Top 5 Workshop Tips: Execution

My top 5 tips for workshop instructors involving execution...

1)Preparation: Being prepared is equally important on the day of the workshop as it is in the planning stages before. You will be more successful if you pack your supplies in advance, arrive early, set up your worktable in a manner logical for the workshop, and have the class day well planned out. It is also good to prepare yourself for having students at a variety of experience levels and with differing expectations of the class.

2)Flexibility: Things happen. The instructor who expects this and reacts with flexibility will handle the situation better and create a better experience for the entire class. It is always good to have a Plan B.

3)Focus: The more successful workshop will be the one where the instructor focuses on two things: the workshop project and the attendees. Even if your students are self-proclaimed groupies, they are not paying to hear you talk only about yourself.

4)Generosity: Students are choosing to spend money to learn from their instructor. Be generous in terms of information, assistance, support, guidance, feedback and the like. Don't let the fear that a student will take your workshop and then teach it themselves create an atmosphere where you resist sharing.

5)Positivity: The successful instructor enters the workshop with positive expectations. She/he assumes that the class will go well, the students will learn, the room will be filled with creative energy, and the works will be balanced with some fun. The successful instructor also realizes that she/he is responsible to make all this come true.


This is an except from my article and interview published in the current digital Mixed Media Art Magazine Issue 10.