Bristol Beacon’s Work Experience week

Last week (18-22 July 2022) ten secondary school (Year 10) students from schools across Bristol were selected to join us for a week of workshops, performances and Q+As where they learnt all about the working world of the arts.

Connie our Community Engagement Officer, Mia our People Administrator and Multi-Disciplinary Artist and Creative Producer Prince Taylor designed and led the week. We caught up with them to find out more about how they introduced these young people to the events and arts industry.

Working in the world of arts

Members of our Beacon team from across departments designed activities; our Artistic Programming team taught participants how to design the ultimate line up, our Community Engagement team introduced participants to the link between arts and wellbeing, our tech team showed participants how to technically support a concert. The programme also included sessions with local Bristol artists and music industry leads.

At the end of the week, our participants used what they learnt to create their own ‘Soundclash’ event which took place at Beacon, with mentors and staff in the audience.

“When reading the applications from the students, we were absolutely blown away by the passion and commitment these young people had to explore the professional world of music,” said co-project lead Connie, “all our chosen participants have eclectic musical interests and talents, so we designed the programme to help each individual participant reflect on their own practice and develop their skills”.

Opening up the music sector

“Breaking the misconceptions in different industries is something that is really important, but not something that often happens during Work Experience weeks”, says Prince, the programme co-creator.

“I’ve learned that young people have a more astute perspective on society, we can save them a lot of time by opening up the music sector so they can see where they could fit in. This is so much more exciting than the classic ‘crab in a barrel’ idea of everybody having to be a major label artist”.

young people have a more astute perspective on society

Prince Taylor, Multi-Disciplinary Artist and Creative Producer

Co-project lead Mia also hopes the project will help the participants view working in the arts from different perspectives: “I really hope that the students after spending their work experience week with us at Bristol Beacon will gain more of an understanding of the variety of opportunities that the music industry has to offer, will open up their creative side and make some great new friendships along the way.”

“During the week, we aimed to give participants a taste of the working world, to introduce them to the many career paths within arts organisations, and to signpost them to opportunities in Bristol to kickstart their creative journeys.