February 19, 2025Did you know what an Arts Producer was at 15? I didn’t… An interview with Artichoke Producers – Tilda Verrells and James Bickers
Do you remember what you wanted to be when you were growing up? The answer was probably influenced by what you were exposed to from the media, family and friends to social and political issues. Or maybe, a future career simply wasn’t on your radar.
Gen Z is the next generation to begin their journey into the workforce and in the age of social media and hustle culture, it’s interesting to learn how this is shaping attitudes towards the ideal career.
At Artichoke, we’re really passionate about making art accessible to everyone. We believe that it’s important to go into schools and talk to young people to make them aware of the job opportunities that exist in the arts sector. Two members of our Production team recently got the chance to do exactly this and find out what jobs Year 10 students are thinking about. Read on to find out the answers… they may surprise you.
Listen to the full interview:
Can you start by telling us who you are and what your role is?
T: I’m Tilda and I am a Producer – which is kind of like project managing, but with a bit of creative thinking thrown in. That’s how I had to describe it to the kids, to be honest, because they don’t know. I say I’m a Project Manager because no one knows what a Producer is anyway.
J: My name is James and I work in the Learning & Participation team at Artichoke as an Assistant Producer.
What happened at Career Day?
J: We visited a school in London for some speed networking with Year 10 students. The young people were there to speak to all kinds of people from all different kinds of industries about their career aspirations.
What career(s) did you want at that age?
T: In Year 10, I think I’d probably moved past dreams of being a pilot or a ballet dancer and I was probably starting to think about art and what I could do within that sector – although I didn’t think of it as a sector. I maybe wanted to be an artist at that age. I imagined an artist would spend their day making things and painting and probably being quite separate from the rest of the world.
In truth, I don’t think I knew. I think I was figuring myself out at that age, but I knew that I wanted to be in the arts.
J: I’d wanted to be a vet and you know, I’d wanted that for a long time. I even visited a vet’s practice for an open day, but ultimately, I couldn’t deal with the blood, the operations and the ups and downs of what that job might entail. I started singing at 17 and then I went into performing arts college. I wasn’t very involved in the arts and I think that was definitely something that was missing from my life at that time.
J: “Honestly, my school was almost devoid of arts. I certainly had no idea about what producing was or even what the arts industry was.”
What careers did you expect the young people to tell you that they want?
J: I didn’t have a specific idea of what they were going to say, but I definitely thought medicine would come up… and it did. I expected there to be more interest in the arts.
T: “I expected their choices to be way more outlandish and fun at that age.”
T: I think, having not been a teenager for a long time and not having hung out with any or have any in my family, my understanding of what being that age is quite different.
I don’t know if it’s changed, but I would have thought that they would have an interest in a certain subject group and some kind of wide-eyed ambitious job connected to that interest. Instead, they were very two-feet-on-the-ground concerned about their financial situation.
What careers did they actually want to pursue?
T: They all wanted to be in real estate and they were all studying business because they think that that is the way to make money. I have to say that was pretty much without exception until the last two boys that I met. One wanted to be an architect, and one wanted to be a type of scientist.
J: It was so fascinating. The young people had a real concern about securing their future financial trajectory. It was bizarre to me because when I was young, I was really thinking more so about passions and interests – and they would change daily. Some of these young people are being driven by a need for financial security and earning good money. To them, that is success; if you’re earning a high salary, you’re successful, you’re comfortable and you’re happy.
T: “You need space for dreaming and I don’t think they have that.”
T: That’s a reflection on the world that we live in now. It’s very different.
J: It was almost like they were saying, this is what I want to do because this is what I should do. I should be studying medicine because it’s a really valuable career. I should be an engineer because that’s what job security looks like.
T: I was really trying to encourage them to not necessarily immediately go to university – which is probably not what the school wanted me to say. So much of your life is dedicated to being in a career and having to decide that career so early on is not necessarily helpful.
In our country, we’re really encouraged to enter the pipeline as soon as possible but taking a step back and maybe taking a year off to work in some different fields would be really useful. I didn’t give myself that opportunity and I really wish that I had.
It was a wake-up call to how different things are now. Our value system has completely changed…the arts are being so badly cut. During COVID, all of the professionals in our industry were either furloughed or lost their jobs and there wasn’t really any support for those people.
T: I just think we have so much evidence of our world not valuing those things, and so you can’t blame these young people for playing the cards they’re dealt.
What were they curious about that took you aback?
J: They thought that we made the art. So, I had to explain that sometimes I create artwork with communities, yes, but I predominantly work alongside the artists to make this happen.
I spoke to one young person who was interested in what putting on a large-scale public art event looked like. We had a discussion about the infrastructure, the different systems put in place for security and access etc. They’ve never thought about risk assessment or crowd control or the many, many months that go into programming.
What do you wish you had known about working in the arts at that age?
J: I wish I’d known the breadth of different things you could do within the arts. I’d say to myself, you have so much time to think about what you want. It doesn’t need to be we go and study something, we come out of it, we go into a career doing it, and then we stay in it until we retire. Absolutely not. I think the most valuable experiences are varied experiences.
T: I wish I hadn’t listened to the people that said, “But how you make money from that?” and “How likely is that to happen?”
T: I would definitely tell myself to figure out what you’re interested in and just head towards that. Let that be your guide. Learn a lot because you won’t get to learn forever. At some point you’ll just have to be doing things and you might end up doing something that isn’t stretching you.
Did you learn anything from talking to the Year 10s?
J: I think my biggest takeaway away from it was that they didn’t know what we did. They didn’t know what an arts producer was. I also learned that they’re very bright, very switched-on and interested in exploring how this could become a career.
T: I learned a lot actually. I realised how lucky I was to go to the schools that I went to where art was a non-negotiable and popular part of the curriculum. Our art class was huge, and we had access to all kinds of materials, space and time.
T: It was a reminder of what it’s like to be at that age – I had totally forgotten. It was a wake-up call on how much work developing there is to do from that age to the age that I am now. You come so far, learn so much about yourself, gain so much experience and you need a lot of support in doing all of those things.
As our sector continues to evolve, there is a wealth of opportunity for Gen Z to step in and help shape its future. Whilst the caricature of the starving artist is all too well known, the creative industries contribute £125 billion in Gross Value Added each year to the UK economy*, a testament to their growing importance and impact.
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For those who wish to pursue a career in the arts but aren’t quite sure where to start, the key is to dive in and connect. Attend different shows, events and networking opportunities to meet those already in the industry. Monitor entry-level listings on platforms like Arts Jobs, The Dots and Arts Hub. Look out for administrative positions at arts organisations that you love. Keep creating and keep connecting because avery real career in the arts is waiting for you.