Meet Arts Emergency

written by

Bethan Goddard

At Zealous, we love using our initiatives to support charities that echo the same messages that we do.

When it came to Zealous Amplify: Future, we realised that there were to many charities that really resonated with us. So after lots of research and voting, we finally decided up Arts Emergency.

Arts Emergency is an award-winning mentoring charity and support network who work long-term with under-resourced young people in London, Greater Manchester and Merseyside. It is a social justice charity founded by comedian Josie Long and activist Neil Griffiths. Since 2013, it has supported under-represented young people without connections follow their passions and navigate their way into the creative and cultural sector by providing a combined long-term programme of mentorship, networking and real-world opportunities.

“We believe passionately that those with the most potential are often the least able to pay for education, the least able to pull favours or access helpful networks, to work for free, or find shortcuts into paid creative and cultural work.”

Josie Long, Co-Founder

Arts Emergency use their funding for various different projects. They provide 16-18 year olds who are passionate about the arts and humanities a year of free mentoring in order to help them set goals and explore their interests. After they complete these mentoring and turn 18, they can also join the Young Community until the age of 26 to gain more support and resources. Arts Emergency also work with volunteers who provide opportunities such as work experience and set visits.


“I think, out of all of my decisions and choices in life, [joining Arts Emergency] is the ultimate one. Because you have no idea what you’re gonna get out of it.”

Young Community member 2022

We chose to support Arts Emergency because we love how passionate they are about supporting the future of creatives and put a huge focus on those from underrepresented backgrounds. The work they do is really exciting and we cannot wait to support them.

The Arts Emergency Manifesto

If you want to learn more about their future-focus, you can read their vision document here.

You can find more about their work on their website, Bluesky, Instagram, and Linkedin.

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Bethan Jayne Goddard

Community Manager

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