Dorothy Nkemdirim has always wanted to be a professional artist. Leaving a  successful career in human resources behind her, she has embarked on a new phase of her life, taking photographs and painting to create art, using natural landscapes as inspiration. Although Dorothy attended a Meet a Mentor event in the hope of meeting a mentor, it was a fellow mentee who provided the inspiration she needed.

Dorothy’s long-term goal is to open her own gallery, but in the meantime she has been hosting exhibitions in different spaces and connecting with other artists. However, her first step was to learn more about establishing a new enterprise:

“About a year ago I attended a SFEDI course on starting your own business. I made a business plan to set up my own art gallery called Cylinder Gallery and sell my work. I started to make a few sales in September.”

The artist, who gained a degree in fine art from Wimbledon College in her twenties, has worked as a personal assistant within a local council and holds a master’s degree in human resource management. However, the art world was never far from her mind:

“I worked for the NHS as a recruitment consultant but I always wanted to do art. So when I was made redundant I decided that was what I would do and that’s the route I’m following at the moment.”

When she attended a Meet a Mentor event, Dorothy had a number of questions she wanted to ask a potential mentor about how to fund her fledgling enterprise and how to find a venue to host her first exhibitions. Although the artist met a mentor, it was a fellow mentee who gave her the most valuable support.

“I met another mentee who was really quite useful because he actually had his own art gallery and his own business up and running already. We exchanged a lot of ideas about that. He gave me helpful information on where to get my prints done for a reasonable price and what types of spaces I should be looking for.”

Having taken her new contact’s advice on-board, Dorothy is looking to the Cylinder Gallery’s future and exploring possible revenue streams to take the business to its next stage:

“Eventually, I hope to be able to make a living from the business and not worry about the financial struggles of being self-employed. At the moment I’m in the process of trying to secure some crowd-funding and I’m applying for grants as well.”

Meet a Mentor, as well as providing the opportunity for Dorothy to connect with someone whose experience matched her know-how needs, gave the artist some encouragement in those challenging early days of establishing a business:

“The event was well organised and I gained some really positive feedback about my business plans - people were enthusiastic about what I was doing. So it’s given me a boost to go out there and meet people and get the business moving.”