Masters artist Steve Burden has been running arts engagement workshops at secondary schools (ideally working with students from lower socio-economic backgrounds).
“Of late I have been providing Arts engagement workshops for a number of secondary schools in the UK, ideally working with students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. I share my insights and pertinent working-class lived experiences (I grew up on a high rise council estate in Deptford), present the pros (and cons) of what it means to be an artist, and hopefully illustrate that Art does not have to be exclusive or dependent on background and class. I want all of these disadvantaged students to become artists. We need them all to become artists.60% of the country identifies as working-class, yet only 18% of those working in the visual arts are from a working-class background (Arts Council England report 2020). This is huge underrepresentation and needs to be addressed at secondary school, with students encouraged to pursue the arts. At higher education, the figures are even starker with the overwhelming majority of Fine art graduates hailing from a middle-class background. Statistically I should not have gone to university with only 2% of white working class boys attending higher tariff institutions. With the exception of Roma and Traveller children white working class boys perform the worst of any group in British schools. It’s taboo to talk about this. It’s double discrimination: underrepresented in university and then ignored. I want to make work that directly confronts these taboos and exhibit it.” – Steve Burden
