The School of Creative Leadership is a non-profit learning institution for artists and creative practitioners of African descent.
Our one-year programme brings creative practice together with leadership, enterprise, institutions and public life.
Fellows develop their work, while also building the confidence, judgment and practical knowledge needed to sustain a creative career, work with others and take on wider responsibilities within culture and society. The School was not founded to replace artistic training, but to extend potential, helping artists think more deliberately about the professional, institutional and public life that grows around their practice.
Our approachThe SCL programme runs over one year and is organised around three connected areas: Voice, Authority and Impact.
Explore the programmeThe first part of the programme is concerned with creative identity, authorship and values. Fellows spend time looking closely at their own practice: what they are making, what is driving it, how they speak about it and where they see themselves within a wider cultural context.
The second part turns toward the professional and institutional world around the artist. Fellows learn to communicate their ideas clearly, understand value and negotiation, work with institutions and develop a more informed relationship with power, influence and responsibility.
The final part of the year asks fellows to put those ideas into practice. Through collaborative projects and public engagement, they work with other people, build partnerships, make decisions and explore how creative practice can respond to cultural, civic and social questions.
The inaugural SCL cohort brings together artists and creative practitioners working across different disciplines and perspectives.
Meet the FellowsLearning takes different forms across the year. Fellows move between seminars and workshops, studio conversations, practitioner sessions, mentorship, field visits and collaborative projects.
How the year worksIdeas, frameworks and discussions around creative practice, leadership, institutions and professional life.
Time to examine work, question assumptions and hear from other practitioners.
Conversations with artists, curators, lawyers, cultural producers, academics and people working inside institutions.
Ongoing guidance around practice, professional development and the questions fellows are working through.
Learning outside the classroom through encounters with institutions, organisations and communities.
Projects that require fellows from different disciplines to work together and share responsibility.
The programme is taught by a multidisciplinary faculty drawn from across the arts, culture and professional practice.
Meet the Faculty
Artist
Photographer
Artist
Artist
Lawyer & Art Advisor
Artist & Cultural Producer
Art Historian & Artist
Exhibition & Capstone
The programme concludes with a public cohort exhibition and team-based Social Impact Projects.
In Badagry, the Rebirth Canvas brought environmental responsibility into conversation with collaborative art.
The Rebirth CanvasSCL is a non-profit institution, and the fees paid by fellows cover only part of the cost of delivering the programme. Support from patrons and institutional partners allows the School to keep the programme accessible, strengthen the learning experience and provide more artists with the time, teaching and resources to take part.
Support the SchoolLearn about the programme and enquire about joining the next SCL cohort.
Apply to SCL
