hARTslane Presents:
Making a Buck Without Selling Out
For artists who want to build a sustainable practice—on their own terms
With Cristiana Bottigella and Sophia Kosmaoglou
Whether you’re just starting out or years into your art practice, Making a Buck Without Selling Out will help you build momentum and define success on your own terms—without conforming to institutional expectations, compromising your ethics, or reshaping your work to fit the market.
This programme is for visual artists who want to develop or revisit their professional practice, and carve a path that makes sense for them. The course employs critical inquiry, collective exploration, open dialogue, and peer review to support artists in the articulation of their practice, and the cultivation of their creative agency.
Across six group sessions, and one-to-one tutorials, we’ll address questions of visibility, identity, and sustainability in contemporary art. We’ll review your work, identify its unique characteristics, and connect these with the strategies, and resources that support an independent art practice. You’ll join a small group of 8 peers, exchange feedback, and receive individual support from experienced tutors. Each session is practical, participatory, and designed to produce tangible outcomes.
We’ll also explore how to sustain yourself in the long run—by establishing boundaries, aligning your work with your values, and resisting the pressure to perform.
Contents
Dates and fees
Course fees are payable either in full via invoice by the start of the course or in three monthly instalments via PayPal. This course strives to be an inclusive learning environment that is accessible to everyone. If the fee is a barrier to your participation, please reach out to discuss additional options to make it more accessible for you.
Upcoming courses
September 2025, ONLINE
10 Sep 2025 – 15 Oct 2025
Wednesday, 18:30-21:00
£200 (entry offer)
REGISTER
January 2026, ONLINE
14 Jan 2026 – 18 Feb 2026
Wednesday, 18:30-21:00
£240
REGISTER
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What’s included
- 6 online sessions (2.5 hrs each)
- Weekly activities with tangible outcomes
- Peer review, written feedback, and collective learning
- A workbook to map your direction—plan, reflect, and track your progress
- Practical guides, resources and tools—from funding to self-care to AI
- A one-to-one tutorial to review your action plan, proposals, or questions
What you’ll work on
Each session focuses on a specific set of tensions that artists navigate in order to keep making new work. We’ll explore four intersecting areas:
Voice & visibility
Write or refine your artist statement, draft a proposal, build or improve your website, and shape your online presence
Sustainability
We’ll look at funding applications, alternative revenue streams, and how to create your own opportunities as part of a sustainable and self-directed practice
Opportunity
We’ll map different types of opportunities—exhibitions, residencies, open calls—and learn how to identify what aligns with your priorities, and your values
Self-care
Burnout and boundaries, managing time and expectations, reclaiming autonomy, and approaching wellbeing as a political and practical necessity.
Who it’s for
This open access course is for artists at any stage of their career who want to take stock, build momentum, and develop strategies grounded in their practice and aligned with their values.
You might be at the beginning of your journey, navigating a shift, or returning after a break. You might be figuring out what’s next, or how to make space for your practice. We’ll shape a plan together—just bring your questions and a willingness to explore them with others.
Designed with the visual arts sector in England in mind, the course reflects the creative, practical, and personal realities artists face today. It recognises that there’s no single path through a career in the arts, and no one way to define success. Whether you work independently or with others, formally trained or self-taught, consistently or in stops and starts—there is space here for you.
This is an inclusive and supportive environment for a wide range of experiences and ways of working, including neurodiverse artists and those who have faced systemic or structural barriers.
Participation & accessibility
This course is shaped by collective, co-operative principles and alternative approaches to art education. It’s not a webinar or a lecture series—it’s a space for active participation, reflection and shared learning. Participants are invited to contribute their questions, ideas and priorities to help guide how the course unfolds.
We believe that professional development is part of artistic practice, and that learning is strongest when it’s grounded in dialogue and mutual support. Be prepared to take an active role in discussions.
To help us start from an equal footing, please let us know in the registration form if you have any access needs or concerns that might affect your participation.
Course schedule
Please find the complete summary of each module in the course outline.
Week 1. Professional or Entrepreneur?
Introductions, course overview, workbook setup, and journaling. Seminar on artistic identity, definitions of success, and navigating structural obstacles. Begin mapping goals and integrating professional practice with artistic development.
Week 2. Voice & Visibility (You & Your Work)
Developing your online presence and refining how you communicate your practice: artist statements, websites, portfolios, and strategies for reaching your audience across digital platforms.
Week 3. Funding Strategies for Artists
Approaching fundraising as storytelling and strategy: income streams, budgets, ACE’s Project Grants and DYCP, plus practical frameworks and activities for crafting strong applications.
Week 4. Opportunities & Initiatives
Identifying and responding to open calls, initiating projects, or approaching galleries: finding and evaluating opportunities, and writing compelling proposals.
Week 5. Self-Care
Strategies for sustaining yourself and your practice: time and energy management, peer support, studio space, admin essentials, and protecting your rights, income, and wellbeing.
Week 6. Writing Workshop: Articulating Your Practice
Collaborative writing workshop focused on artist statements and proposals: peer feedback, critical reflection, and writing for different audiences.
One-to-one Tutorials
Scheduled within two weeks of the final session, this is a chance to get focused feedback, review what you’ve produced on the course, and plan your next steps.
What you will need
Tutors
Cristiana Bottigella is an art producer with over 25 years’ experience supporting artists to develop their practice, access resources, and create meaningful cultural impact. Her work centres on socially engaged art, artist-led infrastructures, and strategies for sustainability. She is the founder and director of hARTslane Gallery in South East London and a director at Artmongers, where she works on participatory public art projects. Cristiana has a strong track record in securing funding—particularly from Arts Council England—and teaches fundraising to artists at hARTslane and the London School of Muralism.
From 2000 to 2009 she ran the residency programme at the Pistoletto Foundation in Italy. In 2012 she co-founded Bait al Karama, the first women-led cookery school in the West Bank, Palestine. Cristiana is committed to supporting artists to navigate institutional systems on their own terms and continues to mentor artists on strategy, sustainability and international development.
Sophia Kosmaoglou is an artist, educator and organiser working at the intersection of art, politics and pedagogy. Her interdisciplinary practice spans installation, moving image, performance, writing and critical research. She is the founder of ART&CRITIQUE, an alternative art education network committed to critical engagement with practice, theory and research, and co-founder of the Radical Pedagogy Research Group.
Her work explores the politics of visibility, artistic autonomy, institutional critique and collective learning. She 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 in critical studies and curating at Chelsea College of Arts UAL and an Artist Advisor at Artquest, supporting artists in navigating their professional development. Her current focus is on building a co-operative art school as a sustainable, self-organised alternative to mainstream art education.
Registration Form
COURSE | Making a Buck Without Selling Out |
DURATION | 15 hours over 6 weeks + a 1-2-1 tutorial |
FORMAT | Online via Canvas, Zoom and other applications |
LEVEL | Non-accredited, alternative art education |
COURSE FEE | £200/£240 |
PARTICIPANTS | 8 |
TUTORS | Cristiana Bottigella and Dr. Sophia Kosmaoglou |
FAQ
We will record presentations with express permission from all the participants. The recordings will be available to watch for 3 months. We do not record workshops, group tutorials and participants’ presentations, in accordance with our privacy policy. This is because participants may share personal information. We want to create an environment where participants feel comfortable, and encourage them to contribute and participate fully in the sessions.
The amount of time will be different for everyone and dependent on prior experience.
- Please factor in 45-60 min per set reading and 15-30 min for short exercises. On average this will be 1-2 hours per session.
- In addition to regular reading and quick exercises, the course is structured around a short introductory presentation with a portfolio at the start and a writing workshop at the end.
None of the assignments are extraneous to your practice. They are opportunities to practice and develop aspects of an artist’s professional practice that is expected or required at one point or another during an artist’s career. The time required for each of these assignments will vary depending on your experience. For example, if you already have a draft of your artist’s statement you may spend less time on this assignment. Unless you want to challenge yourself and radically rethink your statement, in which case it may take more time.
Participation in the modules and assignments is optional and you can participate as much as you like. However, you will get the maximum benefits if you make the most of the course and take advantage of all the modules and activities.
Contact
If you have any questions about the course or concerns about accessibility, or if you encounter any problems with the website please use the contact form to get in touch.