Mentoring

A mentorship is a one-on-one program designed to build your capacity in the arts. Mentoring supports you to engage with the wider artistic community and give you a sense of place within it.

A mentor responds to you, your needs, your goals and what you’re looking to achieve. They will help you build your skills, but also your understanding and approach to art. A mentorship is about growth at your own rate, in the direction that is most important to you.

A traditional class is in a formal setting. It has set lessons designed to teach you preset skills. It is a linear method of learning. A mentorship is more flexible.

Mentors and mentees meet every week or every two weeks. Sessions go for two or three hours. We discuss this when setting up the mentorship.

Mentoring is not about experience; it’s about your goals. So, if you know what you want, but don’t know how to get there, a mentorship is for you.

All you need is to be ready to learn. No minimum experience required.

Yes. We ask that you commit to 12 sessions at the start, to ensure a meaningful mentorship experience.

AAV is happy for you to continue a mentorship for as long as you feel that kind of support is useful or necessary.

The mentorship sessions and non-face-to-face support. Non-face-to-face support is the work our Mentors and Creative Producers do outside session hours. This includes:

• Monitoring creative goals
• Planning sessions and resourcing,
• Research
• Writing individual session notes and reports
• Organising participant specific training
• Guidance and advice
• Help to meet your goals (for example; special projects like exhibitions and performances

We estimate non-face-to-face hours and they may vary. This is especially true for special projects like exhibitions and performances.

The process is:

• Make an enquiry
• Our NDIS Intake Coordinator will contact you to collect some intake information and send you a quote.
• Verify that you have the funding available
• A Mentorship Creative Producer will contact you. You will have a chat about your artform, goals, and what you’re looking for in a mentor.
• The Creative Producer will connect you with a mentor on staff, or recruit someone for you.
• We will have a 30-minute introductory session with the potential mentor. This session is to find out if you want to work together.
• If the match works, your mentorship sessions will begin.

Our mentorship program is about meeting your personal needs. This means everyone’s start times vary.

If there is a mentor on staff who is a good fit for you, the process can take as little as a week. If we need to recruit someone, then the process can take as long as a few months.

In our initial conversations, we will be asking questions to try and figure out who might be a good fit. This includes your style, artform, interest, personality, experience level, location and availability. If we don’t have the right mentor on staff, we will look to recruit someone. If you know someone you’d like to work with, we can gauge their interest on your behalf. Generally, the more niche your goals are, the more time it can take to find a mentor.

You and your mentor will discuss where you will meet. You could meet in a library, café or online, for example. You can use the AAV South Melbourne office or Collingwood Yards studio if it’s available.

You cannot have a session in the mentee’s home.

We do not provide business coaching. Mentorships are for your arts practice and professional development, not running a business.

Arts Access Victoria is not an agency. We cannot act as an agent to sell your work. If you are looking to start a small business or sell your work, we cannot help you, but we can refer you to other services in the community.

Arts Access Victoria prefers mentorships to be funded through the NDIS line items:

• Capacity Building Increased Social and Community Participation or
• Capacity Building Finding and Keeping a Job.

If you don’t have either of these, core funding may be an option, contact us for more information.

You can find out more about prices on our NDIS pricing page.