Top creative agency FCB inferno (you’ve seen their work on This Girl Can and the Premier League’s No Room for Racism) have generously developed a campaign pro bono for us, to help us grow and support more young people across the UK.
The goal is to grow our Network, a community of people working across the arts, humanities and media, who’ve signed up to share advice, free tickets, entry level roles, feedback and work experience with young people who don’t have industry connections.
From today you’ll see people across the creative sector sharing their breakthrough stories - highlighting the importance of access and connections for getting into cultural work. No matter where you are in your career, someone at some stage gave you a leg up. So if you’d like to get involved share a post about your first break using the hashtag #MyBreakthrough and encourage your friends to sign up to our Network, mentor or donate.
If your breakthrough came via family, an alumni network, or you had the support to undertake an unpaid internship we still want to hear about it. We need to have honest conversations about access if we're going to work together to build a fairer future!
Our society doesn't distribute opportunities as evenly as it distributes talent.
You may also see our ‘break glass in case of emergency’ boxes on their journey from the Museum of London to the World Museum in Liverpool. These eye-catching frames feature artwork by some of our incredibly talented young people or statistics on the dire state of access and inclusion in the arts and humanities.
Jannell Adufo, Sam Oddie, Gwent Odai, Maïs Bouteldja, and Helen Hale were selected from a top notch range of submissions - to see more of the work that our Young Talent put forward, follow our instagram for the next few weeks to see their art and hear their stories.
Read more about the young artists featured in their campaign and see their work here.
Just 16% of people in the creative industries are from a working-class background (Creative Industries PEC)
Organisations lending their support for the campaign include the British Film Institute (BFI), University of the Arts London, Pan MacMillan publishers, the Eden Project, Framestore VFX Studio, Get Up, Stand Up - The Bob Marley Musical, photographer Rankin, Whitworth Gallery Manchester, Avalon and The Agency, FACT Liverpool, Director Ian Pons Jewell, National Museums Liverpool, Boy Blue Entertainment, Vertigo Releasing, and ATC Management and ATC Live.
Each organisation is encouraging their audiences and staff to donate and volunteer with us. They’ll also internally share our action sheet, developed with our Youth Collective, to take practical steps towards being more inclusive and accountable as an organisation. Because it’s not just about getting people through the door; just as crucial is creating an environment that is genuinely fair and welcoming for everyone.
Practical steps already taken by the companies include four paid traineeships with ‘Get Up Stand Up’ producer Playful Productions, industry intro workshops for artists and behind-the-scenes roles from ATC Management and ATC Live, and three paid summer internships with FCB Inferno. We will continue to push for meaningful actions from all the organisations supporting this campaign and beyond to find life-changing opportunities for the young people we support.