Creative Engagement
Serious is committed to ensuring that music is accessible for all.
From festivals and large-scale pioneering projects to workshops and free events, our national programme engages with a diverse range of artists, participants and audiences.
For over 20 years, our Creative Engagement programme has understood music’s unique role as a cultural and social catalyst, and strives to break barriers for those wanting to access high-quality music. By working in partnership with main stage artists, arts organisations, renowned venues, youth and community providers and schools, we are able to deliver bespoke projects which provide exciting engagement opportunities and which tackle social injustice.
For further information about our work and how you can continue to support us please see below or contact Alex Green at [email protected] or Milly Price at [email protected]
Our Projects
Children & Young People
Serious feel passionately that all people should be able to engage in creativity and culture, disregarding circumstance, and beyond that, that creativity and culture should be shaped by children and young people, who form the next generation of creative practitioners and decision makers. Serious recognise the need for children and young people to engage in culture, and understand the unique role creativity plays in shaping socially conscious and active individuals. We advocate for the creative and cultural development of children and young people across the country in order to sustain a thriving sector and society.
Our Children & Young People's Programme has included:
Specialist Settings
Serious feel passionately that all people should be able to engage in creativity and culture, disregarding circumstance, and beyond that, that creativity and culture can be used as a method through which people in challenging circumstances can develop, evolve and reach their potential. By working in specialist settings, we aim to access people considered most at-risk, most isolated, or most hard-to-reach, bringing our music and culture to the widest possible audiences in all kinds of places and spaces.
In the past our Specialist Settings Programme has included:
People & Communities
Serious feel passionately that all people should be able to engage in creativity and culture, disregarding circumstance, and beyond that, that creativity and culture should be shaped by communities and the people within them. For those living away from cultural hubs, such as cities and areas with a rich artistic history, engaging in creative and cultural practice can often feel inaccessible or unaffordable, and that which does exist may be irrelevant or non-reflective of their lives, circumstances, needs or interests.
Our People & Communities Programme has included:
- Mass Participation Projects
- Workshops
- Thamesmead Festival
- Barking & Dagenham
Support Our Work & Get Involved
Milestones
Are you 18-23 year-old and looking to build a career in the live music industry? Apply for Milestones now!
Donate
Donate to the Serious Trust and allow us to continue making music that matters, your contribution would be greatly appreciated.
Serious Trust
Our Creative Engagement work is supported by the Serious Trust, who are committed to championing our mission to make music accessible for all.
Yes - we are best known for producing the EFG London Jazz Festival, and yes - our office is based in London. But in fact our work spreads far beyond the capital into every city, town and village of the UK. Yes - even as far as my teeny tiny home town of Glossop, Derbyshire.
Milly Price - Head of Creative Engagement
But seriously, Serious' programme of Creative Engagement, Talent Development, Touring and Digital work exists to identify thriving areas where we can harness regional creative energies, and to pin-point cold-spots where we can bring culture to those most isolated.
Serious believe that the creative and cultural activities we produce should not just be for the people of the UK, but with them. We use our portfolio of national projects to reach people, establishing relationships with landmark venues, grassroots community hubs, and all those in between.
Our vision at Serious is that all people can engage with music in a way which benefits them, represents them, and matters to them, and this begins with an understanding of people's creative and cultural needs, an active national presence and a relevant programme which is constantly evolving.
