When Rising met Livity and Arts Emergency

On Monday 5th November 2018, the Rising team went to London to meet Arts Emergency and Livity – two organisations who we think are doing big things with arts and young people. We went with the aim of learning more about them and the hope that we would also be able to share some of our insights and lessons too.

At Rising, we’re committed to pushing boundaries and striving to be the very best we can be for the people we work with. We have been impressed with the work of Livity and Arts Emergency for some time, so we reached out to meet with them. As well as being a great excuse to get out of Bristol, it was also a fantastic opportunity to learn about the ways that organisations in the capital are approaching including young people in conversations around arts and culture and share what we have learnt from our work with young people in the arts.

For those who don’t know, Arts Emergency and Livity are two very different organisations with a common thread. They both work with arts and they both strive to centre the work and lives of young people in the work that they do. Despite one taking a more commercial approach and the other being a grassroots organisation, they were both very generous in sharing their ways of working and the lessons they have learnt over the course of their journeys.

Livity is a youth-led creative network. They believe that young people today can change the world, and they exist to help them do that. They collaborate with young people every day, share their space with them and make their voices heard, using youth culture as an agent for change. They are not afraid of the concept of profit as they run – and actively model – a highly successful business, working with serious clients looking to effectively reach young people. They use the income generated to feed directly back into their social impact work, supporting more young talent and challenging the status quo.

Arts Emergencyon the other hand, looks to change the lives of thousands of current and future students aged 16+, ensuring the doors of universities are kept open for those most able to benefit from, but least able to pay for education. They offer mentoring as a route to creating a positive impact on a young person’s life, linking students with a mentor for a year. These young people are helped to explore their options in Higher Education and the creative and professional worlds, and encouraged to pursue their current personal goals. Working from local roots, the organisation is now taking its highly successful mentoring model around the country with a new hub in Manchester, another about to launch in Margate, and plans for more bases to pop up around the country in 2020 with Bristol as a possible venue.

Meeting Livity

We arrived at the trendy Piano House in the heart of Brixton around midday and were welcomed into their airy offices by Gillian, the Engagement Lead at Livity. We were instantly amazed to see their office space and the size of their team. The office was full of young people working studiously – either in groups or alone, with dedicated staff working alongside them. Their offices were big, bright and full of cool art-work. It was exactly what you’d imagine Livity HQ would look like – so inviting and colourful with a modern edge. Gillian took us, along with her colleague Tom – who was part of the marketing department, to a quiet corner of the space to share the Livity story.

Livity started out from humble beginnings as Live Magazine eighteen years ago and has gradually morphed into a dynamic and forward-thinking creative agency for young creatives. They spoke about how they only do work that benefits the lives of young people, and about the importance of being and modelling a successful business in raising the aspirations and skills of the young people they work with. We spoke agency fees, pitching, balancing budgets with values, campaigning through their Undivided initiative and what they do to stay authentic. It was a lot and we devoured their information with an eager enthusiasm. Their work was exciting, provocative and a perfect exemplar of the ways that young people’s ideas can make money.

Meeting Arts Emergency

We got to the Arts Emergency HQ around 3pm. We made our way up the stairs to their cosy, homely office to be greeted by Neil, Korantema, Sarah and Lucy. We’ve been big fans of the work and messaging that comes from Arts Emergency for some time and were interested to hear more about their sponsorship models, individual giving and their marketing strategy – which we later learned was solely done through Twitter. Arts Emergency is interesting because it does the majority of its work through schools and is aimed at young people aged 16, but offers them support through to the age of 25.  Their mission is simple; to level out the playing field and access routes into arts and culture. They give these young people connections to a network of creatives, arts professionals and work experience. It’s a powerful movement that is probably best demonstrated by the number of people who donate their time and money to Arts Emergency’s cause.

It was great to see the similarities between Rising and Arts Emergency – we’re both comprised of small teams but are nevertheless making big change in the lives of young people and using art as a vehicle to do that. As with Livity, it was great that we could share ways of working and best practice.

As the day drew to a close, we left London feeling giddy and inspired. We were overwhelmed with the generosity of Livity and Arts Emergency and their willingness to share approaches. There were lots of things that we could take from these two amazing organisations to put into our own practice and we hope that they could also take some things from us in exchange. Although there was so much that we gained from our visit to London, the key things were that it reminded us of the essence of the work that we do at Rising and why we do it. We were reminded of the importance of sharing and why sometimes it good to think out of the city and out of the box.

Thank you again to Arts Emergency and Livity for having us. We hope that one day, we can return the favour.

Euella, Kamina and Eli x