Working Arts Club heads up North
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
The British art world has long revolved around a familiar centre of gravity: London. For decades, proximity to the capital — and the financial stability to survive there — has shaped who gets to participate in the sector. Yet across the UK, artists, curators and arts professionals from working-class backgrounds are now challenging those assumptions. Working Arts Club, founded by Meg Molloy, is a growing community created to support working-class professionals navigating an industry that too often feels closed to them.
What began as a grassroots network connecting working-class arts professionals has grown into a national community of more than 1,000 members across the UK. The organisation provides peer support, networking opportunities and a platform for conversations about class in an industry that rarely addresses it openly.
Now, with the launch of Working Arts Club North, the network is expanding its reach beyond London. We spoke to founder Meg Molloy about why the organisation started and what meaningful change for working-class arts professionals might look like, as well as Kirsty Jukes, who is leading the network’s new northern chapter.
What prompted the decision to launch Working Arts Club in the North, and what feels significant about building this network beyond London?
MM: The UK art sector is undeniably London-centric, even though efforts are being made to change that. I really wanted us to expand our programming beyond London, which is where I live and work. The North has such an amazing arts scene and the need for what we’re doing is everywhere. The ultimate goal is to set up throughout the UK, and going to the North felt like a very natural next step to achieve that.
How did your own experiences in the sector shape the need for this kind of network?
MM: I experienced serious barriers to entering the art world. I couldn’t afford to take an unpaid or badly paid internship in London like a lot of people do because I was living in Kent (where I’m from), and the travel implications made it impossible when needing to hold down a job and pay rent. I got into the arts much later than a lot of my colleagues and peers. I didn’t know the subject of art history existed and further education after my degree in Fine Art simply wasn’t an option. I’ve had to take some serious financial risks, real leaps of faith and graft extremely hard to get where I am.
The Club has collaborated with major institutions and market players. How do you balance creating community support with pushing for deeper structural change within the art world?
MM: It’s a gradual process. We’re incredibly proud to have collaborated with some amazing institutions and organisations, but this is just part of our vision. We’re fighting the immediate fire in creating a network and opportunities for professionals who are already in the sector, but to create bigger change we need to engage with the education system. That is ultimately responsible for the way the arts industry operates in this country and it’s really failing those who are from working-class backgrounds. Working with education providers will form part of our longer-term strategy.
Looking ahead, what would meaningful change for working-class arts professionals actually look like to you?
MM: It means school kids know that they can actually work in the arts and what that looks like. Teenagers can choose to study art history. Graduates can find a role that is financially viable. Professionals can maintain their roles, be fairly paid and feel like they belong in the industry. That’s the kind of meaningful change needed across the board and at every level.
As Working Arts Club continues to grow, its expansion beyond London marks a significant step in reshaping the geography of opportunity in the arts. Leading that next chapter is writer, curator and gallery professional Kirsty Jukes. Based in the North West, Jukes brings firsthand experience of navigating the sector outside the capital — and of the barriers that distance, cost and class can create. We spoke to Jukes about building the network in the North:
What differences do you see between navigating the arts sector in London versus other parts of the UK, and how might the Northern expansion respond to those differences?
KJ: I can only speak for my own experiences in the North West, as the arts sector in London has always felt both unreachable and unaffordable to me — and remains so. Navigating the arts sector up here, like anywhere else, can be tricky if you don’t have the connections or the confidence. However, there are many friendly people willing to offer their experience and time to help if you just ask.
I value that shared sense of struggle many of us have. We all know what it is like to watch opportunity after opportunity be London-only, and so in many ways we have to make our own opportunities. So many of those I know doing great things in the sector started off doing DIY creative projects. It makes us even more determined to show what we can do somehow.
I hope that the northern expansion will remove some of the barriers to participating in London happenings by creating opportunities for myself and others to travel, connect and participate through funding, exposure or other means. We have fantastic talent up here and we shouldn’t be shut out simply due to distance, class or financial constraints.
Class is often the least openly discussed barrier in the arts. What conversations are you hoping this Northern chapter will open up — particularly around power, access and opportunity?
KJ: I have found that peers, colleagues and acquaintances alike have all found it very difficult to own class privileges they may have. The conversation starts there — the acknowledgment that being better off financially can and does positively impact your life options from childhood all the way through to your working life.
Knowing the right people, speaking the right way, being in the right circles or being able to buy a place there all bring legitimacy and status in arts circles. I hope by highlighting just how embedded class bias is in the arts, as well as being able to talk about it openly and honestly, will encourage gatekeepers in the field to think twice about how they offer out opportunities in future.
You just have to look at times when working-class creatives take their rightful place at the table: they are able to thrive and create impactful work. This is what I hope this club will open up for many of us.
With the network now exceeding 1,000 members, how are you thinking about maintaining intimacy and genuine support as the community continues to grow?
KJ: The intimacy comes at in-person meet ups and in supportive chats. Although membership is over 1,000, members are spread right across the UK, so when we come together it won’t include every single member every time.
As we move into different regions, arts professionals from those areas will link up with each other and form their own groups. Some may want to move into a different area, in which case individuals to help them do that will be there. It has already happened organically in the chats.
Aside from being split by area, we have one for DIY spaces, one for those in higher education and one for jobs and opportunities. This allows practitioners across the country to share learning and encouragement. It’s really wholesome to see — people genuinely helping each other out.
In-person events will follow the same ethos: a friendly and casual way to speak to your peers without any of the anxieties that come with feeling out of place as a working-class person in the arts. Having this club as the framework means everyone you speak to is either working class or wants to support working-class people — and that’s half the battle won already.
Tell us about any upcoming events our audience might be interested in.
KJ: Our first event in the North is our launch party at YES on Tuesday 24 March. This will feature readings, stalls and a DJ — think of it as a social with a room full of visual arts professionals from across the region.
In April, Working Arts Club will hold a mixer in Liverpool after the Who Does Not Envy with Us Is Against Us: A Conference on Working-Classness as Method in Creative Practice at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre. The conference is being run by the Working Class British Art Network, and meeting afterwards will be a great chance for attendees to socialise and learn more about Working Arts Club.
We also have plans for panel talks, gallery tours, parties and more — so keep an eye on our socials for announcements!
As the arts sector continues to grapple with questions of access and representation, initiatives like Working Arts Club are proving that meaningful change doesn’t only come from institutions — it can grow from communities themselves. The network is reshaping who feels able to build a life in the arts, and with its northern chapter now underway, that conversation is expanding, and so is the possibility of an art world that belongs to everyone.
Find out more on Working Arts Club instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workingartsclub/