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CALL FOR PROPOSALS
The 11th Urban Sketchers Symposium will take place in Auckland, New Zealand on April 19-22, 2023. We are seeking proposals for Workshops, Lectures and Skit Sketch Presentations. The final date to submit your proposals is Sunday September 11, 2022 (11:59 pm GMT). Winning proposals will be announced at the end of October, 2022.
(You can see past symposium programming for 2018 here, 2017 here and 2016 here)
HOW TO PREPARE A SUCCESSFUL WORKSHOP PROPOSAL
- Think about the main goal of your workshop. Can you summarise it in one sentence: “At the end of the workshop my students will be able to …” ?
- Break the main purpose of your workshop into 3-4 steps or smaller learning goals. What do you need to teach, show, and practice during the course of the workshop, so that your students succeed in achieving the main goal of your workshop?
- Think about the right balance between presenting the information, doing short demonstrations, and giving time for exercises so that your students can practice what you are teaching. Create a plan, estimating the approximate number of minutes each segment will take.
- Make sure you leave space and time for feedback and questions. Plan to check in with your students both individually and in a group setting several times throughout the workshop.
- Make sure you don’t set an unrealistic schedule and goals that would not fit into the space of three hours.
- Think about how you can enable your students to succeed in the workshop– leaving them with a clear sense of what they learned and desire to continue to draw and practice.
Learn more about how to prepare a successful workshop proposal.
SOME DETAILS TO KEEP IN MIND WHILE DRAFTING YOUR PROPOSAL:
- You can propose a Workshop for a specific spot or a general location. We recommend you to get to know the possible locations before you create your proposal, in order to match your idea with the city’s environment. Use this map of suggested locations within walking distance from the main Symposium hub to pick a perfect spot for your workshop.
- All participants will be advised to gather with their Instructors at the Meeting place, before setting out to Workshop locations.
- Workshop locations are subject to change and the organisers reserve the right to make the best arrangements and combinations of Workshops/Demos and locations.
- Keep in mind the weather: April in Auckland, NZ , is an enjoyable autumn month, with crisp sunny days, clear blue skies and cold bright nights. Temperatures, in April, are in the range of an average high on 19.3°C (66.7°F) and average low of 15°C (59°F). There’s always the possibility of rain in Auckland all year round. It is a harbour city with a maritime climate.
Sunrise will be around 6AM and sunset will be around 6PM. - You may propose multiple Workshops, Lectures and Skit Sketch presentations. However, only one of your proposals may be picked.
- You will be notified by the end of October 2022 whether your proposal was selected.
- All instructors and leaders will receive a list of participants, closer to the time of the Symposium.
- All of the programming (workshops, demos, lectures, and presentations) will be presented in English.
Workshops
Workshops are presented as a more formal educational experience with a smaller group (a maximum of 15 participants), allowing for personal interaction with students. Instructors are expected to do a short demonstration, have one-on-one interaction with participants, and check on them during their exercises.
- Duration and Frequency: All workshops will be 3 hours and taught up to three (3) times over the course of the Symposium
- Capacity: Focused instruction for up to 15 participants in each session.
- Demo : Workshop instructors will also be expected to conduct a short demo (in addition to the workshops). A demo runs 40 minutes (including 10 minutes of Q&A with attendees) with up to 25 participants. The topic and venue may be different to that of the workshop.
- Compensation: If your workshop proposal is selected, you receive a free registration for the Symposium, free travel and accommodation. Instructors will receive a one-off total honorarium of USD$100.
- We are aiming to increase the number of new and local instructors. If you have not previously taught at the Symposium, and you have teaching experience, we want to hear from you!
Lectures
Lectures allow you to share your own work, research, urban sketching stories, the work of other sketchers, sketching history, or another topic of interest to fellow sketchers. Lectures will be presented indoors and a slide projector will be provided. We will ask for your consent for filming your lecture, so that we can share it on USk platforms.
- Duration and Frequency: 40 mins Lecture presentation, 10mins Q&A session and will only be conducted once.
- Capacity: All interested participants are welcome.
- Compensation: If your proposal is selected, you will be entitled to early registration, and will receive an honorarium of USD$100 .
Skit Sketch Presentations
A Skit Sketch is a ‘lightning talk’ presentation which allows you to share your own work, urban sketching stories, the work of other sketchers, sketching history, or another topic of interest or concern to fellow sketchers. A projector will be provided. We will ask for your consent for filming your presentation, so that we can share this content on USk platforms.
- Duration and Frequency: a presentation with 20 auto-advance slides at 20 seconds each (6 minutes and 40 seconds in total) and will only be conducted once. (similar to the format of Pecha Kucha or Ignite)
- Capacity: All interested participants are welcome.
- Compensation: If your proposal is selected, you will be entitled to an early registration, and will receive a one-off total honorarium of USD$100 .
DEADLINE
All proposals are due by Sunday September 11, 2022 (11:59 pm GMT)