Ken McGuire

Tag: artlinks

  • Blogging For Beginners Hits The Spot(light)

    Last May I was asked to give a Blogging For Beginners course to a number of ArtLinks members, the primary focus being on blogging from an arts perspective.

    While the meat of the day was in the actual talking and conversation part (as more often than not is the case), I had put some slides together as a handout for the eighteen or so who attended. Cathy Fitzgerald has been working away on getting the ArtLinks courses online over Christmas and the Blogging For Beginners presentation on Slideshare is currently the featured presentation in the careers section.

    You can view / download the slides here.

    Another one on ‘Getting Ahead In The Music Industry’, a talk myself and some of the KKM crew ran in Wicklow in November 2007 should be making its way online in the next few days.

    Some of the presentation may indeed be dated at this stage but will get a revamp soon enough.

  • ArtLinks Reaches The 1,000 Member Milestone

    ArtLinksArtLinks, a growing online community for artists of all walks of life, based in the South East (here in Kilkenny) celebrated a nice milestone yesterday as they’ve reached the 1,000 member mark.

    I’ve been a member of and following the prior to its official launch in November 2007 and for the site to gain the ground it has since last November is largely down to the drive of the organisations director, Cathy Fitzgerald.

    Cathy was an attendee of PodCamp Ireland in Kilkenny in September 2007, moving up to be a speaker at CreativeCamp (March 2008), PodCamp Ireland II (September 2008) and more recently the Arts Council’s new media conference (November 2008). You can view the presentation here.

    Online and offline ArtLinks has come a long way since its launch. Born out of ideas generated at a fantastic Artists Exchange day I attended in May 2006, ArtLinks operates as a partnership between the arts offices of Kilkenny, Carlow, Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford County. By engaging with ArtLinks I’ve been able to open up new doors for theatre and music in Kilkenny as well as connect with some great creative-minded people in the region.

    If you’re a involved in the arts in any way in the south east of Ireland, be it film, drama, music, writing, sculpture, painting – anything goes – drop along and register for free. Best of luck to Cathy and all the arts officers in 2009.


    Disclaimer: I have worked as a consultant and advisor on ArtLinks, and have delivered a number of real-world courses for them.

  • Blogging For (Creative) Beginners

    I’ll be giving a half day beginner blogging course in Kilkenny in May under the ArtLinks banner. With details being finalised just before the weekend and rolling out with the new ArtLinks business courses being promoted for the summer, I’ll have to say I’m looking forward to giving the course and working with more creative types in Kilkenny.

    That said, the course will be promoted to creative practitioners working within Kilkenny, Carlow, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow and should attract a good blend of visual artists, musicians, writers and the likes. This will be the second course I’ve been involved in putting together for ArtLinks, having facilitated a “Getting Ahead In The Music Industry” day (my 90 minute talk focusing on effective use of the web for musicians) in Wicklow last November.

    For musicians who are new to blogging and don’t want to wait until May for a chat, have a gander of Kyra Reed’s recent blog post for TuneCore on Why Every Artist Needs A Blog.

    It is also nice to see that the Kilkenny Arts Office have also started the ball blogging about their Artist In Residence programme at the gallery at 72 John Street.