WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT
We truly live our values at every stage of our work. Using our core tenants of:
Care – in being people centered, moving at the pace of trust and focusing on relationships
Reflection – so we can be honest with where we fail, learn to adapt as we go and be thoughtful in everything we do
Lived experience – that everyone is an expert in their own lived experience and has something valuable to contribute
We have grown a radical young creative agency making real social change which is led by our community of creatives and supported by our partners and funders.
WHY CHANGE IS NEEDED
The cultural sector and creative industries aren’t working. They are:
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52% of the creative industries workforce were from high socio-economic backgrounds (PEC 2021)
Only 13% of the cultural sector workforce are people of colour POC vs 18% of the population (ACE 2019-2020)
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38% of creatives in the UK said they experienced burnout at least once in the last year (WeTransfer Ideas Report 2022)
87% of artists have worked for free in some way (Panic! 2015)
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Artists are being paid as little as £2.60 an hour (Industria 2023)
The government imposed a 50% funding cut to Arts Education despite the sector growing five times faster than the UK economy (Campaign for the Arts 2020)
THE DIFFERENce WE MAKE
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These underrepresented young creatives lead the direction of our work whilst finding a network of support and collaboration with other creatives to build healthy viable careers.
"When I first moved here I kept hearing ‘Bristol is such a creative city’ but couldn't figure out how to actually access it – Rising was the place that helped me do that"
– Community Member
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Who learn how to work more radically, embed young people in decision making and build new relationships.
“It’s really opened my eyes to how a place can make you feel. If we really truly want to understand how our spaces make children and young people feel we need to see it through their eyes. It’s encouraged me to think about the bigger picture”
– Partner from The National Trust
Find out more about the different ways you can partner with us.
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Who support our radical practice to grow and in turn are impacted to change how these systems work too.
“One of the things that stood out to me from the very first meeting was this culture of care and empathy and responsibility towards each other.”
– Funder from The Centre for Cultural Value
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Modelling new ways of leadership and supporting the rest of the sector to do the same through BE IT, OnBoard and other programmes is creating a swell of change in representation at leadership and governance levels.
“In times of crisis it’s easy to think age equals experience, but I don’t think experience is necessarily tied to age. I can see that having young people’s perspectives is really crucial”
– OnBoard Organisation
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We are increasingly sharing our unique ways of working with the business sector who want to live their values from top to bottom.
Recently becoming one of the first full members of WECA’s Good Employment Charter we are recognised as a leader in the region and have just launched our Caring Work Cultures Training that will have impact beyond the cultural sector
OUR IMPACT
OUR SUPPORTERS
BE PART OF THE CHANGE
We are:
Genuinely enabling young people (aged 18-30) to be leaders in our agency and in our sector
Taking a deeply intersectional approach to inclusion - centred on collective care and equity
Fighting for fair pay for artists and creatives, and not stopping until this is industry standard
Making it possible for everyone to have a healthy creative career
For young people to have agency in the decisions that affect their futures where equity is a right and not a privilege
This is the work.
Fund us, work with us, sponsor us and be part of for our radical transformative work.
I want to donate
Donations are crucial to our work.
They enable us to remain independent and radical. Every penny you give goes directly into the hands of young people.
If you believe in our work, or if you want to pay forward any support you’ve had, we would love for you to join us in whatever way you can.
Give just £5 a month to join our movement.
This is the Work. be part of it.
