While at school in Manchester, a career in theatre seemed like a distant dream to Tom Stocks. In fact, he was advised that bricklaying might be a good route.
Being an artist - or working in the arts - just wasn’t something my schoolfriends and I were encouraged to see as a viable career path. If that was the advice I got in an urban centre with a whole world of culture close by, I can only imagine what it might have been in a rural school.
Since those days, there have been successive moves that have further eroded the place of arts in our schools and universities, from the emphasis on STEM subjects at the expense of drama and music, to the latest move to restrict access to loans based on subject, with arts among the first to lose funding.
And yet, arts and the creative industries is one of the country’s big success stories. As one of the fastest growing sectors, the creative industries contribute billions to the UK economy each year and employ millions of people – and that’s just the economic benefits.
The arts have the power to reach and move people. In my work with Creative Youth, I’ve seen the power of arts to change lives many times over. And yet as things stand, as a society, we aren’t encouraging young people from a range of backgrounds to consider it as a career path or putting in place the tools they need to help them overcome the barriers they face in doing so.
Where is the next lily pad?
As programme manager with Creative Youth, my role is in part to challenge some of these barriers and help young creatives find tools to overcome them. I deferred a place at drama school twice while I sought the funding to take it up. And, after graduating, I set up my own theatre company.
This means I can draw on my own experiences when devising programmes. I’m keenly aware of the lack of bridging for those key moments in a career when you’re transitioning from one phase to the next – such as leaving university or training and working out what to do next.
How do you get started? Where is the next lily pad you need to leap for? The launch of the government’s Kickstart scheme has been a positive for many young people in navigating that difficult transition. At Creative Youth we have been able to employ several young people under the scheme, but more is needed and Creative Youth exists to fill some of those gaps.
An array of opportunities
We’re based in Kingston Upon Thames, South West London, with a national and international remit. We exist to unlock young people’s (aged 5 -26) potential through the arts. We equip them with the skills and confidence for success in life and their chosen careers, by providing an array of opportunities.
There are five strands to Creative Youth’s work:
- FUSE International is an annual festival;
- Creative Talent Programme gives bespoke support to young artists and offers development opportunities to the Young Creatives panel;
- Creative Youth Connects with projects in our local community;
- Skills Development Programme offers practical help and support;
- A new creative space will launch next year
When the pandemic hit, there was concern about how we’d deliver the skills programme. Would we be able to support young creatives through these unprecedented challenges? In fact, we launched a new digital initiative which enabled us to extend our reach beyond those who we would normally work with.
In July 2020, we launched a series of webinars called So You Wanna Work In The Arts. Taking place every 1-2 months, they were a mix of practical skills-based workshops and freewheeling discussions, featuring experts from across the arts.
Responsive to the needs of young people
More recently, we’ve discussed Asian representation in TV and film, the challenges of international collaboration post-Brexit and the teaching of Black history in school. These discussions have been complemented with practical sessions on how to write a funding application, performing at festivals and being a woman in stand-up comedy in a male-dominated environment.
A full archive can be found on our website. Because the programme is led by young people for young people, we can be responsive to their needs and programme the topics they want to talk and learn about.
The webinars have attracted a wide range of people, some who had previously not been able to access this kind of network and training, whether for financial, access or geographical reasons.
Buoyed by this, we’ve just announced a new series of webinars which will include a session on neurodiversity with Michelle Payne and Tabby Lamb. We’ll be looking at creating in communities, an area of huge interest given ACE’s current direction.
There’s also a skills-based mini-series to coincide with this summer’s FUSE International and, this autumn, a debrief on the state of the arts post-Covid. So You Wanna Work in the Arts has reached many more than I dreamed of and has the potential to reach still more. I hope that in doing so, we’re able to be that lily pad for some of the creative young people out there.
Tom Stocks is Creative Talent Programme Manager at Creative Youth and Programme Manager at FUSE International.
creativeyouthcharity.org
@creativeyouthuk | @Tom_Stocks
You can find out more and register for the next webinar here.
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