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# Leading the Way: Arts Council England Launches Paid Internship Program!
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/leading-the-way-arts-council-england-launches-paid-internship-program/
- Published: 2012-09-18T19:06:31.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:36:17.000Z
- Description: We've written before about the plague of unpaid internships in the art world, so we were super excited to see that Arts Council England is launching a £15 million ($24 million) program to help pay arts and culture interns across the UK. Called the Creative Employment Programme, the project will supp
- Author: Jillian Steinhauer
- Tags: News, Arts Council England, internships, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:51 (2012, 2013, part 1)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2012/09/unpaid-internships-street-art.jpg)

The graffiti speaks the truth. (image via jpegy.com)

We’ve written before about the [plague of unpaid internships](https://hyperallergic.com/unpaid-interns-art-world/) in the art world, so we were super excited to see that Arts Council England is launching a £15 million ($24 million) program to help pay arts and culture interns across the UK. Called the [Creative Employment Programme](http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/commissioned-grants/creative-employment-programme/?ref=hyperallergic.com), the project will support up to 6,500 apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and paid internships in the arts for 16-to-24-year-olds.

Andrea Stark, executive director of the Arts Council, told [The Stage](http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/37293/ace-launches-15m-scheme-to-combat?ref=hyperallergic.com) that she hopes the program will help combat unpaid internships and decrease the arts sector’s reliance on and acceptance of them:

> In our strategic framework — Great Art for Everyone — we have a goal dedicated to creating fairer entry routes into the workforce, as a way of making the sector more diverse and fit for purpose. We’ve had that as a long-term ambition. Our worry is that we’re simply going to lose a generation of talented young people if we don’t support the sector really practically in creating more opportunities.

The council won’t administer the program directly and is instead looking for a national organization to do so. It will provide up to £15 million to cover the period from December 2012 to March 2015\. (Applications [here](http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/apply-for-funding/strategic-funding/commissioned-grants/creative-employment-programme/?ref=hyperallergic.com).)

Stark added, “We want to create fair routes and to do that, frankly, we need to offer a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” We couldn’t agree more.