Rising Arts Agency CIC

What Rising Arts Agency CIC does

Rising Arts Agency CIC is a Community Interest Company (a UK social enterprise structure) founded in 2015 and headquartered in Bristol, operating in the South West of England with a team of approximately 20 people. Its stated mission is to mobilise young creatives aged 16-30 for what it describes as radical change, and it operates on a deliberately youth-led model with a codified five-year rotation of executive leadership. The agency's work spans four named programmes: BE IT, a leadership development offer for young creatives; OnBoard, which places young people into governance roles; Open Up, a paid consultancy service helping organisations engage young creatives; and Creative Commissions, which delivers commissioned creative output for cultural partners.

The agency's economic model blends restricted and unrestricted grant income with fee-based commissioned work. Named funders include Arts Council England (£215,000 for BE IT), the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Freelands Foundation, the Van Neste Foundation, Resourcing Racial Justice, Bristol City Council, and the British Council. Commissioned delivery and consultancy clients are concentrated among South West cultural institutions, including Bristol Beacon, the Eden Project, Spike Island, Watershed, and the Martin Parr Foundation, with the Bristol Beacon rebrand having won Gold at the Transform Awards Europe 2022. Beneficiary participants are individual young creatives rather than paying customers, so the paying customer base is narrower than the participant base and comprises a mix of public/charitable grantors and a small set of institutional commissioning clients.

Name

Rising Arts Agency CIC

Legal name

Rising Arts Agency CIC

Website

https://rising.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Rising Arts Agency CIC is a Bristol-based youth-led creative Community Interest Company, founded in 2015, that runs leadership, governance, consultancy, and creative commission programmes for young creatives aged 16-30, funded by UK foundations, Arts Council England, and commissioned cultural partners in the South West.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Youth Arts and Cultural Services

NAICS

Fine Arts Schools (611610), Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers (711510)

SIC

Services-Mailing, Reproduction, Commercial Art & Photography (7330)

akta.pro primary industry

Arts Education & Community Arts Programs (BPAGAHAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Visual Arts (Drawing, Painting, Illustration) (EDAAAGAA)

Keywords

• Youth arts leadership
• Creative agency services
• Community arts programmes
• Cultural consultancy
• Creative commissions

Headquarters

HQ city

Bristol

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Grants and Funding: Primary revenue from grants including Arts Council England Transforming Leadership (£215K), Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Bristol City Council, Freelands Foundation, Van Neste Foundation, Resourcing Racial Justice fund.
2. Creative Commissions: Commissioned by organizations (Bristol Beacon, Eden Project, Spike Island) to deliver creative work, events, and consultancy services.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Rising Arts Agency CIC is a youth-led creative agency that designs and delivers arts programmes, leadership training, board placements, creative commissions, and consultancy for cultural institutions, local authorities, and foundations. Its offerings connect underrepresented young people aged 16-30 with leadership opportunities in the cultural sector and provide partner institutions with credible, community-rooted creative delivery across the UK.

Product overview

Rising Arts Agency CIC is a creative agency mobilising for radical change in the arts sector, focused on young people aged 16-30 in Bristol. The organisation operates a portfolio of interconnected programmes: BE IT provides radical leadership development, OnBoard places young people on organisational boards, and Open Up offers youth consultancy services. These core programmes are supported by Creative Commissions delivering multidisciplinary work, research initiatives like Whose Culture exploring cultural engagement of young people of colour, and community resources through the Community Hub. The organisation also produces publications, podcasts, and partners with cultural institutions on exhibitions and campaigns.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• BE IT Transforming Leadership Programme A leadership development programme designed by and for underrepresented young creatives (aged 16-30) working in the arts and cultural sector. The programme supports participants to step into leadership roles within cultural institutions through training, mentorship, and peer learning, and operates as the agency's flagship initiative in partnership with Arts Council England.
• OnBoard A programme that places young people from underrepresented backgrounds onto the boards of cultural institutions, providing board experience and diversifying governance in the arts sector.
• Open Up A youth consultancy service through which young creatives provide advice, insight, and lived-experience input to cultural institutions on equity, programming, and audience engagement strategies.
• Creative Commissions Bespoke creative project commissions delivered for cultural institutions, including branding work (Bristol Beacon rebrand), library reimaginations (RE/IMAGINE Libraries with Bristol City Council), and large-scale creative installations (Pollinator Pathmaker at Eden Project). Each commission is co-created with young creatives and community participants.
• Whose Culture A research and advocacy project examining representation and equity in the UK cultural sector, producing reports, policy recommendations, and a public conversation about who culture is for and by.

Quantifiable outcome

• 19 new leadership opportunities created for young people through BE IT programme
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers7 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, key and supporting.

• Bristol City CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCulture Team partnership for leadership programmes and youth consultation. Supported Rising's trip to New York and festival partnerships.
• Bristol BeaconcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerYoung creatives worked with Saboteur Studio on Bristol Beacon rebrand following Colston Hall name change. Rising co-hosted Make Space for Rising event.
• Eden ProjectkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerSatellite programming for Pollinator Pathmaker installation including three community events and social media campaign around sustainability and climate justice.
• Spike Island / Test SpacekeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-commissioned Why Are We Not Here exhibition addressing institutional racism in arts. Partnership sparked by The White Pube provocation on racial bias.
• WatershedkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerOnBoard programme partner where young people are recruited and trained to join Watershed's board.
• Martin Parr FoundationkeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration to commission photographers for work around theme of Secrecy, with financial support from University of Bristol.
• Network for Creative Enterprise (NfCE)supportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerCultural network supporting creatives across West of England. Rising participated in exhibition and business development support.
• Festival of Future City / BCDPsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupported Euella Jackson's New York research trip through partnership with British Council.
• Saboteur StudiokeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerDesign agency collaborated with Rising's young creatives on Bristol Beacon rebranding project.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Heart n Soul: Award-winning creative arts charity working with learning-disabled and autistic artists, sharing Rising's model of artists as co-leaders and a focus on marginalised creative communities.
• Mind the Gap: Bradford-based learning-disability performance company producing professional work with marginalised artists, sharing Rising's commitment to disability inclusion and artists with lived experience in leadership roles.
• Arts Emergency: UK charity working with young people from underrepresented backgrounds to access the creative industries, providing mentoring and pathways — closely comparable in target demographic and mission to Rising's youth leadership work.
• Contact Theatre: Manchester's flagship young people's theatre producing and commissioning work by emerging artists, with overlapping programmes in young creative development, leadership, and youth-led co-creation.
• Creative Youth Network: Bristol-based charity developing skills and opportunities for young people through the arts, with a comparable mix of creative programmes, training, and youth-led governance — the closest geographic and conceptual peer to Rising Arts Agency.
• 64 Million Artists: UK non-profit championing everyday creativity and public participation in the arts, with a comparable focus on democratising creative opportunity and youth engagement programmes.
• Punch Records: Birmingham-based creative agency supporting young creatives from underrepresented backgrounds into the creative industries, offering similar youth consultancy, commissions, and leadership development services.

Emerging players

• China Plate: Bristol-based creative producing company commissioning and developing new theatre work with emerging artists, with partial overlap in creative commissioning and producer-development services.

Broad incumbents

• Battersea Arts Centre: Long-established London community arts venue with programmes supporting emerging artists and participation work — broader and venue-based but materially overlapping in community-arts delivery and emerging-creative development.

Regional players

• Apples and Snakes: England's leading spoken-word poetry organisation supporting diverse voices and young performers, with comparable DEI focus and creative-development programmes though rooted in poetry rather than multi-disciplinary agency work.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@risingartsagency
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rising-arts-agency
• Instagraminstagram.com/risingartsagency

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Rising Arts Agency CIC