Arts Emergency ‘Breakthrough’ Campaign

From today, October 13^th, you will see that we are supporting Arts Emergency’s new ‘Breakthrough’ campaign across our social media. Arts Emergency is a charity and Network made up of thousands of people from across the cultural and creative industries whose aim is to help open the doors to the next generation by donating money, time and contacts to help them get in, and get on.

The past 18 months of pandemic and now the government’s planned cuts to arts education will impact not just marginalised young people but have a spiralling effect on the creative industries as a whole. So, we’ve partnered with Arts Emergency to democratise access to the cultural and creative industries and showcase the huge amount of people in the industries – from film and TV, to music and gaming, museums and humanities, architecture and more – who want to level the playing field for all.

We are encouraging all of our staff and partners to sign up to the Network here, where they can donate their time or money to help ensure the future careers of a new generation of talent and make our culture all the stronger for it.

No matter where you are in your career, someone at some stage gave you a leg up (whether it was your first boss, a friend who put a good word in for you, or even a book someone loaned you). Everyone can help make change and together we hope to spread this message of support far and wide. Please join the conversation on social by sharing your story with #mybreakthrough.

Arts Emergency have uncovered a number of statistics that paint a grim picture of the very real emergency currently facing the arts:

Only 16% of people working in the creative industries are from working class backgrounds.
91% of people working in the design industry are white.
Only 12% of people in the performing arts are from working class backgrounds.
Only 5% of those working in publishing are people of colour.
Only 4.5% of those working off-screen in the TV industry identify as disabled.

Two of our staff currently mentor with Arts Emergency and three more have recently signed up for training. We also currently offer work experience through Arts Emergency’s programme.

“Supporting this Arts Emergency initiative is a no brainer for us. Through our involvement in mentoring and work experience programmes we have been fortunate to see first-hand how the support and networking that Arts Emergency facilitate for young people can be a spring board into a career in the arts.”

Clare Bond, Architect and Diversity Champion at SWA