The Arts Emergency we all face

11/04/2023 www.arts-emergency.orgSo Far…

11/04/2023 www.arts-emergency.org

A group of UK citizens are facing mounting pressure to disengage from the study of the human condition and this surely cannot be a good thing!


‘WE’RE MAKING HISTORY – BUT I WON’T BE ABLE

TO STUDY IT!’

Placard, December 2010.

‘When you’re the first kid to go to university or you’re hoping to be, there is a lot of work to be done, because you don’t know if you can do it’

Zadie Smith


‘The pressure of university tuition fees and an escalating premium on top jobs mean that our students will tempted to play safe. It is likely that they will opt for apparently “useful” or more work-related degrees. As our students are often from families with no history of higher education, there is no countervailing pressure at home.’

Ken Warman, Principal of BSix College


‘We are returning to the eighteenth or nineteenth century notion that studying art, literature, philosophy or music are the preserve only of the rich’

Jeremy Corbyn MP


Campaign development


The board…


Co-Founder and spokesperson, Josie Long

Josie is an award winning comedian, actor and writer.


Co-Founder and Director Neil Griffiths

Neil is a campaigner and fundraiser.


Professor Martin McQuillanMartin is Dean of Arts and Social

Sciences, Kingston University.


Dr Shahidha BariShahidha is a lecturer at QMU,

one of ten BBC ‘New Generation Thinkers’


Jonathan WakehamJonathan is a screenwriter and co-

founder of the London Comedy Film Festival


Mary O’HaraMary is a current affairs writer and

Alistair Cooke Fulbright Scholar 2009/2010



Arts Emergency’s founding vision:

Arts Emergency’s vision

‘University had the most profound effect on my life, my ambitions and my abilities. I want others to experience this.’

Arts Emergency co-founder Josie Long



‘We are starters and doers and makers and activists: people who make something new every day. What we do makes every life worth living. And nothing's worth fighting for more than that.’

Arts Emergency trustee Jonathan Wakeham



We believe an arts degree is NOT a luxury and the decision to study must be based on talent and passion rather than a financial trade-off between debt and future earnings.


What Arts Emergency does – outcomes:

• We encourage students to study the arts and humanities• We defend these subjects as useful and important• We support those who are most able to benefit from, but

least able to pay for, higher education• We tackle aspirational and practical barriers• We make connections and foster learning/sharing• We help students to enter and succeed in HE• We give students the tools to flourish• We celebrate the social, innovative, critical and creative• We unite the arts across academia, media, industry and

audience


What I see in this project…

• Committed• Passionate• Punch above our weight• Driven• Reputation• High-profile support• Exciting


Arts Emergency’s mission…

At a pivotal moment for the future of arts and humanities education in the UK we will ensure that the doors of the university are kept open for those who are most able to benefit from, but least able to pay for, higher education. We will enable these students to realise their potential, benefiting not just them, but enriching our wider cultural life through their unique future contribution.


…and areas of work:

• AE Alumni• Mentoring• Celebrating• Defending



Hand-out:


Twitter:


Word of mouth:


Press:

Actions not words!

• Offering practical, inspirational support to the next generation of creators, thinkers and doers

• Promoting arts subjects as a viable path for anyone, from any background

• Accessing people’s potential, enriching lives

• Defending arts subjects as vital to humanity, democracy and society


Role models…

Mentoring and alumni launch


Mentoring and alumni launch


From mentoring projects to album launches, we will change the lives of thousands of current and future students.

Actions not words!

• Offering practical, inspirational support to the next generation of creators, thinkers and doers

• Marketing arts subjects as a viable path for anyone, from any background

• Accessing potential, enriching lives• Defending arts subjects as vital to

humanity, democracy and society


Words in action!

Collectively we must throw a sharp, celebratory light on the arts and humanities – ensuring a public argument is mounted to maintain that our subjects should remain a viable path for anyone, from any background, following any dream, pursuing any critical position, any flight of seriously playful fancy.


A real emergency.

• 16% decline in applications for creative arts;

• 11% decline mature students;• 11% in European languages; • 21% in non-European langauges; • 16% in combined arts; and • 14% in mass communications including

librarianship, publishing, journalism & media studies.


A real emergency.

The fall in student numbers at a university may make courses unviable, but it also makes it unavailable to the (reduced number of) students who continue to want to take it. The fact that the government is aware of this is shown by the fact that it has put in protections for STEM subjects.


A real emergency.

...and look at 2012 already!!


It is our duty to drive all young people to see the point in the arts and humanities despite the ludicrous price-tag...


This shouldn’t be too hard. The average seventeen-year-old is far more imaginative than policy-makers in understanding the broad scope of education!


Education

The Arts Emergency we all face