groups and discussions – the artists club

please join our groups

Community groups and discussions (forums) are the back bone of The Artist’s Club. It is in them you get to meet other artists that share your same interests. They are places to support and help each other. They are an incredible resource for learning and developing your art.

We started The Artist’s Club with a handful of groups, and as members of the club ask we add more to your specific requests. We hope groups grow organically.

types of groups

Currently the Artist’s Club has two types of groups; interest groups and challenge groups.

Interest groups are spaces where you can focus on particular topics such as abstract photography. There you’ll find others who are also interested in that subject and in the group you will be able to share images and discuss ideas. Initially there aren’t many groups, however, if there is enough interest in a particular topic then admin will create a new group for that topic. You will need to join a group to be able to interact and post in it. Simply click on the ‘+ join group’ button.

Challenge groups are run by The Artists Club and can be identified by the swirly logo. There is usually a challenge or exercise to complete and a set period of time that it is running for (of course, there is nothing stopping you from going back to past challenges and completing them and posting your results). You have automatically been added to the weekly creative challenge group head on over and have a go at the current weekly challenge!

difference between groups and discussions

Every group has its own discussion (forum). There are a few discussions (forums) floating around that aren’t attached to a specific group. At the moment considered inspirations. They are:

These are places to find threads on artists, general techniques, creativity and approaches.

Discussions (forums) are best for questions that require lots of discussion, have lots of advice.

There is a great resource in the help section that shows you how to do that. You can see it here.

The beautiful thing about discussions is that grow and become a very useful resource for other members to learn from.

groups and sub groups

The Artist’s Club tires to use a hierarchical system to categorise content and interests. For example:

The Flower and Floral Art group will eventually have subgroups such as:

Macro Flower Photographers
Lensbaby Flower Photographers
Botanical Illustrators
Flower Painters
Garden Lovers and Artists
Orchid Chasers

create your own group

To create your own group, we ask that a few of you agree to be in the group and see a need. Ask yourself what is the purpose of the group and what would you like to do in the group? Once you have some members who are interested in joining, all you have to do is to reach out to the Artist’s Club to have us form one for you. Reach out to @clair when you are ready.

Fantastic groups are lead by facilitators.

Do you think you could lead your proposed group?

group facilitators

Amazing groups are usually lead by inspiring leaders. Here in the Artist’s Club they are called ‘facilitators’. Many groups have facilitators nominated, and show up on the group home page as Organisers. If the organiser is one of the Admins from this site, then that group still doesn’t have a facilitator. Groups can have more than one facilitator.

The facilitators role is inspire discussions and the formation of the community within that group. They take the philosophy and code of conduct and maintain a healthy and supportive learning environment. They may organise zoom meet ups, or challenges within the group.

Artist Club members who would like to be trained to facilitate a group are eligible to attend or complete the training offered by Len Metcalf @len, our founder. Len has been professionally training facilitators since he started working professionally in education in 1985. At this time the training is free to those that commit to facilitating a group for a period of time. Please reach out to @len for personal session on facilitating an Artist’s Club group.

groups and feeds

Each group has its own feed which is a chronological feed of all activity in the group. If you post directly into the feed your work, discussion, links and words will eventually move far down the list and may not be seen by others. If you post in the discussions, others will will be able to add to your discussion over a long period of time to make an in depth resource.

Before you post please think about where best to post. Think about the title and the describing words you use.

searching and asking for help

You can search all public posts. Groups that are closed or hidden will not show up in the search.

The search function is a great place to start looking for information.

Asking for help is the primary function of our learning community. By posting a question in the appropriate discussion you are creating a resource for everyone else. This works best for general help. For specific feedback on an artwork please use the feedback post in a group, or just ask and post into the general feed. When you post into the general feed, only your friends and followers will see your post. You are better off asking people in similar interest groups.

documents and groups

Each group can have an area to post documents. All document formats are apparently supported, but they are limited in size. Only post and share documents that you have appropriate copyright or approval to share. The Artist’s Club is not to be used as a depository for copyrighted documents.

group moderation

We hope we never have to go there. The admin team and group facilitators have the ability to moderate posts.

All groups and closed groups can be accessed by the admin team of the Artist’s Club and are monitored for appropriate adherence to our Code of Conduct and Terms of Serve.

open and closed groups

Groups are either open or closed groups. Anyone can join an open group. Closed groups may be used for an existing group, a class or specialist group. Closed groups are also used for content that not everyone wants to see. To join a closed group, make sure you read information about the group, then send a join request. The group facilitators, or moderators will approve it when they next log on.