The Home Office and Departments of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Education (DfES) and Health (DOH), as well as the Arts Council and many independent trusts and foundations, all believe that the arts significantly contribute to wider social issues and can achieve greater inclusion, community cohesion and regeneration.

The arts have the capacity to positively transform the lives of individuals, communities and regions by offering innovative solutions, building bridges, expressing differences, promoting lifelong learning and breaking boundaries. It is encouraging, therefore, to find the continuing development of arts-related Government initiatives within the areas of regeneration, education, the criminal justice system, employment and health.

The Government has identified three key actions which can counteract the problems leading to social exclusion. These are: preventing those at risk from becoming excluded, reintegrating those who have been excluded and ensuring that service standards become more inclusive.

The work of Escape Artists is rooted in the arts and embraces and integrates these key actions across its education, training and community activities. We strive to improve access to the arts, to foster and enhance the personal creativity of our clients and to provide a bridge from the margins to the mainstream. We use the arts as a tool for personal development and strongly believe they can facilitate the acquisition of transferable skills, social skills, self esteem and confidence.

The primary aim is to promote and support the development of creative and social skills by providing learners with a range of opportunities to explore their creativity in a variety of contexts and to stimulate their social awareness, using the arts as a tool to facilitate the learning process. A strong focus is given to preparing and enabling learners to approach employment, and/or further training, with confidence and to improve access to the creative industries.

Our programmes are suitable for a wide range of learners but are particularly targeted at people who for reasons of education, background, poverty or lack of opportunity, experience social exclusion. Our particular concern are those who are deemed to be ‘at risk’, who are involved with, or in danger of being involved with, the criminal justice system.