FlightLab, free mentorship for creative practitioners

Free Mentorship for Creative Practitioners

Welcome to the FlightLab, Free Mentorship for Creative Practitioners page. This programme will  work with practitioners to develop personality traits and working methodologies which support their practice.

Developing a regular creative practice is a combination of many abilities. You have to develop a clear & specific brief. You have to identify the learning potential it offers. You have to clearly understand the risks and opportunities of immersing yourself in the process. And of course, you must have the relevant skills and temperament to actually achieve the objectives.

In FlightLab: Free Mentorship for Creative Practitioners

Support Available For

Creative Process

For practitioners who want to cultivate a less isolated + more robust personal creative practice

A sound process is the main distinction between a creative practitioner who achieves the desired outcomes consistently and one who doesn’t.

Ideation

For practitioners who want to enrich their practice by drawing on a more diverse set of concerns

Coming up with an idea – be it for a product or a story or an art work is the starting point of an endeavour.How to avoid vague and barely coherent ideas?

Writing & Research

For practitioners who want to develop their practice through a rigorous documentation and reading process

Reflective practices like writing and a familiarity with research are essential for all creators. They support personal growth + direction.

Why FlightLab with Prayas Abhinav?

Portrait of Prayas Abhinav

Plan And Set Clear Milestones

For every practitioner who want to cultivate a personal creative practice

Cultivating a personal creative practice requires commitment, rigour and realistic goals. Setting clear and incremental goals and milestones needs to be done very carefully.

Frame Your Vision & Push Your Limits

For experienced practitioners who want to pursue new horizons

Creativity interprets personal limits. Limits can be pushed and questioned when a personal vision is framed & ready. Experiments and the experience they offer help in this pursuit.

Identify New Opportunities

For practitioners who want to identify & pursue new challenges and opportunities

A practice can creatively impact its field by innovating a new process or product. Exposure, awareness and regular critical discussion support this effort in a concrete manner.

Prayas Abhinav’s personal experience

Diverse Contexts

I have worked in fields like fine art, teaching, mentoring, curation, design, technology, performance and writing.

Vast Exposure

I have worked in international, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, commercial, academic, scientific, voluntary and media sectors.

Multitude of Roles

I have performed the role of a collaborator, teacher, mentor curator, critic, journalist, advisor, juror, artist and author.

Prayas Abhinav has taught at these institutions
NID, MICA, DAI, Indus University, CEPT, Srishti

About Prayas

Highlights of Creative Practice

Highlights of Research

FlightLab

free mentorship programme for creative practitioners
FREE 8 sessions / 4 Weeks
  • No cost - open to everyone
  • Two applications selected every 4-week cycle
  • Facilitated peer-support
Mentorship is offered on video-chat (zoom.us) + e-mail

Please Note

Pls fill the form on a desktop/laptop computer. Thanks.
Applications Closed!
Open!
Application Requirements
Motivation Practice Objectives
Text (100 words) Portfolio (3 works) Text (100 words)

Suitable for Artists, Designers & Writers

Artists, Designers & Writers can rely on a set of consistent methods to consistently create works. Find out how!

Support for Publishing + Distribution

Why do you create work? Do you want to touch the lives of people? FlightLab will help you find an audience.

Regular & Honest Critiques

Critiques are important. A critique with the right intent at the right time can be pivotal for a practitioner.

Artists

New Media Artists

Performance Artists

Installation Artists

Designers

Product Designers

Game Designers

Exhibition Designers

Writers

Fiction Writers

Non-fiction Writers

Critics

The FlightLab: Free Mentorship for Creative Practitioners

Format

First Batch Starts on Sept 1, 2019

FlightLab is a 4-week mentorship program for creative practitioners with 2 sessions/week.

Every Wednesday and Saturday​

Regular sessions twice a week help me get an insight into your creative process.

45 Min Video-chat Sessions + Email​

With video/audio chat available on mobile phones, conversation is not be difficult.

Milestone-based Developmental Process

Creative capacities are not developed quickly. But gradual growth does happen!

Peer-critiques & Multiple Perspectives

Other mentees will offer critiques to diversify the kinds of responses available.

Content-agnostic Approach

FlightLab engages pre-dominantly with the process of developing a creative work.

The FlightLab: Free Mentorship for Creative Practitioners

Facilitation Model

Flexible Video-chat Times Available

The FlightLab programme has been designed for people who might other commitments. The video-chat/sync times are available for a range of different schedules.

Desired-outcomes are Constantly Discussed

Mentorship Programmes generally imagine a more knowing role for participants. Goals for mentorship processes are constantly  discussed between the mentor and the mentee.

Approachable & Non-expert Mode

FlightLab is approachable, encouraging and friendly. Mentees express their perspectives and seek responses. FlightLab helps you sharpen your own material.

Exercises, Challenges + Benchmarks

The FlightLab model is comprised of exercises, challenges and benchmarks. Mentees can use these models to plan and work on a step-by-step process of guided self-development.

Overview of Self-learning Methods

Self-learning is a different way of learning and getting immersed in any new area of knowledge. FlightLab introduces mentees to all the main modes of self-learning.

Vast Library of Online Resources​​

A vast set of resources are available online to help practitioners get more insights, learn and share. FlightLab has indexed many of these and shares them freely eith mentees.

The FlightLab: Free Mentorship for Creative Practitioners Model

The FlightLab Mentorship Model

Listening-oriented

The ideas you have for your project are the fundamental building block of the mentorship programme.

Sharing-friendly

Both, the mentor and the mentee, regularly share narratives & experiences with each other.

Relevant

I understand all aspects of the mentee’s situation to contextualise all inputs.

Tailored

FlightLab is tailored for individuals to progress on their journeys and paths and achieve their goals.

Challenging

FlightLab recognises that realistic challenges help motivate individuals positively. 

Incremental

Challenges become productive when they are incremental in nature. The steps are thought of together.

Exercise-based

Exercises are suggested by me on an ongoing basis to help the mentee meet challenges.

Approachable

FlightLab makes an effort to remain accessible to practitioners from all backgrounds.

Mutual Respect

Mutual respect between the mentor and mentee helps both remain receptive to each other.

Open

A mentor can genuinely help a mentee if the mentee is open about the struggles and challenges they face.

Rigorous

Rigour is a subjective concept but there is an understanding of the concept in terms of time + intensity.

Timely

Feedback cycles in a mentorship process must move forward in a predictable & consistent format.

FlightLab Mentorship Values

Privacy

Constructive

Concrete

Mentees Enrolled in FlightLab (September, 2019)

Lohit Gaurav

Product Developer

He loves to participate in hackathons & plays piano in his free time. He has good negotiation skills.

Srinivas Harivanam

New Media Artist

He is a Bangalore-based product designer. He is now primarily interested in installation art. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you mentor xYZ practitioners?

The media / discipline of practice is immaterial for me. This is because FlightLab has a very process-oriented model that actually works with how practitioners go about what they do rather than what they do.

Why Is FlightLab Mentorship Program Free of cost?

Free of cost does not mean free of value 🙂 FlightLab is free of cost because I believe not everyone who needs and desires mentorship can pay for such an experience. The joy of discovering a new practitioner and helping them reach their goals is immense.

Is FlightLaB Global? Can the Mentees Be Outside India?

Yes, absolutely. FlightLab is based on video-chat and email and does not require physical presence at all.

Are All the Application Requirements Compulsory?

Yes, please. I want to make sure I understand the intention of applicants before they apply.

More Questions?

Please write to flightlab@prayas.in

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(c) 2019, Prayas Abhinav

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