Creative Access celebrates 10-year anniversary with new website and brand

Creative Access is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a new website and brand identity as industry heads such as Stephen Page and Tom Weldon pay tribute to the social enterprise’s impact.  

The organisation has also shared comprehensive data on its decade-long engagement with the publishing and general arts industries, helping 60,000 people underrepresented in the wider arts sector in terms of ethnicity, socio-economic background and disability, or facing significant barriers to employment. 

The not-for-profit organisation is marking its 10th birthday with a series of special events and activities throughout 2022 with partners, alumni and the wider industry, starting with the launch of a new website and brand refresh. The website has been created to improve access to resources, opportunities, mentoring and training to support career progression. Resources include CV clinics and masterclasses on how to navigate publishing and other creative industries with insider tips from Creative Access alumni.

Earlier this month, founder and c.e.o. Josie Dobrin (pictured) announced she will step down from her c.e.o. role this year, staying on as executive chair, with applications open for her successor.  

The organisation said of its milestone anniversary: “In those 10 years, Creative Access has, in partnership with some of the leading names in the industry, including Faber, Penguin Random House, Hachette UK, Pan Macmillan, Bonnier and HarperCollins, not just changed the face of publishing, but the faces within it. Through a unique combination of mentoring, training and a progressive approach to recruitment, it has, alongside its partners and alumni, made the industry more representative, more inclusive and more accessible.” 

It shared data which revealed around 550 individuals from groups underrepresented in publishing have taken on paid internships in the industry from a total of 2,194 across the wider creative sector. The organisation has also helped ensure over 85% of these are still in the industry today. 

Creative Access has also helped  2,261 to participate in mentoring programmes – of which more than 450 were within the publishing industry — and helped over 8,500 individuals to access roles in the publishing industry through career advice, masterclasses, CV clinics and training. Across events, Creative Access has hosted 23 masterclasses on how to break into and navigate a career within publishing, delivered 3,319 hours of inclusive employer training, supported 58,773 candidates with employability skills. 

Page, executive chair of Faber, was one of many to congratulate the company on its 10-year milestone. "Faber’s partnership with Creative Access has been a cornerstone of our commitment to transform our company to one that represents our society," he said. "Their trailblazing work in recruitment, training and supporting communities that the industry was failing to reach, has given us a route to begin to progress this essential work," 

Weldon, c.e.o. of Penguin Random House, said: “Penguin Random House’s partnership with Creative Access spans 10 fantastic years, with Random House the first ever publisher to join forces with them in 2012. Creative Access’ work to support talented people from groups underrepresented in our industry aligns perfectly with our mission to make books for everyone, because a book can change anyone. Achieving that mission starts from within, and they’ve helped us identify the next generation of creative talent to build a more representative organisation, with more than 40 Creative Access alumni now working at our company,”  

Perminder Mann, c.e.o. of Bonnier Books UK, also paid tribute. She said: "Creative Access’ work to support talented people from groups underrepresented in our industry aligns perfectly with our mission to make books for everyone, because a book can change anyone,” she said. She described a personal highlight of taking part in a mentoring scheme partnership with the organisation. 

Mann added: “As we look forward to the next 10 years, we are excited about the change we can bring about together to ensure we continue to live up to that mission and build a more representative company we can be proud of.”  

Dobrin said: “I’m so proud of what Creative Access has achieved in the past decade with our incredible partners and talent community. When we started it was rare to meet someone who wasn’t from a privileged background working in publishing. Although we’ve seen great progress in the past 10 years, the fact we still use language around ‘underrepresentation’ shows how far we still have to go. Many people are still facing visible and invisible barriers to accessing and progressing in the industry from financial obstacles to racism, which we continue to work hard to help them overcome.

“We describe ourselves as a ‘sunset organisation’ and hope that one day when publishing, along with the UK’s broader creative industries, truly reflects our society, we will no longer need to exist.”