Winning over Arts and Minds

With over 100 submissions to our call for evidence and interviews with experts from the arts, education and youth sectors, speaking at an Arts and Minds campaign event we asked Roundhouse's Tina Ramdeen what she hopes to see from the Young Creatives Commission and what contribution the creative industries can make.

Arts and Minds is a coalition of national organisations - led by the National Education Union – who have come together from across the arts and education sectors. The Young Creatives Commission is a year-round inquiry run by the Centre for Young Lives in partnership with the Roundhouse.

What is the Young Creatives Commission aiming to achieve?

The Commission is looking at how young people experience the arts and access opportunities for regular activities and participation, and ways in which we can open career pathways in the creative industries for greater inclusivity and diversity.

As we move towards place-based approaches and greater devolution of services and funding, we need to better understand how we value, cherish and invest in the arts for young people.

This work is in part a response to the government’s National Youth Strategy, for equity and access to close the gap between richer and poorer families for young people to take part in extra-curricular and out of school activities – often described as enrichment activities and youth work. It also builds on the Creative Industries Sector Plan for skills and future jobs and UK economic growth through the arts.

We want to hear from the creative industries and sector leaders in arts, education and youth services. Most of all we will listen to the views and experiences of young people, to see the world through their eyes so that in challenging times the arts can play a vital role to unite the country – a sense of pride in place and belonging in society – as an intrinsic part of young people’s lives, and the heartbeat of our creative industries.

What does this look like on the ground?

Our starting point for the Commission is to explore what young people understand, want and expect from the arts. This goes beyond specific arts disciplines or curricula that typically flow through the education system, for a more fluid interpretation that embraces arts, culture and fashion across music, art, drama, dance, and design.

Art is seen as a form of expression and cultural and generational identity, whether by community or faith, as well as a skills-set for performance and production. Yet all too often young people don’t feel they belong, and they can be faced by unfamiliar and unwelcoming experiences in formal education, arts institutions and jobs in the creative industries. Limited access means less awareness and experience of many art forms.

For young people to better understand and access opportunities, the arts and creative industries needs to better articulate is on offer. Industry silos are more pronounced than, say, in sport.  Many young people and parents perceive careers in the arts as risky, inaccessible and non-viable options, without the support structures or social and professional networks or finances to advance a career. 

We recognise that school is where most young people will have their first experience or exposure to different art forms. Schools are a key entry point, but they are constrained by time, resources and accountability pressures. There is a great deal of work and thought by the Arts and Minds campaign and others on the school curriculum, enrichment and careers. We will include this in our review aiming to amplify and not duplicate others’ work.

Therefore our principal focus is on 80% of a young person’s waking hours spent outside the school day each year, and in their transition from education into employment. The extent to which young people engage in the arts as part of a local youth offer, on a par with sport, with opportunities to try new things, socialise and have fun, and how those skills by experience count towards  careers in the arts and creative industries.

At the same time to look at how young people’s creative skills and experiences in a DIY culture aided by technology are recognised by the creative industries can help open doors to jobs and future careers.

What role can Government play, and how can it do better?

The priorities of the Department for Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are closely linked in practice, but too often operate in parallel. There is a risk that delivery remains fragmented. With alignment, there is a real opportunity to connect education, enrichment and pathways into careers more effectively. Overall, the issue is not a lack of activity, but a lack of coherence. 

The policy and funding gap is at the intersection between education, arts and youth sectors, and investment in grassroots arts provision for young people, supported by career opportunities and choices in the arts and creative industries. Evidence from the Commission is that young people consistently report that opportunities are uneven, not visible, or do not feel relevant to them, and that access is shaped by cost, geography and a sense of belonging. We hear all too often the arts are ‘not for me’.

This has ramifications of an increasingly divided society, when young people feel disconnected and disengage from mainstream politics, isolated in their communities or lost in the digital world.  Aware too that whether as consumers, participants or performers in the arts, while wary of AI eroding later career opportunities, young people’s access is increasingly aided by digital resources.

What is needed is a more joined-up local system, with stronger coordination, and sustained relationships. Replacing disparate programmes and project-led funding with earlier and more sustained exposure to creative opportunities and careers will help deliver clearer pathways from participation through to career progression.

Reinvigorated community and arts organisations can provide the flexibility, relationships and continuity that are needed to increased participation and sustain engagement over time. Stronger and more consistent partnerships between schools, youth organisations and the arts and creative industries will support better local coordination and sustained investment in infrastructure and the communities we serve.

What next from the Young Creatives Commission?

Our aim is to articulate what more can be done to promote and increase the visibility of the arts; and to be truly reflective of young lives, seen as part of the everyday for young people and woven into the fabric of our communities, and creative enterprise in our economy.

The Commission will publish our emerging findings as an interim report in the summer on the state of the arts and creative opportunities for young people, and identify the barriers for equitable access to the arts by young people. We will undertake deep dives to explore ways of working which promote learning through the arts, the digital experience and creative partnerships. Our final report will be published with recommendations at the end of the year.