRS/RPS Composer in the House with Sinfonia ViVA. She is Mercury Prize shortlisted. Her debut album won 2016’s Scottish Album of the Year Award, she was featured in the 2018 First Night of the Proms, collaborating with 59 Productions for Five Telegrams. She created music for dodgems at Somerset House and has created soundtracks for Eight Grade, Living With Yourself and The End We Start From.  

2pm – Amir Rizwan  

Currently director for the London Social Venture Fund project, where he is responsible for leading a consortium of ten universities and eight private sector partners to deliver a social venture fund for London. He also serves as fractional investment director for Daring Capital, connecting socially-led entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds with capital. Amir holds several trustee and non-executive director positions supporting a range of third-sector causes, including the Pathway Fund – which supports opportunities for black and ethnically minoritised communities across the UK – and the Clothworkers Foundation, an organisation delivering impact through grantmaking. Previous roles include social investment manager at Macmillan Cancer Services, investor relations director at Big Society Capital, senior advisor for social investment innovation at Comic Relief and investment manager at community housing fund CAF Venturesome.  

The Sustainable Enterprise London Festival (SELF) returns on Monday for two weeks of talks from a range of speakers working at the intersection of creativity, social change and entrepreneurship. Running from 1 – 12 July and curated once again by Siân Prime and Adrian De La Court from Goldsmiths’ Institute of Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE) and supported for the first time by Goldsmiths’ Department of Design, the festival will once more be a hub for innovative ideas and boundary-pushing discussions.  

Over the course of the fortnight, the festival will take a deep dive into the experiences and inspirations of some of the most pioneering creative entrepreneurs working today. Speakers will include choreographer and director Drew McOnie, BAFTA award-winning TV producer Frances du Pille, poet, playwright and performer Inua Ellams and Mercury nominated composer and performer Anna Meredith MBE as well as others from the worlds of art, music, design, social funding, amongst others. Themes of teamwork, managing change, antifragility and optimism are all set to be unpacked and examined through the lens of creative innovation.   

For the full line up and to book free tickets via Eventbrite, 

#sustainableenterprise #goldsmithsuniversity #ICCE #socialenterprise #entrepreneurs #creativity 

Day 10

Instead of winding down, we wound up, building from every incredible contribution to new insights from George Gachara and  Dr Raven Bowen.

George challenged us: “What is good business? Can a business take on the values of goodness (or badness)?”. He spoke of the importance of a business being steeped in its own value and  history and  gave insight in to how he had built new forms of finance, looking at the relationships with employees in a business and  working to find ways to support a business to hold on to its own equity. George reflected on strong collaboration being based on inward reflection, an analysis of your skills, how you exist as a person and how your work exists in the world. It is an honest view of self, your interests, and how your interests can dovetail with others interests.
Sometimes we exaggerate our capacities, it’s always important to have a bit of honesty, to achieve anything we hope to achieve, then you need other people to choose you.

Raven talked about the complexity of sustaining a charity, of balancing service provision and  financial resilience and  the shifting requirements, needs and  foci of funders. She spoke of the important of developing opportunities for developing strategic partnerships that do work similar or adjacent to the charity, and  not needing to lead every application or project. Collaboration for her comes from a place of taking a time to understand the interests of other parties or other groups and truly deciding what are the shared goals, what are the tensions, what can we work together on? How does that serve our various interests and users? There needs to be a transparency and honesty, about what the collaboration is… really being open about who benefits from the collaboration.

And  that was it, the end of the 2023 SELFestival.

Stand out sentences for me: Compassion is not just a feeling, it is an active process; patience is not passive, compassion feeds authenticity, kindness is a social convention.

This festival has been as exhausting, exhilarating, generous and  inspiring as any form of Festival. Thanks to all speakers, and  to students and  Goldsmiths for allowing us to deliver our teaching in an open and  collaborative way.

Siân & Adrian

Day 9 of our Festival

Bobby Kolade spoke to us from his fashion design studio in Kampala, Uganda with Rasheeda Nalomosa joining us from Nairobi, Kenya to talk about the circular economy in Uganda and  wider in East Africa, and  ways that creative enterprises are tackling climate and  sustainability challenges. They gave insights in to the need to unlearn, that running successful creative companies for them is finding new ways to develop creative offers and  then different ways of doing business. Much of the learning from universities and  text books did not offer new disruptive approaches that were world withing (Haraway, 1988) so they were creating radically different ways of working.

Rasheeda spoke of the optimism that she had about the new networks across the continent, and  the opportunities to think bigger and  acknowledge the potential through and  with others. Bobby told us that his optimism was fuelled by his team, but that when he reflected on collaboration he first thought of the collaborations between large scale brands, and  how these were less about mutual exchange and  more about ways to increase sales and  encourage people to buy more.

The session reminded me that the optimism I have for the creative industries and  for ways of “doing” business better, more ethically with less harm to people and  the planet come from the radical but gentle, innovations in East Africa.

In the afternoon Ashley Evenson gave a workshop that encouraged participants to find new ways of developing relationships with clients, customers and  other collaborators by finding ways to tell stories with alternative main characters. Ashley reflected that compassion is about taking yourself out of the main character role, and  about meeting people where they are.

Tomorrow we start with George Gachara, creative industry strategist, a fund advisor, and an investor in creative industries in Africa. He is also a senior entrepreneurship fellow and a founder. We will reflect together on notions of Good Business. He will be followed by our final festival guest, Dr Raven Bowen  from National Ugly Mugs, and  we will explore notions of sustainability and  support for a charity that supports marginalised people.

Siân Prime

Day 7

Two very different speakers and  sets of experiences in the SELFestival today.

Robin Braum, co-founder of Squareglass and  Head of Label Management at !K7 Music talked through the experiences he has gained as an artist, label owner and  now employee at a label. All of his work has been characterised through his approaches to collaboration, being open to being wrong and  surprised. Reflecting on the need to be patient, he also was clear that things never felt static. He spoke about how he built relationships with listeners, developing the authentic connections that would lead to more sustainable practices being possible. The need to be respectful to music forms, creators and  how to acknowledge the inputs from inspiration to sampling.

Deborah Williams also gave her insights from being an artist, cultural leader, venue manager and  now lead of Creative Diversity Network which exists to enable the UK Broadcasting industry to increase diversity and inspire inclusion. She spoke about the various ways she engaged people in the broader vision and  mission to achieve the aims of a more diverse creative sector. She showed in her way of listening to us that she sincerely valued everyone’s experiences, the clarity that once you have seen diversity you cannot unsee it, needing to listen  to people to be an ally in the space. “Compassion – it frees you. Because I have responded to someone on their own terms.”

Tomorrow we have Bobby Kolade speaking about his disruptive sustainable fashion business in Uganda – Return to Sender, speaking with Rasheeda Nalomoso – dramaturg and  British Council Arts Officer. In the afternoon Ashley Evenson and  Chris Stokes will run a storytelling workshop to help us release the main character in our own stories. https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/selfestival-2023-2286519

Museums and  Carnivals – two very different forms of cultural consumption and  experience, but Day 7 of our SELFestival spent time reviewing the complexity of ownership and representation.

Dr Sylvia Lahav spoke about who chooses what is shown in a museum/gallery, owned, sometimes never shown but owned, and  how it is written about to engage/educate or tell “this is what I see, now let me tell you what you should see”. She reminded us that museums/galleries did not always have a mandate to educate. The honesty about privilege, class and  finance was shared, “as long as the permanent collections exist we are reminded of power, status, mobility and  class.”. She encouraged us to question the notion of legacy and  encouraged our curiosity and  to not know.

Carnival and  the origins and  current expression were explored by Dr Sharon LeGall, together with the complexity of an almost social franchise model. The divide between celebration of culture and  culture appropriation was very carefully explored, together with the impacts of colonisation. “Cultures are not stagnant” and  as they evolve so does the work, so tradition and  current expression and  technical movements are adapted together. The scale of Carnival is huge – the ecosystem of employment and  engagement comes to tens of thousands, and  the research Dr LeGall has undertaken in to the inidgenous knowledge was generously shared – “Collaborations should be open, persons should know what they are getting into… Persons should know how their creative work will be used.  It may be difficult to walk in somebody else’s shoes, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.”

Tomorrow we hear from independent musician, and  alumni of ICCE and  Goldsmiths Robin Braum. Followed by ICCE Fellow Deborah Williams The Festival has foregrounded many themes, compassion, optimism, collaboration and  the relationship and  needs for both learned and  lived experience.

A change in pace this week to look at, as Professor Vanus James said “the knowledge, skills and  self-confidence” to innovate. Josh Shuermann opened the day giving insight in to the ways that Intellectual Property can support creatives to develop sustainable enterprises, and the ways to protect, exploit and  sustain creative livings.

Vanus explained the modelling and  mapping he had undertaken, funded by WIPO to look at how the creative industries could develop the Caribbean economies. He outlined the investment in education – at all levels – as well support with export and  distribution mechanisms. The strong work in music as well as video games and  many other areas of the creative industries are clear in the Caribbean countries, and  Professor James showed what policy interventions would be needed to enable the potential to be realised.  We were also left aware of the negative impact of the colonial past in the country, and  Vanus suggested that for the countries to move forward all citizens needed to be brought into the process, to ensure firm foundations for the creative industries.

Tomorrow we hear from Dr Sylvia Lahav on Winners, Losers and  Choosers: the Modern Museum, followed by insights in to the IP and  Traditional Knowledge from Dr Sharon LeGall – in particular the steeldrum and  carnival.

Week 2 of our Sustainable Enterprise London Festival is moving to look at the frameworks, ecosystems and  to take a macro-view of the cultural economy.

Exciting to have Joshua Schuermann from Reed Smith, bringing his knowledge and  experience of IP legislation and some of the complexities of implementing it.

In the afternoon Professor Vanus James will be sharing his research and give insights in to the creative industries as a contributor to development, and  the approaches and  results of national strategies for promoting the creative industries from his experience of the Caribbean economies.

An important shift in perspectives for week 2.