By Jack Stark
We’re thrilled to share that We Are Epic has been selected by Youth Music to be part of Shift The Scene: a national fund designed to break down barriers for Disabled young people in the arts.
The Context
Last year, Youth Music published Excluded by Design, a report that laid bare just how much the arts sector is failing Disabled young people. The findings were stark: Disabled young people participate in the arts less than their non-Disabled peers, have shorter-term engagement, and are far less likely to end up working in the creative industries.
Despite the UK being considered an international leader in creative access and inclusion, the report found that good practice is still driven by specialist organisations rather than being the norm. There’s a long way to go … and that’s exactly where projects like ours come in.
Introducing EPIC Individuals
With this funding, we’re launching EPIC Individuals: a four-year programme working with 14 young Disabled performing artists aged 18 to 30. Rather than pushing artists through a one-size-fits-all pipeline, EPIC Individuals is built around the idea that every artist’s path looks different.
Through the programme, participants will have the chance to:
- Collaborate with creatives across different artforms
- Work alongside industry experts
- Experiment across live and digital platforms
- Teach their own skillsets to others
- Develop an individualised career pathway that works for them.
And crucially, the lessons learned won’t stay within the programme; we’ll be sharing what we discover with the wider creative sector, to help shift what “career progression” looks like for Disabled artists everywhere.
Part of a wider movement for change
We Are Epic was selected as one of 13 successful organisations from 150 submissions to receive funding from the Shift the Scene Fund, which was made possible through National Lottery funding via Arts Council England.
We’re are particularly excited to be part of the Shift the Scene community, working alongside Youth Music and the 12 other organisations all committed to rethinking what the arts can look like for Disabled young people.
Real, lasting change in the sector won’t come from any single organisation working in isolation. It comes from sharing knowledge, challenging assumptions, and building a collective understanding of what genuine inclusion looks like in practice.
As part of the Shift the Scene community, we’re committed to doing exactly that; learning alongside our peers, sharing what we find through EPIC Individuals, and helping to build a body of evidence that the wider sector can draw on.
We believe that when Disabled artists are given the space, support and flexibility to lead their own careers, everyone benefits. The creative sector becomes richer, more representative, and more resilient. That’s the shift we’re working towards … and we can’t wait to get started.
