How Art At The Heart uses creativity to tackle “complex societal challenges”
Husband and wife team Mukesh Kumar and Kamaljit Suman have a long history of combining art and education to improve wellbeing. First through formal education and now through their companies Art At The Heart and Art at the Heart of Learning, they’ve spent more than three decades helping people young and old access life-changing artistic opportunities. For the pair, it's a passion-led career path that hits close to home.
“We were the first South Asian art and design lecturers in further education in the West Midlands,” Kamaljit tells Creative UK. “We spent our early careers breaking down barriers for people to break into the arts industries. Certainly, in Asian backgrounds, parents often want their children to become doctors or lawyers - they don’t want them to be artists. We’ve spent loads of time dismantling those barriers and fighting prejudice against arts careers from all cultures.” Mukesh elaborates: “Over the years, kids would say to us ‘Can you talk to my parents? We want to do art but they won’t let us’. We’ve become the people who can cross generations and enable young people to access these opportunities.”
As their art offerings became a quick hit, they began digging deeper into this niche to offer additional levels of support to more people. “About 10 years ago, we started seeing rising mental health problems with teenagers having so much baggage on their young shoulders,” remembers Kamaljit. “We knew from our own experience how much young people got from studying art and design, not just in art skills development but also confidence to be themselves - and joy. We had an epiphany and thought: ‘Why wait until they’re 16 - why not get to young people earlier?’”
As a result, “we set up art clubs in the community,” she continues. “We work with children from ages 5 to 16 to give them a really strong grounding in the arts.” According to the duo, the benefits offered by these experiences go far beyond simple artistic expression. Young people “develop holistically, gaining a clearer sense of self and growing in confidence, self esteem, and agency.”
“We live in a very volatile and uncertain world so to give youngsters confidence in themselves to become change-makers is a really great skill to provide,” adds Kamaljit. “Our work is tackling complex societal challenges at their root causes.” From pioneering initiatives in 16+ education, the couple viewed their work as more than just a chance to level the playing field. “It’s creating a movement,” echoes Mukesh, reflecting on their journey so far.
“Our background is senior management so we provide the same things for the workplace”
As Art At The Heart grows, it’s adapting to reflect the changing cultural landscape around it, setting its sights on grander ambitions. It’s not just young people that benefit from these opportunities either. “We’re really inclusive in the true sense of the word,” reveals Mukesh, explaining how they help organisations impart similar wellbeing perks through artistic team development workshops. “Our background is senior management, so we provide similar benefits for the workplace,” says Kamaljit. "All our work puts Art at the Heart – there's no age limit to art's wellbeing gifts – but the arts have the power to communicate more serious messages too without being heavy-handed, and we design bespoke workshops for workplace challenges like team cohesion.”
A quick glance at the testimonials section of their website shows just how impactful this work has been. However, the couple were eager to push things even further to change even more lives. It’s a goal that requires investment insight and strategic business planning - two elements offered by West Midlands Create Growth, our programme designed to help regional business reach new heights.
“Our big thing is increasing our impact for young people and the only way to do that is through growth,” admits Kamaljit, unpacking their decision to join the scheme. “We had to learn the business scaling side of things and Creative UK definitely helped with that. We got lots of insight on pushing through to that next level. We’ve had support to develop pitch decks, feedback from investors and the mentors have been brilliant. It’s given us clarity on what our next steps are.”
One huge takeaway was working with a mentor to independently quantify the impact their work has had on those who have benefitted from it. Packaged into a bespoke report, this data provides some much-needed validation while doubling up as a perfect showcase document for potential investors. “What we’ve got now is social proof from an independent source,” smiles Kamaljit. “The power of that is quite substantial.”
“Pitching to investors is a scary thing - but it’s helped us get over that hurdle”
Working with a handful of scheme-assigned mentors also gave them the opportunity to distill their aspirations into their clearest possible form. This added precision has been key when pitching their concept to newcomers. “Sometimes you’re so ‘in it’ that you think everybody will understand what you’re trying to do,” suggests Mukesh. “The mentors really made us stop, think and get clarity. Our pitch decks are so much more straightforward.”
By taking advantage of the program’s practice pitching events, the duo have managed to put this insight into action. “Every time, our presentations have improved. We’ve got a lot of confidence out of it as well,” says Kamaljit. “Pitching to investors is a scary thing - but it’s helped us get over that hurdle.”
What’s more, unlike other schemes aimed at early businesses, West Midlands Create Growth has offered key advice tailored for their specific stage of growth. “Other programmes are way too basic; there’s hardly anything for the level we’re at which is pushing through to that next stage,” she continues. “We've faced a lot of barriers over the last 10 years - it's been really hard - but this truly inclusive programme has opened doors to knowledge, networks and mentoring that will actually help us to grow."