The Guild is a membership organisation for all individuals working in the creative sector. We are all about building a community, bringing people together and seeing what wonderful things can happen when inspiration is shared, ideas pooled, and collaboration nurtured.
By becoming a member of the Guild, you’ll have access to exclusive opportunities, events and resources, you’ll find new collaborators, clients and audiences and most importantly, you’ll become part of our supportive, vibrant community of makers and doers.
“As a solo music artist, a lot of my creative work is done in isolation and can feel quite siloed. The Creative Guild allows me to be part of a bigger community of artists and keeps me in the loop about all the opportunities that are out there” – Sarah Sharp (Tsarzi), musician
Meet, learn, promote, support and grow. Based at The Workshop but popping up all over the city, our entire programme of workshops, talks, networking, showcases and celebrations is free for members to attend.
As well as inviting external speakers whose work we admire, we regularly employ our members to share their skills as part of our workshop series and offer regular paid performing opportunities for members working in music, theatre, writing and performance.
“Usually with networking things that I attend I’m very much in my bubble but with the Guild I get to see other little bubbles. It’s bringing together a community so I’ve met graphic designers and I’ve met speech therapists and coaches” – Jordan Carroll, filmmaker and cinematographer
Through our national and regional links with other sector organisations, government bodies and non-sector partners we provide a lobbying voice and advocacy body for our members and the wider sector.
In 2019 we began the Sheffield Declares Emergency campaign to encourage organisations from the creative sector to stand alongside us and declare a climate emergency. In 2020, as part of our work with Sheffield Culture Consortium, we lobbied for the ‘Freelancer Fund’ a package of financial support for creative freelancers affected by Covid-19. We raised £77,000 and distributed it to 83 people.
We are also the chapter chairs of What Next? Sheffield, which is part of the national What Next? movement, bringing together freelancers and arts organisations to inform, debate and shape the future of the arts and culture in the UK.
The first round of our Mentoring Scheme is now open for applications, starting in January 2022. The scheme will pair Guild members with an experienced member of the creative industries who, for six months, will offer them one-to-one bespoke support as they develop their creative practice or pursue a career in the arts.