WE ARE AN INTERSECTIONAL COMMUNITY OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY, BADASS YOUNG CREATIVE LEADERS.

What community means to us

We are a growing community of 100+ underrepresented young creatives modelling the future of creating, working and thinking for the sector and beyond. We are genuinely led by young creatives and every decision we make is with and for our community. 

We know it’s hard navigating a broken system where you have to fight to carve out space for yourself and a successful creative practice. As underrepresented creatives, we know it can feel lonely. 

We exist as an agency, not to gate-keep but because we know there’s strength in numbers. That's why, together, we do the work of creating and finding meaningful opportunities you might not get on your own and we’re intentional about creating spaces where we can challenge the harmful demands of the wider sector.

We’re a community of young creatives supporting each other to succeed on our own terms. Our agency is different because our model is centred on collective care - not competition. We know, train, advocate for our community and create spaces for us to do the work we’re passionate about. 

To us, community is a verb. It’s the difference between feeling isolated and held, between competition and collaboration, between an industry where everyone’s struggling to survive and where people, regardless of age or intersectionality, can actually thrive. 

group of young people smiling.
two young people in conversation
two young people enjoying themselves in a workshop
A polaroid picture of a stylish young person looking at the camera will her hands up
photo of four people in conversation, holding drinks
three young people at desks laughing
A group of young people in a room sat in chairs listening to a speaker
a photo of the crowd in a lively event setting . People are smiling and all looking in one direction
Whose Future artists stood in front of some of our billboard
three young people smiling in a workshop

Who Is our community?

abstract illustration of shapes stacked on eachother, representing the diversity in our community

27

different creative practices

41

young people recruited onto boards in the Arts and culture sector

100%

of our community are underrepresented in the Arts and Culture sector

145

young people in Bristol receive our weekly paid opportunities newsletter

63

words used by our community to describe their lived experience (f*ck tick boxes)

100%

of our community are under 30

WANT TO BE
A RISING ARTIST?

Photo of an artist working with clay. They are holding a fork in one hand, and moulding the clay with the other.

We support a limited number of creatives at a time and recruit new community members every year. 

To see if it’s the right place for you and register your interest, please fill out a short Typeform to confirm you:

  • Are aged 30 or under

  • Live in Bristol

  • Are of a lived experience that’s currently underrepresented in the creative and cultural sector

  • Have a creative or artistic practice

If you meet those criteria but Typeform doesn’t work for you, you can also email ellayah@rising.org.uk to register your interest.

Resources For young creatives

FAQ

    • Exclusive access to Rising and our partner paid opportunities

    • A weekly newsletter of opportunities curated by Rising

    • Invites to exclusive events – often paid consultancy opportunities

    • Hot desking in our studio at Arnolfini

    • 1:1 support from any member of the Rising team

    • A network of other young creatives to get support from and maybe even collaborate with

  • Unfortunately we don’t accept applications for new community members who are over the age of 30.

    Though we understand that a lot of people come to a creative career later in life, we don’t have the capacity to support everyone. Though we do hope our radical work ultimately makes the sector better for everyone, no matter their age.

    If you are part of the community already we don’t expect you to leave as soon as you turn 30 if you still need our support.

  • Every year we ask everyone in the community if they feel ready to leave and self-select out. If they feel more established in their career and able to find opportunities themselves we ask them to make space for those who need our support more.

    Instead they can choose to become ‘Rising Pollinators’ – continuing to advocate and support our work but receive less of that direct support.

  • Nope! You don’t have to pay us anything, though it’s very true that you get out of Rising what you put in – so if you don’t come to many events or respond to opportunities you won’t make as many connections or get as many paid roles.

  • Apply for opportunities! Or respond to emails from the team offering you work. It’s literally that simple. The more we know about you and your practice, or what you want to do the more we can tailor opportunities to you.

    We try to ensure that opportunities are spread around the community as much as possible, both to help with burnout and in the name of fairness.

    This might mean the team email you something we know you’d be good for but in the end the partner chooses someone else.

    We unfortunately don’t control the partner but we will keep the application process minimal and advocate for you instead of you doing tons of extra work.

  • You can commission an artist, consult with our young creatives, get some recruitment support and tons more all through our agency work.

    Or if you want to support the work we’re doing but don’t have a specific project right now you can become an investor by making a monthly donation that goes directly to putting money in the hands of young creatives.

  • You don’t even want to see the state of some of our teams inboxes honestly – so if you missed the application deadline this time, you can register your interest in joining the community here and be the first to know when we reopen applications.

    We don’t offer work experience and all our open job roles will be posted on our blog and through our newsletter.