CREATE!

A free course for early career creatives

Activate's Role: Partner

Past Event

Participants: Early career creatives from Dorset, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole areas.
Date / time: The next course is likely to take place in late 2026/early 2027.
Price: Free
Partners: Arts by the Sea and b-side.

CREATE! is a FREE course for those who are based in Dorset and BCP (Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole) with less than 2 years experience in the arts sector.

The most recent course took place in Spring 2026. The next course is likely to take place in late 2026/early 2027.

Participants learn how artistic events are created from start to finish and take part in workshops led by experienced professionals.

Topics include:

What makes a great event?
Building a network
How do community-led projects work?
Financing a creative idea
Where can events happen?
Marketing and audience identification
What is risk management?

What do you get from the course?

The FREE course includes:

Your travel expenses whilst attending the course
Lunch, drinks and snacks during the course
A professionally developed programme designed to give you a clearer understanding of how artistic events can be made
An opportunity to pitch for a pot of money to help make your creative idea a reality
Networking sessions during and after the course
Direct access to arts professionals
Useful resources signposted directly to you
Direct engagement with art/performance in your region

Using skills learned during the course participants have the opportunity to pitch a creative idea to Activate Performing Arts, b-side, and Arts by the Sea, gaining invaluable constructive feedback. The most successful pitches are offered seed-funding to further develop their ideas.

With creative learning sessions taking place across Dorset, participants take part in the workshop sessions together, where there are opportunities for connection and spaces to see different types of artistic work.

Three women sit on chairs with their legs crossed and hands in lap.

"This gave me so much confidence in my future creative career and has given me the structure that I needed to be able to move forward with the ideas I have."

CREATE! 2026 participant

Interested?

CREATE! is for people of any age (18+) who may have some experience in creating their own creative events, those who want to step into the artistic industry but don’t know how, and also those who have no idea how any of the creative world works but think they have a great idea they’d like to make a reality.

The next CREATE! course is likely to take place in late 2026/early 2027. Details will be announced here and on our social media channels when applications open.

ACCESS: The CREATE! courses are designed to be accessible. We encourage applications from people who have access requirements.