Mulberry Arts

Mulberry Arts sits at the heart of Mulberry Schools Trust’s longstanding belief in the transformative power of arts and culture. Our work is built on decades of practice, deep community partnership, and an unwavering commitment to ensuring that every young person has access to high-quality, inclusive and inspiring arts education.

For many years we have developed a rich tradition of arts work in close collaboration with our local community, building strong relationships grounded in mutual trust and respect. This shared journey has shaped a distinctive place-based arts culture where students, parents, and grandparents have contributed to the traditions that continue to evolve today.

Our belief is simple and steadfast: the arts can transform lives. They are places of hope, possibility and imagination, and they enable young people to see themselves as agents of change in the world. This belief remains at the core of Mulberry Arts.

Our Approach

Mulberry Arts is guided by a set of shared values and principles that underpin all our work. These values shape how we create platforms for voice and visibility, promote students’ rightful place in the creative industries, ensure safe spaces for girls and young women, reflect British Values, and sustain a culturally rich and diverse curriculum that strengthens community cohesion. We believe that process and practice are valued and nurtured in all art forms, alongside high-quality public performance outcomes. Having the opportunity to experience and participate in the arts helps to develop young people who become confident, creative, curious and capable citizens, playing an active and positive role in society.

The Mulberry Arts Team, formed in 2006, comprises a group of specialist practitioners including playwrights, directors, filmmakers and technicians. Together, they curate a wide-ranging enrichment programme, support arts curriculum areas, collaborate with departments and external organisations, and lead flagship creative projects that embody our values in practice.

Central to this work is our commitment to nurturing the creative voices and identities of young people. Mulberry Arts provides dedicated spaces where students can explore ideas, take artistic risks and develop confidence in their own perspectives. Through student-led projects, collaborative making and engagement with professional artists, we encourage young people to see themselves as creators whose stories and cultural experiences matter. In doing so, we help them recognise that they have a rightful place within the UK’s creative landscape and that creative pathways are both accessible and attainable.

Our commitment to inclusion ensures that every student can participate fully. Recruitment for all projects is non-selective and based on proactive engagement rather than auditions, allowing diverse talents to emerge and be celebrated. This inclusive culture, combined with the expertise of the practitioners who guide our work, has contributed to projects and productions that have received national critical acclaim. Long-term partnerships with major arts organisations further enhance our offer and keep our work aligned with student interests and the evolving needs of the creative industries.

Mulberry Arts remains ambitious and outward-facing, continually expanding opportunities and strengthening pathways for our young people. Guided by a strategic three-year plan, we are committed to sustaining innovation, excellence and a thriving arts culture across our schools.

Mulberry Arts Mission Statement

Mulberry Schools Trust believes in the power of arts and culture to inspire, broaden horizons, connect different communities and transform lives. We believe that access to active participation in high quality arts education is a core right and that all young people should have the opportunity to take up what is their rightful place in the creative landscape of the UK and the world. We believe that having the opportunity to experience and participate in the arts helps to build young people who become confident, creative, curious and capable citizens, playing an active and positive role in our society.

Aims

Promote new voices, new audiences and a new workforce for the cultural and creative industries in the UK;
Address the current lack of diversity in our cultural and creative workforce at all levels and across all disciplines;
Create art that challenges stereotypes of gender, ethnicity, class and physical ability through both its content and the approach to its creation;
Create an arts provision which supports young people in personal expression and encourages the development of an inner life for all our young people.

Guiding Principles

The below principles underpin all aspects of the arts provision across Mulberry Schools Trust:

Arts work is inclusive – not only available but encouraged and supported for all. Individual talents are nurtured and catered for, and a range of skills are encouraged and celebrated. Students are able to engage in the arts at Mulberry in a variety of ways and at many levels throughout their time at school
The provision for the arts is high quality, challenging and engaging, both within examinations and beyond the curriculum. We encourage excellent practice both by teachers and by continuing to collaborate with leading artists and institutions who share our vision and values.
Arts work is original in interpretation and form, with student voice at its heart, and co-constructed with teachers and other artists.
Process and practice is valued and nurtured in all art forms alongside high quality public performance outcomes.
The arts are used as a vehicle to encourage critical curiosity, expand possibilities and take up careers within the creative industries;
The Arts are integrated into school and community life and lifelong participation in cultural life is fostered.
All art forms are assigned equal value, with equal recognition and status accorded to the creativity of digital, production, and technical positions as to more traditionally ‘creative’ roles.

About Mulberry Schools Trust

The below principles underpin all aspects of the arts provision across Mulberry Schools Trust:

Arts work is inclusive – not only available but encouraged and supported for all. Individual talents are nurtured and catered for, and a range of skills are encouraged and celebrated. Students are able to engage in the arts at Mulberry in a variety of ways and at many levels throughout their time at school
The provision for the arts is high quality, challenging and engaging, both within examinations and beyond the curriculum. We encourage excellent practice both by teachers and by continuing to collaborate with leading artists and institutions who share our vision and values.
Arts work is original in interpretation and form, with student voice at its heart, and co-constructed with teachers and other artists.
Process and practice is valued and nurtured in all art forms alongside high quality public performance outcomes.
The arts are used as a vehicle to encourage critical curiosity, expand possibilities and take up careers within the creative industries;
The Arts are integrated into school and community life and lifelong participation in cultural life is fostered.
All art forms are assigned equal value, with equal recognition and status accorded to the creativity of digital, production, and technical positions as to more traditionally ‘creative’ roles.

Mulberry Schools Trust
Richard Street
Commercial Road
London E1 2JP
020 7790 6327
admin@mulberryschoolstrust.org

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The Mulberry Schools Trust is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales (Company No. 10035860).
Company’s registered office: Mulberry Schools Trust, Richard St, Commercial Road, London E1 2JP. © Copyright – Mulberry Schools Trust.