by Want to hang out backstage with the Rolling Stones? Or how about taking home a unique work by Sir Antony Gormley, meeting renowned performance artist Marina Abramovic or dining with Spandau Ballet brothers Gary and Martin Kemp? Well, your luck might be in.
These are just some of the many extraordinary auctions on offer at the big night for London arts centre, the Roundhouse, as it aims to raise more than £1m to help provide young people with access to training in the Arts.
“It’s a very lively, full of beans, positive event going forward,” says the centre’s chief executive and artistic director, Marcus Davey. “It’s all focused on our goals of working with more young people and enabling young people to access the arts that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.”
The Roundhouse Gala – called Rise up for the Roundhouse – will take place on 20 March. A reception and dinner will be held in the arts center with a live and silent auction. Artists at the event will include Simon Le Bon, Melanie C and Shaznay Lewis, and it will also feature performances from some of the young people who have come through his programmes.
The organization hopes that patrons will give generously as they seek to support more young talent. Mercury Award-winning singer Little Simz, Oscar-winning actor Daniel Kaluuya, rising star singer Raye and Jack Rooke, writer of hit sitcom Big Boys, took part in projects at the Roundhouse to early
This year’s Gala – chaired by Gary Kemp and BBC music director Lorna Clark – will include a private concert by Brit Award winner Tom Odell for 90 to 180 of the winning bidder’s friends, as well as the opportunity for a portrait to have painted by Jonathan Yeo, who has been commissioned by celebrities, prime ministers and members of the British royal family.
It comes at a time when local councils are cutting arts budgets and supplies, funding from the Arts Council is stagnant even as costs rise, youth centers are long closed and the arts are increasingly being devalued in the school curriculum. states.
“It’s a difficult time for young people and because of the reduction of arts in the curriculum many schools have arts spaces but don’t have teachers or don’t have the budget,” says Davey. “We are in a very problematic position.”
And yet, every year, the Round House works with thousands of people between the ages of 11 and 30 on projects that include the performing arts, broadcasting and digital work. When a new building, Roundhouse Works, was opened last year it was possible to support even more. “We will work with more than 8,000 this year,” says Davey. “In the next three or four years, we will increase the numbers significantly, if we can raise the money.”
Of the young people he works with, 60 percent are from areas classified among the most deprived, and 58 percent of the people are from the global majority. These courses can provide life-changing opportunities to develop skills, grow as individuals and perhaps turn their creativity into a career, says Davey.
But we don’t have to take their word for it. In 2023, the organization commissioned a study to examine the impact of its film, digital and audio programmes. Social Change UK, an agency that works with government, public sector and commercial clients, found that those projects, on which the Roundhouse spends around £85,000, created a “social outcome” of around £3.7m.
The Roundhouse said, “The results show the social impact young people have on creative opportunities, and the technical and transferable skills that affect other aspects of their lives. The numbers are particularly high because of the positive employment outcomes experienced by young people.”
Davey explains that social impact is the value that young people gain when they enter employment. “So many of the projects we run go straight to work. What we invest in them has significant value. It’s not like they earn £2m on day one, but they go into a well-paid job that can see them through life.” He said the results were alarming. “Even Social Change UK couldn’t believe how amazing the projects are for young people.”
The Roundhouse has been working with young people for around a quarter of a century and continues to look at different ways to engage them in the arts. Some use the studios as a rehearsal space, there are dance and circus programs, poetry to DJing for beginners, mobile filming, how to turn gaming into a career and much more.
Davey says that just this month he was talking to Kaluuya, who is now the center’s associate artistic director, about starting a youth theater company. “We want to have open access for everyone. Many of the young people who come through go on to a range of jobs in the creative industries.”
The Round House is not-for-profit so the Gala, which started in 2008 and takes place every other year, is vital to raising money for its youth programmes, which cost around £3.5m each year. “The gala is very important and we are very grateful to those who buy tickets,” says Davey, “as well as the donors and all those who gave a lot to the auction.”
For more information about the Roundhouse Gala visit roundhouse.org.uk
