Art & Insights for Emerging Artists: In Conversation with Amber Creswell Bell

In collaboration with Chisholm Art and Design, McClelland is bringing Amber Creswell Bell to Melbourne to share her experience working with and championing emerging artists. Amber has developed a course to help demystify the process, providing very practical advice as to how to go about navigating the commercial art world.

Getting a foothold in the sometimes-confusing world of art is not for the faint hearted. Unlike other industries where workers have access to graduate programs, cadetships, graduate placements, job boards and recruitment agencies to provide a framework - artists instead must propel themselves into the art world unassisted, operating as their own small businesses.

This event will answer all your burning questions common to so many emerging artists, including:

• Gallery Representation vs Working as an Independent Artist
• Let yourself be found: the importance of a website and social media
• How do I apply to a gallery – the dos and do-nots
• Know the market - and where you might fit in it!
• What can you do in the interim?
• The Essentials – Bio, Artist Statement & CV
• Art Prizes & why they're important
• The mysterious business of pricing
• Commission
• ABN, GST etc.

Amber Creswell Bell is an art curator, an author of books on the arts, a lifestyle writer, a public speaker, an artist mentor and an enthusiastic creative hustler. With a passion for art, Amber is recognised for championing and educating emerging and unrepresented artists. She was the Director of Emerging Art for Michael Reid galleries, curating both the emerging art and ceramics programs from 2019-2025. In 2021 Amber established the National Emerging Art Prize (NEAP) in collaboration with Michael Reid. Amber has been curator of the NEAP since its inception.

Amber has published six art books with Thames & Hudson to date, with a 7th to be released in September 2025.

Tickets $45 (includes light refreshments after the talk— plenty of time to chat and catch up then!

Places are limited so bookings are essential.