Goldsmiths’ Company and National Saturday Club partner to reach more young people with free Art&Design Clubs nationwide
The Goldsmiths’ Company and the National Saturday Club are excited to announce a three-year partnership aimed at ensuring more young people across the UK have free access to vital creative education. As headline subject partner of the Art&Design programme, the Goldsmiths’ Company will play a key role in supporting the next generation of creatives. This year, the Art&Design programme has enabled over 1,000 young people to explore more than 200 creative disciplines at free Saturday Clubs in 49 locations across the UK.
Founded in 2009, the National Saturday Club gives 13 to 16-year-olds a unique opportunity to study subjects they love, for free at their local university, college, and cultural institution. This national network works together in partnership to deliver enriching extracurricular activities, with a focus on reaching young people from underserved and underrepresented communities. Offering dynamic creative learning programmes in eight subject areas, the Club works to develop young people’s skills, nurture their talents and encourage their creativity.
In alignment with the Goldsmiths’ Foundation’s aims of advancing creative, technical, and vocational skills, education and training in the creative sector, the Goldsmiths’ Company has partnered with the National Saturday Club to sustain and support the reach of its Art& Design programme, committing to providing significant funding for the programme by raising donations from its members over the next three years.
A report jointly published by organisations including the Design Council and Design & Technology Association in the summer of 2024, found that the number of pupils studying Design & Technology at GCSE had fallen by 68% in the last decade following its removal as a compulsory subject, with businesses across the creative sector expressing concern about the future of home-grown skills and creativity.
Through complementary extracurricular activities like the National Saturday Club, this emerging gap in creative, technical, and vocational skills can be met.
Lucy Kennedy, Chief Executive of the National Saturday Club, said:
“We are deeply grateful to the Goldsmiths’ Company for their generous support of the National Saturday Club’s Art&Design programme. Their commitment helps us provide young people across the UK with the space to explore their creativity, build confidence, and imagine new futures. Art and design spans every aspect of the creative industries, and we are especially appreciative of partners like the Goldsmiths’ Company who recognise the long-term value of nurturing creative talent, not only for their own sector, but for society at large.
This partnership will strengthen our work in communities nationwide: supporting young people locally, while helping to build a future-facing, inclusive creative talent pipeline at national scale. Crucially, it forms part of a growing movement uniting Further Education, Higher Education, industry and the cultural sector to champion opportunity, unlock potential, and ensure that every young person can access the power of creative education.”
Speaking about the partnership, Annie Warburton, CEO and Clerk of the Goldsmiths’ Company said:
“ Our partnership is rooted in a shared ambition to equip young people with skills and connections to thrive in future careers in the creative industries, and beyond. We are excited by the opportunity to support the sustainability and growth of the Art&Design programme over the next three years, with the generous support of Goldsmiths’ Company members – reaching more young people, in more communities, across the UK. Together, we aim to spark curiosity and inspire experimentation and exploration by nurturing creative skills and design thinking – crafting careers for the next generation.”
Art&Design Saturday Clubs encourage their members to explore design-led thinking, experiment with creative problem solving, and develop transferable technical skills that can form the foundation for a diverse range of careers in the UK’s creative sector, from architecture to jewellery design and graphics to sculpture. A core offering of the national programme is access to the annual programme of events which include specially arranged visits to leading cultural institutions and Masterclasses with industry. The Goldsmiths’ Company is well placed to connect young people with creative professionals from a diverse range of artistic practices.
“The Club helped me to develop and hone my skills and gave me real insight into the creative industries and the potential there was for me. Using professional equipment made me feel that anything was possible, and working with dedicated creative professionals gave me the confidence to think big. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life and I wouldn’t be where I am without it.”
“The Saturday Club exposed us to things that you don’t usually come across. It was really valuable because every week we would do a different art form or skill which enabled us to try lots of different things and consequently gave us a lot of confidence.”
