Visual arts organisations welcome social mobility foundation summer interns

23 June 2010

We are pleased to announce that VAGA members The Hepworth, Wakefield, the newly relaunched macarts in Birmingham and Axis in Leeds will be hosting aspiring university entrants through the Social Mobility Foundation this summer.

The Social Mobility Foundation's core objective is to provide a range of support for bright, less privileged A Level students to enable them to realise their potential, by progressing to good universities and into top professions and businesses.

Visual arts organisations offer a wide range of creative, business and education related careers and transferable skills, they have a significant economic role and have robustly continued to engage audiences throughout the recession.

However, to quote from The Visual Arts Blueprint, published by Creative and Cultural Skills in 2009, the "workforce [...] lacks diversity, and there is a particular need to find and develop the leaders of the future from all parts of the community."

As unemployment amongst young people continues to rise recent research from YouGov Plc commissioned by Creativity, Culture & Education (CCE), comes to the fairly damning conclusion that children from more affluent families still use personal connections to make the all-too-important first step onto the creative and cultural industries career ladder.

The Hepworth Wakefield is a major new art gallery for Yorkshire opening in Spring 2011. It will house a collection of sculpture by Barbara Hepworth and host a programme of international contemporary art and historical exhibitions. This year's intern is working on the summer events and engagement programme.

Macarts is an arts centre providing visual art, new media and performance facilities as well as artists studios. In the first six weeks since re-opening on the 1st May macarts has had over 120,000 visitors. macarts is hosting three students.

Axis is an online resource for contemporary art - featuring over 2500 profiles of professional artists and curators, interviews, discussions, art news, debates and showcases the artists to watch.

This the first year these opportunities have been open to the Social Mobility Foundation's cohort of students and we look forward to being able to secure a wider range of placements in 2011. VAGA is also working with colleagues from across the visual arts sector on implementation of the Visual Arts Blueprint's recommendations to improve workforce diversity.