Making the arts
accessible for all
Celebrating the arts and their importance to supporting the health & well-being of young people.
Making the arts
The future of your business depends on how well you understand young people.
Arts education and participation amongst young children has been slowly declining over the past decade. Sky Arts’ Access All Arts set out to change this. After the age of six, creative confidence begins to wither. Young people fear getting art ‘wrong’ and disengage, believing ‘it’s not for me’. But the arts help children communicate about how they experience the world.
Sky Arts recognised that art in all its various forms is an essential arm to every young person’s education. Whether accessed through music, acting, poetry, writing or dance, they are expanding their minds and horizons, tapping into their emotions, and experiencing what the world has to offer beyond their own four walls.
Working together with Sky we are changing art provision for children for the benefit of all communities, helping grant everyone equal access to the arts.
Creating a movement that inspires the youngest generation to be art enthusiasts. Leaving a lasting legacy for young people with the programme positively changing perceptions of Sky.
A win-win approach delivering both brand and social impact.
We don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it
Launched in June 2022, Access All Arts is a programme that set out to re-ignite arts participation in primary classrooms, celebrating the arts with world-renowned artists organisations and experts, creating a movement that inspires teachers to embrace the arts in the classroom and the youngest generation to be art enthusiasts, leaving a lasting legacy.
A nationwide arts week for primary schools took place for the first time, promoting an essential behavioural shift to allow time-poor teachers to give arts the opportunity to shine brightly in their classrooms at a crucial time both for this fragile age-group and the future of the arts landscape as a whole.
The programme
Access All Arts aims to bring out the artist in every child. Creating free and impactful resources across a spectrum of different art forms lets pupils find a place for themselves; a creative outlet where they are given permission to play and develop their self-confidence and self-discipline. This meant creating over 50 hours of teaching resources including 45 videos – an extensive library for teachers to explore and unlock bespoke arts experience.
The resources were created and designed with detailed input from educators, artists and organisations. Ten different packs were created under five modules, each curated carefully with a deep knowledge and subject-specific expertise from key partners.
Representation and relevance to young people
To add authenticity, we made a series of films with 14 artists covering each discipline. This included Benjamin Zephaniah, MC Grammar, Onjali Q Rauf OBE, Liz Pichon & YolanDa Brown OBE who provided insight into their craft and set fun challenges for pupils.
It was imperative that the talent represented a diverse range of thinking, passion, ability and background to allow all children to feel represented in the resources and see their potential through the eyes of a real-life artist.
Reaching young people most in need in deprived areas
During the week itself, the programme undertook an in-school activation mission to deliver arts experiences to the hardest-to-reach schools and children.
Extensive data put the spotlight on Leeds, where 33% of children under 16 are from low income families and 47.8% of primary schools have above average pupils on Free School Meals. The proximity to Sky’s Leeds HQ also enabled Sky employees to visit schools and help with activities.
Creating inspiring content
We scripted and edited over 20 dynamic videos featuring a range of talent from authors to dancers and opera singers. Click below to play the MC Grammar video for the WORDS module:
Impact
Sky Arts have been working with We Are Futures since 2020 to support on delivering our flagship primary arts initiative which delivers " both a brand and social impact . They are integral partners with our launch of Sky Access All Arts in June 2022, an important programme for us which gives every primary age child in the UK and Ireland the opportunity to experience the arts at a vital time. Sky AAA has delivered for us as a brand, and positively impacted the perception of Sky Arts which is vital to our continued success. The programme has a reach of over 1.2million children so far and we are now working with We Are Futures on our second year of the programme to make it even bigger and better”.
Vanessa Woodard, Head of Partnerships, Sky Arts February 2023
“Thank you for allowing our children to have this opportunity. It was so lovely to see our children working alongside professional musicians. I don't think any of our children would have ever heard live opera being sung before so it was a new experience for everyone. The staff were all really impressed and commented how much they had enjoyed the day. Thank you!”
Teacher
"I just wanted to say a massive thank you for the amazing Sky Arts Week! The lessons and resources were fantastic and just having an arts week inspired Nursery to Year 6 to create amazing cross- curricular arts related work that either followed your lessons or was the inspiration for something else arts related. It was a super week – super busy but super creative and all the teachers and children at Sutton Valence Prep School loved every minute of it!"
Teacher
“The workshop was amazing. Emma was a great facilitator, amazing with the children and full of enthusiasm. The workshop was well planned and structured and had our children engrossed from the start. It was great to see some children shine in a way we’ve not seen before.”
Teacher
View other case studies
Arts education and participation amongst young children has been slowly declining over the past decade. Sky Arts’ Access All Arts set out to change this. After the age of six, creative confidence begins to wither. Young people fear getting art ‘wrong’ and disengage, believing ‘it’s not for me’. But the arts help children communicate about how they experience the world.
Sky Arts recognised that art in all its various forms is an essential arm to every young person’s education. Whether accessed through music, acting, poetry, writing or dance, they are expanding their minds and horizons, tapping into their emotions, and experiencing what the world has to offer beyond their own four walls.
Working together with Sky we are changing art provision for children for the benefit of all communities, helping grant everyone equal access to the arts.
Creating a movement that inspires the youngest generation to be art enthusiasts. Leaving a lasting legacy for young people with the programme positively changing perceptions of Sky.
A win-win approach delivering both brand and social impact.
The programme
Access All Arts aims to bring out the artist in every child. Creating free and impactful resources across a spectrum of different art forms lets pupils find a place for themselves; a creative outlet where they are given permission to play and develop their self-confidence and self-discipline. This meant creating over 50 hours of teaching resources including 45 videos – an extensive library for teachers to explore and unlock bespoke arts experience.
The resources were created and designed with detailed input from educators, artists and organisations. Ten different packs were created under five modules, each curated carefully with a deep knowledge and subject-specific expertise from key partners.
Representation and relevance to young people
To add authenticity, we made a series of films with 14 artists covering each discipline. This included Benjamin Zephaniah, MC Grammar, Onjali Q Rauf OBE, Liz Pichon & YolanDa Brown OBE who provided insight into their craft and set fun challenges for pupils.
It was imperative that the talent represented a diverse range of thinking, passion, ability and background to allow all children to feel represented in the resources and see their potential through the eyes of a real-life artist.
Impact
1.2 million Young people reached
> 6,500 Teachers registered to take part
78% stated the programme has positively impacted their perception of Sky Arts
97% said the campaign effectively increased engagement with the arts