“In order to increase diversity and representation within the arts, and to continue to grow the creative industries it’s vital that young people understand the range of roles available and experience meaningful interactions with arts professionals.”
For Creative Careers Week 2023 Wandsworth’s Arts and Culture service delivered two events in partnership with local arts organisations and freelancers. The first, held at Battersea Arts Centre focused on off-stage job roles and featured a creative careers fair showcasing different roles within this sector from Wandsworth based organisations and freelancers, alongside a schedule of careers talks and Q&As.
The second event was a panel talk, held at the Royal Academy of Dance, focussed on careers in dance in partnership with Wandsworth’s rich dance sector. The talk brought together a variety of dance organisations and freelancers representing a range of styles and roles.
As well as this, the Royal Academy of Art, another renowned Wandsworth-based cultural organisation, held their own Creative Careers Open Day during the week which the service promoted alongside its other activities. During the week, we also promoted through our communications channels our series of short films that profile people working in creative careers in Wandsworth. The films explore the the creatives’ roles, how they got there and what skills are needed to succeed.
Partnership working
Wandsworth Council Arts and Culture Service worked with several local creative industry employers and freelancers including White Light Ltd, Battersea Arts Centre, London Children’s Ballet, World Heart Beat and many more to ensure representation across the borough and sectors, and to represent a wide range of roles.
Our outreach to organisations to take part in the events started with the members of our Cultural Education Partnership, Creative Wandsworth, and then expanded to include other employers, and internal council services, such as the recruitment and work experience service as well as the activities delivered by our own service, such as Wandsworth Arts Fringe.
Overview
Activities took place across a day and included a Creative Careers Fair where young people could connect with local employers and hear more about their work and the types of careers involved – they focused on off-stage roles, and covered areas such as marketing, production, technical, costume and design. They also ran a Talks and Q&A programme where speakers demystified the different roles within the creative professions. The day was split across two sessions, one during school hours where schools could book a one-hour attendance slot and one for youth groups and individuals afterschool between 3.30-5pm.
The second activity took place on Saturday at Royal Academy of dance and brought together a variety of dance organisations and freelancers to discuss different careers in dance, from teaching, to choreography, participatory work and producing. This 90-minute talk and Q&A session took place after an open day at the RAD and was open to any young people who lived or attended school in Wandsworth aged 14 – 19.
Number of young people reached:
Over the two events approximately 70 young people were reached.
Advice for similar companies/organisations:
Local authorities are in a unique position to coordinate a range of local creative organisations and freelancers to showcase the range of careers taking place on a young person’s doorstep. This can build on pre-existing partnerships with these organisations, and we were able to use funding to enable freelancers to give their time to the project, as well as covering venue hire and marketing costs.
As a result, the events were able to offer young people an experience of a diverse range of roles and sectors within the creative industries, meaning a teacher could bring a group with different interests and they would all take something away with them.
In 2023, we focused on bringing young people outside of the school setting and into our Borough’s world-renowned cultural organisations. However, we found that it was challenging for teachers to book and commit to trips outside of the school setting, and whilst there is a huge benefits in bringing young people into arts organisations, potentially for the first time, this limited our reach. In 2024 we will trail bringing speakers from creative industries into schools in order to increase the number of young people able to participate.
Can you tell us why you believe it’s important for industry to get directly involved in inspiring and informing young people about careers in the creative industries through projects like Discover?
From 2020 to 2022, the Creative Industries sector’s GVA grew by over 19% and 175,000 new jobs were created. However, many young people experience barriers to accessing the industry. In London, the odds of working in the Creative Industries as white and privileged person are one in five – double the chance of those from ethnic minority, working-class backgrounds also living in the Capital.
In order to increase diversity and representation within the arts, and to continue to grow the creative industries it’s vital that young people understand the range of roles available and experience meaningful interactions with arts professionals. Creative careers week is a great opportunity to show young people a host of careers options they may have never considered before, inspiring the next generation of the creative workforce.