Arts Gateway MK

Who we are

Arts Gateway Milton Keynes (AGMK) has existed for over 40 years, being renamed and constituted as a charity 15 years ago.  We exist to nurture and promote arts across Milton Keynes and surrounding areas.  Over the past decade, we have continually adapted our focus to meet the city`s changing cultural needs, fostering creativity across multiple fields rather than limiting ourselves to just one.  AGMK's mission is to support and promote artistic practices and cultural development, ensuring they reflect its diverse population.

Our core programmes comprise:

1.     Studios at Arts Central, offering studio and communal spaces for up to 85 creatives, a vital hub for local artists.

2.     MK Literary Festival generates significant creative energy, offering face-to-face and online literary programs, and growing community engagement through literary events.

3.     The Box Arts Club is a potential hub for workshops, exhibitions, performances, screenings and community.

2.     Community Arts Resources Centre (CARC) is an extensive resource of costume, prop, outside events, sound and lighting, aimed at supporting arts and community groups deliver creative events.

Our culture and values

Our Purposes and values include:

Our Purpose

●       Nurture and support the arts in and around MK

●       Be recognised as one of the key pillars of MK’s cultural foundations

●       Support artists at all levels and stages, to grow and develop their practice

●       Help artists at the beginning of their artistic journeys to establish their practice

●       Provide a creative community space for all cultural backgrounds, facilitating participation

●       Increase participation in the arts by MK’s diverse population – carry out or facilitate creative projects/initiatives where there is a need or appetite in MK

Our Values

●      Creativity – we nurture creativity across all media and genres.

●      Collaboration – we seek to maximise our positive impact for the MK arts scene through mutually beneficial partnerships with community groups, local and national organisations and individuals.

●      Inclusivity – we aim to support all types of artists, whatever their medium and the stage of their creative journey. It is of the utmost importance to us to reach all MK’s diverse communities through our services and initiatives, and to include these communities in consultations about our role and future plans.

●      Originality – we champion creatives working in innovative and unusual art forms, in addition to supporting more traditional genres. We aim to inspire local communities through our imaginative initiatives, and constantly develop new approaches to support our organisation and resident artists.

●      Substantive – through robust systems, plans and actions, we strive to ensure that AGMK is (and is perceived as) responsible, respected and authoritative in relation to art practice and the art sector.

●      Sustainability - through rigorous governance, and financial and business planning, we strive to ensure that the organisation is in a strong position to provide a consistently high level of support for artists and creativity in MK in the short, medium and long term.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

We aim for our organisation to be at least as diverse as MK`s rapidly changing communities.

We have one, part-time employee, a handful of contractors and project staff where projects are funded.  We aim for them and our own Board of Trustees to be diverse.

Those who hold studios at Arts Central have generally been at least as diverse as MK`s population

MK Lit Fest, our main cultural programme, offers a very diverse programme of authors and workshop leaders but their audiences, like most Literary audiences, tend to be older and whiter than MK, an issue we are tackling through community-based projects