BLICK RESOURCES FOR CREATIVES -  Creative Practice 12-month Self-Reflection Exercise

The perfect activity for a miserable January evening. Some useful questions to help you reflect on and plan for your creative practice at the start of a new year

What would you do in your creative practice in the next 12 months if you weren’t afraid?

If you did this what could you learn about yourself? how could you grow even if you aren’t successful?

What are the first steps you could take to make this a reality?

What have you learnt about yourself from your creative practice over the last 12 months?

What do you most complain about in your current creative practice?

If you weren’t allowed to complain about this thing anymore, what action would you have to take?

Which activities, if doubled, would make your creative practice meaningfully better?

Which activities, if halved, would make your creative practice meaningfully better?

Downloadable PDF available on the resources section of our website link below and in profile

https://blickstudios.org/resources/13155/

Super cosy in our Hill St studios this evening working under the eaves with the sound of the rain on the roof 🌧 🌧

2016 looking back it’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years. A lot of changes with moves to new studios and so many events and projects and people in the last 10 years!

Our studios:

Back in 2016 we had studios both in 52 and 46 Hill Street - it was lovely to share no 52 with the yogis! We also had a space up in Derry/Londonderry in Ebrington and our Studios on the Malone Road.

It was a busy year for events working with lots of wonderful creative people in Northern Ireland including:

- Blick Academy for Creative Startups

- Share 6 inspirational talks for creative entrepreneurs

- 25 Pop-Up shop for designers

- The Faculty workshops and courses

- Creative Business Bootcamp

- The second year of Belfast Design Week (pic from Designedby organised by Jessica Fok for Belfast Design Week)

- Graduate residency programme

We are still involved with some of these events which is lovely 10 years later!

Our latest roundup of opportunities for creatives in Northern Ireland

01. Four Nations International Fund
Arts and culture thrive on international collaboration and exchange. The Four Nations International Fund helps artists and creative practitioners from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales collaborate with each other and with partners around the world.

02. Visual Arts Ireland Building a Sustainable Practice and Career
Catherine Hemelryk shares her experience on building a sustainable practice  and career relationships both within the art world and beyond. This webinar will take a practical and doable approach to the topic and she brings her experience of what to do and what not to do!

03. Sunflowers Sellers Market 
Applications are open for the second Sunflower Sellers Market on Sunday 8th March at Sunflower Public House

04. Creative Ireland – Shared Island grant calls 

The Creative Ireland Programme is delighted to announce three new funding calls to a combined value of €4.6 million supporting creativity, connection and wellbeing across the island of Ireland.

05. Reclaim the Agenda – International Women’s Day 2026 poster competition
The theme for 2026 is ‘Strength in Solidarity’. There are two age categories 12 -17yrs and 18 – 25yrs The winner will receive £100 prize and two runners-up will receive £50 each. Deadline for entries is January 31st, 2026

06. Ards and North Down Individual Artist Grant 
What is available?
A maximum grant of £250 is available.
DEADLINE: Monday 9 February 2026, 11:59pm (sharp)
 

07. Artist Development Session: A Funding Practical Workshop (Hybrid Event)
How to get your arts funding application over the line.
Date: Monday 26 January
Time: 2-5pm
Venue: Hybrid event online and Island Arts Centre, The Island, Lisburn, BT27 4RL

Full listings including links on our website blog link below and in profile!

https://blickstudios.org/blog/january-creative-roundup/

6 Key Lessons From Juliette El Fouly Founder of Le Contour Contemporary Candle Company’s Creative Talk Last March

Juliette founder of @lecontourcandles shared her creative story with us back in March last year. Here are 6 Key Lessons from her creative talk to give you fresh inspiration ✨️

 

1. You are not your business

To cope with the inevitable hard times when starting a creative business try to keep some separation between you and your business and don’t over-identify with it.
 

2. Use every business experience as a personal learning opportunity

Ask yourself what you can learn personally from every experience. How can you grow? How can you improve? How can this experience help you? Make you stronger, wiser, happier, a better person?
 

3.Diversify your income streams

Try not to rely on the income from one product or service, it can leave your business vulnerable. For example Juliette spoke of her initial product being recreated and mass produced by a chinese manufacturer and how she lost almost all of her business overnight. This led her to make the decision to diversify her income streams to different products as well as candle-making workshops.
 

4. Invest in your branding and packaging

Particularly if you are developing a product for a saturated market like candles. Make the purchase of your products an experience and help your product stand out from the crowd.

5. Realise early on that you can’t do everything

Part of successfully running a creative business is knowing when to stop or step back or take a break. There is always more you could do, so you need to set some boundaries around your business and accept that you can’t do everything.

6. Setbacks are inevitable. Being able to pick yourself up and try again is key

Being resilient and able to cope with challenges and setbacks and pick yourself up and try again is key to successfully running a creative business. Juliette shared her experience of losing almost all of her business overnight when a Chinese manufacturer copied her product. After this she had to either give up, or accept her current situation, pick herself up and use it as a learning experience and start again.

- - SHARED CREATIVE WORKSPACE AVAILABLE - -

We have dedicated deskspaces available in our beautiful Hill St studios:

– £165 per calendar month

– All inclusive prices (rent, rates, utilities, broadband) no VAT

– Minimum 3 months contract then on a rolling monthly contract

– 1 months rent required as a deposit

– Cathedral Quarter location

Email christine@blickstudios.org for more info or to arrange a viewing or visit our website for more info: 

https://blickstudios.org/locations/hill-street-belfast/

Easing into the new year and making plans, by looking back at some of our favourite bits from 2025!

01. Nurture
One of our favourite bits of 2025 was our Nurture Programme where thanks to the kind support of Belfast City Council we were able to support 3 emerging artists.

02. Creative Talks
At Blick we always love hearing the stories of other creatives. Last year we heard the stories of the following creatives.
- Ian Pitt Founder and Creative Director of Me,Him&Her Design Studio
- Juliette El Fouly Founder of Le Contour Contemporary Candle Company
- Illustrator Lauren Kelso
- Artist & Illustrator Danni Simpson
- Ciaran Crudden Creative Director of The Last Brand

03. Creative Workshops
We hosted some fab creative workshops with some brilliant local creatives last year on topics including:
- How to DIY Your Brand with Laura Whitehouse founder of Mighty Fine Design
- Strategic Goal Setting with visual practitioner Stéphanie Heckman
- Adventures in ChatGPT and Creative Audio  with Graeme Watson and Katya Buryakova founders of Homewerk

04. One Bite Studio Visit
In April 2025 we had a lovely few days touring around Belfast with Alan and Sarah from One Bite Design who we met in Hong Kong in October 2024.

05. Creative Brunch with Innovate UK Business Growth
An inspiring brunch event for creatives in our Hill St studios.

06. Creative Adventure Club with Homewerk
We loved collaborating with our friends at Homewerk for this new project.

07. Ulster University Enterprise Placement Year Retail Ready Fieldtrip 
In October we also had the pleasure of organising and hosting this for a group of creative students.

08. Arts Council of Northern Ireland Finance Fair
In November we were delighted to deliver one-to-one 30 minute sessions helping artists to take control of their finances.

09. Womenfolk
In 2025 we started a great new collaboration with @kitschsistersbelfast

10. Irish Design Week
We worked on a @belfastdesignwk project for @irish_designweek in collaboration with onebite design and @futureislandisland to showcase creative projects and stories from the islands of Rathlin, Ireland and Hong Kong at an evening of design talks and exhibition

Happy Christmas from all of us at Blick!

For anyone who hasn’t finished (or started) their Christmas shopping our latest Creative Roundup features 12 markets and shops you still have time to visit to support local creatives this Christmas

01. Portview Christmas Market
Opening dates & times:

Friday 19th December 6 – 10pm

Saturday 20th December 12 – 4pm

Venue: 310 Newtonards rd, Belfast, Belfast, Antrim BT4 1HE

 

02. Cathedral Quarter Christmas Sunday Art Market

Date: Sunday 21st December 10am – 3pm

Venue: Hill Street, Cathedral Quarter Belfast

 

03. St George’s Market

Opening dates &  times:

Monday 22 Dec 9–3

Tuesday 23 Dec 9–3

Wednesday 24 Dec 8–2

 

04. Belfast Christmas Market
Runs to December 22nd at Belfast City Hall, open Mon-Wed (10am-8pm), Thu-Sat (10am-10pm), and Sun (12pm-6pm).

 

05. Born & Bred
Unique gifts and accessories, created by artisans and craftspeople in Northern Ireland based on Ann Street, Belfast.

 

06. Story Box
Storybox, a Belfast-based social enterprise, sources and sells ethical gifts from local makers, social enterprises, and sustainable brands

Address: Storybox Shop, Unit D2 Portview Trade Centre, 310 Newtownards Rd, Belfast BT4 1HE

 

07. Hunter Paper Co
Hunter Paper Co. is an independent business based in Belfast, Northern Ireland producing luxury letterpress stationery, greetings cards and more

Address: 255 Upper Newtownards Rd, Belfast BT4 3JF

 

08. Maven
Belfast shop features modern furniture, lighting, homeware and gifts from some of the world’s leading design brands as well as smaller independent makers.

Address: The Bank, 364 Lisburn Rd, Belfast BT9 6GL

 
09. Craft NI Gallery Shop
Shop from some of Northern Ireland’s many talented designer-makers!

Address: 115, 119 Royal Ave, Belfast BT1 1FF

10. Belfast School of Art Artshop
Open until 20th December

Address: York Street, Belfast


11. Duncairn Art Shop
Drop in to shop amazing and affordable prints, T-shirts, unique crochet creations, cards and jewellery amongst other things

Address: Duncairn Avenue, Belfast, Co Antrim BT14 6BP

12. Wrapped up
Unique gifts, souvenirs, jewellery and art. Locally made by artists across Ireland.

Addresses: Lisburn and Ormeau Road and Castlecourt

Thanks to Rachael Armstrong @rachaelpaintsweddings one of our Great Northern Street residents for painting this lovely Christmas window in our Great Northern Street studios!

Our latest roundup of local and international funding, support & opportunities for NI creatives

01. Illustrators North Smile Please Exhibition

Illustrators North are super excited to announce that they are doing their very first Illustrators North Annual exhibition celebrating their fantastically talented members and friends, here in Northern Ireland!

The exhibition is happening on December 4th Late Night Art Belfast at the Black Box Belfast from 6pm onwards!

02. WeBuild Programme

WeBuild is open to applications from across the island of Ireland. WeBuild is for ambitious women founders and entrepreneurs who have identified a significant problem with global potential and are developing tech-powered products or platforms to solve it.

Closing date: Tuesday 9th December 12pm

03. Creative Ireland Programme

The Creative Ireland Programme is delighted to announce three new funding calls to a combined value of €4.6 million supporting creativity, connection and wellbeing across the island of Ireland

04. Belfast City Council Vacant to Vibrant

Belfast City Council has secured an additional £700k in capital funding to extend the Vacant to Vibrant Citywide scheme (excluding the city centre). Please note that the scheme operates citywide but excludes the city centre boundary.

Applications are now open for this new round of funding, contact vacanttovibrant@belfastcity.gov.uk to request an application pack.

05. Design Generators Funding

Apply for funding to combine design-led interventions with arts and humanities methodologies to make positive contributions to the green transition.

Opening date: 2 February 2026 9:00am UK time
Closing date: 9 April 2026 4:00pm UK time

06. Creative Lives Micro Grant

Creative Lives’ latest micro-grant competition is all about the power of networks, and how partnerships can help groups achieve things they couldn’t on their own.

Tell them your story, and they will give a £250/€290 micro-grant to their favourite! They are particularly keen to hear from grassroots, community-led creative groups who, through a partnership, have been able to carry out projects previously out of reach.

Deadline: Friday 12 December 2025

November was another busy month for us at Blick. 

We started the month by facilitating a Finance Fair for the @artscouncilni on Friday 7th November in the MAC. 

On Wednesday evenings we hosted @homewerk.project for their Creative Adventure Club in our Hill St studios 

We worked with @kitschsistersbelfast to put on a Creative Affirmations Cards workshop for creative women. 

We finished the month with taking part in an Ideas Lab panel discussion in Ulster University Belfast for their Students as Entrepreneurs programme.

It was also @irishdesignweek from 17th - 21st November. For that we worked with @belfastdesignwk @onebite.design and @futureislandisland to put on a series of design talks on the theme Islands of Design in Belfast School of Art.

We worked with Future Island-Island and Belfast Design Week to organise a design workshop for architecture students from both Ulster University and Queens University facilitated by onebite design in the beautiful Kitsch Sisters Workshop Space in Olive Tree House.

We also helped organise a popup design exhibition of Future Island-Island design fellows work alongside 10 emerging designers on the ground floor of Belfast School of Art and the @architecturenorthernireland Design Box that ran throughout Irish Design Week.

https://blickstudios.org/blog/last-month-at-blick-november/