Artz in Lockdown
-
- 7 September 2020
A story of innovation, resilience and character
Like so many businesses across the country, the Corona Virus has brought about unprecedented challenges and has asked some of the most difficult questions to business owners and their teams. Unlike many challenges to business however, Covid 19 has been very unique. Unique in the sense that every single business in the UK and across the world was facing the same questions and the same problems at exactly the same time.
In order for businesses to negotiate their way through the months and perhaps years of uncertainty; it would come down to their ability to adapt. Although it was inevitable that some businesses would be lost, it was also inevitable that some businesses would thrive. One of those businesses was right on our door step and despite “The Arts” being one of the industries most affected; The award winning Artz Centre have continued to go from strength to strength. We caught up with founding director Mark Ashton to hear their incredible lockdown story.
“I feel that the pandemic gave us all the opportunity to re-evaluate how we do things. Not just in our professional lives but in our personal lives too. When we shut the doors to the Artz Centre on the 18th of March 2020, I knew that more than 90% of our revenue would disappear over night. At this point I was faced with a choice. Do I sit back and complain about how unfair the whole thing was, waiting for our business to eventually dissolve like so many others; or did we look at the virus as an opportunity to challenge ourselves, create new ideas and opportunities for our team to step up and come together. As leaders we are obligated to choose the latter and that’s exactly what we did.”
The Artz Centre almost immediately created a “LockDown Calendar”, a series of events and activities that would provide nearly 500 families with positive activities to do during lockdown. From dance classes, photography challenges and online quizzing to movie nights, drama workshops and a 12-week singing challenge involving nearly a dozen West End stars.
This forward-thinking organisation began to invest what little money they had left into new technologies to allow them to operate in a more virtual world. They even built a brand new website to facilitate this monumental change to their business.
“Our business has always been about people. Of course, we would prefer to do things in person but that was simply not an option. We needed to accept that things would be different and we needed to convince our customers that different was OK.”
The Artz Enterprise Project.
As Lockdown rolled on; the challenges continued to come. It was becoming clear that a return to normal was looking increasingly unlikely, and this drastic change to our way of life was having a more concerning impact on the mental wellbeing on The Artz Centre’s young students. Mark and his team decided to change course once more and launched “The Artz Enterprise Project”, a move that may have a significant impact on the future of the business.
“I became increasingly aware that the conversation with our young people was changing. Over exposure to poor quality information was the likely culprit and I wanted to create a new focus that was much more about action than words. The Artz Enterprise Project was to create a platform for our students to develop and create new ideas to make money and generate revenue for the centre. These ideas would be supported by a team of designers, technicians, copy writers and business experts, giving our young people the best chance of success. I had even enlisted the support of Lord Andrew Mawson (The author of The Social Entrepreneur and Founder of The Bromley by Bow Centre in East London).”
The response to this innovative challenge was unprecedented. Young people began to come forward with some amazing ideas. Students started to sell drawings, photographs and ear rings made of feathers. They organised online fitness classes, 24-hour gaming marathons and Tik-Tok challenges. Some students literally ran marathons, climbed mountains and cycled hundreds of miles to raise money for a place that had become so important to them and their families. After setting what seemed like an ambitious total of £10,000 by the end of 2020, the project has recently passed £50,000 and still rising. The Artz Centre continue to adapt and develop new ways to operate in a post Covid world and we wish them all the best in the future.
Check out their stunning new website and follow their story;
