MYFUTURE Education and Careers Guide 2021/22

CREATIVITY,
COMMUNITY,
CHANGE
Photography courtesy
Sylvie Belbouab
We speak to Sanaz Amidi about
Rosetta Arts, a community based
hub for art and creative learning
in the heart of east London
You’ve been CEO and Trustee at
Rosetta Arts since 2007. What’s
the purpose of the charity and
how do you see your role there?
Rosetta Arts changes communities
through creativity.
From our visual arts learning centre
and gallery in West Ham we offer
creative courses, projects, events
and exhibitions to the diverse people
of Newham who otherwise have little
access to the transformative benefits
of the arts.
What we offer is so much more
than simply access to the arts. We
offer every person we encounter a
chance to live the life they choose
– whether that’s pursuing a career
or education in the arts, having a
personal passion, feeling emotionally
and socially confident, or feeling
connected to the people and
communities around them.
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My ambition is to make sure that
the work that we do, the work in
opening people’s imaginations,
in making the arts accessible, in
making it possible for people who
may not want to work in the arts
but who want to have their voices
heard, who want to say things that
directly affect them – voices that
you would not hear under normal
circumstances – ensuring that those
voices are heard. Essentially, my role
focuses on shaping, empowering
and leading excellent people and
teams to do this.
I believe that our success stems from
setting a clear vision and sharing
a set of goals to which people can
aspire and commit. I have learned
that my values of passion, drive,
integrity, courage and empathy are
the tools with which I work with
people to collectively implement and
achieve transformational change.
What was it about the ethos
of the organisation that first
attracted you to become
involved?
Our start 28 years ago was
in a school called Rosetta
in Canning Town and was
because of an amazing
woman with an
extraordinary vision
for art education
called Yvonne
Humble. She’s the
one who really set
our goal of opening
up the arts to people
in Newham. She’s the
one who, in Rosetta, took under
her wing a young local boy called
Lee, tutored and mentored him to
develop his skills and portfolio and
then wrote his reference supporting
his application to CSM. Lee went
on to become known worldwide
as Alexander McQueen! In 2021
we are very proud that those
nurturing values are still rooted in
everything we do, underpinning the
development of a talent pipeline that
has nothing to do with class, gender
or ethnicity, but everything to do
with local talent.
What would you say you offer
to the young people who get
involved in your opportunities?
Lots of things! We’re a specialist
provider of programmes addressing
barriers to entering work faced by
young people in London and we
have a whole bunch of opportunities
for young people from our
Saturday School to evening creative
workshops to accredited courses.
All of our programmes are delivered
by local professional artists who
have their own practices so are
inspiring to learn from and help
young people grow their own
professional networks.
At the moment we are recruiting for
young people to join our I Design
My Future programme which is all
about proving creative opportunities
to help young people take charge
of their lives and their careers,
and we’re also looking forward to
holding a free online creative day for
teenagers on 8 April.