Social Purpose

From who we are to everything we do

Following university-wide forums to learn about the values and priorities of staff and students, we've defined our purpose with 4 goals:

• Power cultural experiences.
• Celebrate differences of all kinds.
• Regenerate our environment.
• Build more equitable prosperity.

Social Purpose Implementation Plan

The Social Purpose Implementation Plan (PDF 1.3MB) is our way of taking our social and environmental impact to the next level. It contains our:

• community’s priorities, like powering creative experiences and building inclusive societies
• focus areas for the next year, like embedding our social purpose in the appraisal process and reducing the carbon footprint of procurement.

The main difference proposed in the plan is that we go from pioneering, individual initiatives, to our purpose being fully embedded in everything we do. We want our structures and policies to enable staff to have a greater impact through their work.

Social Purpose Lab

Dedicated to supporting and guiding our collective efforts to embed our purpose across the University, the Lab has an:

• internal transformation function that works with teams to build our purpose into their plans and strategies
• externally facing policy and advocacy function that aims to influence government and the creative industries for a positive social impact.

The Social Purpose Lab welcomes questions and collaborations with anyone interested in the power of creative education to make the world a better place. Email: socialpurposelab@arts.ac.uk.

The Social Purpose Advisory Group, chaired by Professor Dilys Williams, was established in September 2023 to advise on the University’s social purpose ambitions. Its members work alongside the Chief Social Purpose Officer, Polly Mackenzie, and the Social Purpose Lab to review, advise on and socialise social purpose activities.

They meet at least once a term, leveraging deep expertise and diverse experiences to further our social purpose goals.

The Group's current members come from a range of functions and positions in the University. They are:

• Alejandro Martinez | Curriculum Developer Climate Justice
• Carole Collet | Director of Maison/0 and Co director, Living Systems Lab
• Catherine Arotsky | Associate Director (Sustainable Operations)
• Darla-Jane Gilroy | Reader in Fashion and Enterprise and Associate Dean of Knowledge
• David Cross | Reader in Fine Art
• Dilys Williams (Chair) | Professor of Fashion Design for Sustainability
• Laura Knight | Course Leader MA Communicating Complexity
• Leonie Saywell | Associate Director of HR Culture
• Louisa Beejay | Personal Assistant to Head of College Office
• Oli Furlong | LTS Co-ordinator: Media Events & Learning
• Patrycja Kaszynska | Senior Research Fellow
• Rosemary Cronin| Outreach Practitioner
• Sophia Nasif-Whitestone | London College of Communication Student Officer- Arts SU

The secretariat for the Advisory Group includes: