By Rebecca Boyle Suh (Buzz), Chief Executive & Co-Founder

It is hard to believe that 20 years have gone by since we first established Artis in 2004 as a vehicle to bring more creativity to the lives of children during their school day. The very early days were a heady mixture of excitement and sleepless nights as we set about discovering whether our unique offer would resonate with headteachers. Could music, drama and movement work together across the curriculum and meet school priorities? Would we find musicians who could move and act, dancers who could sing, actors who could move? How quickly and easily could professional performing artists develop strong teaching skills and flourish in primary schools?

I remember the feeling of elation when our first school, Moulsham Infants, signed up for their initial term of Artis. For me, if one headteacher believed in our approach there would be more. ‘Pioneering creative learning’ was our vision at the time, and our secret ingredient from the outset has been our extraordinarily talented and dedicated specialists and mentors. Each has an onomatopoeic name that best describes them, whether it’s Fizz, Giggle or Chime, and the children call them this at school. Schools have fully embraced our joyful approach – apart from when Pluck, our double-bass player, discovered the excellent rhyming skills of her youngest class!

Over the years we have continued to work with impact in primary schools in and around London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. Every week our creative learners have been developing their essential ‘creativity and imagination muscles’ leading to infinite possibilities and feelings of satisfaction. For Artis there have been different chapters along the way. The first was a management buy-out in 2006 when we became a social business and then in 2017 when we converted to a charity. Now having survived the pandemic and with the support of schools, dynamic patrons and committed trustees, 2024 marks a new phase of nurturing creativity in every child, everywhere.

Since being forced online during the pandemic, we have been thinking seriously about developing a new digital space for children everywhere to access our unusual way of learning. In readiness for this, Artis Patron Paul Donovan introduced us to the fabulous Brandpie, world leaders in building brand strength. As their pro bono client, for the last year we have been delving into what powers our purpose and how to effectively express that in how we look and describe ourselves.

Reshaping your identity is not for the faint-hearted. It can involve disruption, discomfort and at times disagreement. But along the way, Brandpie has listened to us, carefully observed us and most importantly believed in us. Gently guiding us through a discovery phase toward an outcome, Brandpie has given us clarity and made Artis more confident and braver in the process. Indeed, the journey gave me a glimpse of what it must be like being a child having Artis every week. We’re all about children discovering who they are, encouraging them to be more expressive and to take more risks, and ultimately to experience how beautiful and playful learning can be. That’s why they turn up to school on an Artis day, and why Brandpie had my full attention. We know the lifetime benefits for children working with Artis, and I know that our work with Brandpie is also going to enable us to grow and bloom as a charity.

We ended up in a place I could never have imagined at the outset, but it makes complete sense now that we’ve arrived. Rebranding and repositioning aren’t about coming up with a new logo, but a logo does create an important first impression. When I shared our new visual identity with a group of our most experienced specialists, there was unexpected applause, and I knew then we had something that was just right. They loved our more emotional colour and were most taken with the notion of our pebble motive – an organic, irregular shape, creating an outline of a nurturing space. There were comments about how every child we work with is different, just like pebbles, and perhaps Artis could be seen as flowing water helping children to find their own shape and place in the world. In quintessential Artis style, when pebbles are onomatopoeically plopped, ripples are formed in the same way that we know the life skills we’re developing resonate within a child and out to their class, school, community and lives.

Looping back 20 years, this is all thanks to the energy and imagination of our 2004 founding team, to all our schools, specialists and creative learners from across the years. And thank you today to our 2024 patrons, trustees, management team, and advisers for their commitment to our mission and for transitioning us to our next chapter with the help of our transformational Brandpie experience.