I was meant to be a poet. Or was it a photographer? Or was it a song-writer? At times I've wanted to be all three. And it's to these hobbies I turn when I want a fresh perspective or to articulate something I can't readily say in conversation.
Most of us have something creative we love doing but struggle to prioritise. Which is why, today, the BBC and hundreds of organisations across the country are asking all Britons to Get Creative. This is a campaign with one thing in mind: to get more people making and doing art than ever before.
We know the power the arts have in bringing communities together, allowing young people to discover talents they might not be aware of, and defining us to the rest of the world. But more than any of this, self-expression and creativity give us a sense of who we are in the world and who we have been in the past. They can offer us fulfilment and a path through life we don't always find in our homes or workplaces. That's why more people describe themselves as 'arty' than 'sporty', and why three out of five adults think more arts and culture should happen in their communities.
There's a tendency to think the arts just look after themselves and we can pull together an Olympic Opening Ceremony when we need to. But the Warwick Commission Report, which published on Tuesday, gives some cause for concern. Statistics suggest there are currently underserved demographics in Great Britain and that there may be a decline in arts participation in schools.
That's where I think the BBC can come in. With our unprecedented audience reach, we can ask you to enjoy our arts programming, but also inspire you to take part, and quickly connecting you with groups or schemes that will enable them to do so. Take for example The Big Painting Challenge which launches on BBC One this Sunday night. It's a celebration of some of Britain's most dedicated amateur artists, but through the Little Painting Challenge led by BBC Learning, we're also asking you to get creative and share their work.
This is just the start of a year long campaign focused on encouraging people to make and do art. We're not doing it alone but with hundreds of arts organisations right across the country. Both nationwide groups like Culture at Kings, Voluntary Arts, Culture 24, Cultural Learning Alliance, Fun Palaces, and 64 Million artists, and also local ones - schools, museums, theatres and dance centres.
Get Creative and Talk
Get Creative has three parts to it. The first is to simply Get Creative and Talk. We want to uncover what role creativity plays in people's lives and what 'art' really means in today's world. Working with dozens of organisations, we're broadcasting debates and conversations from Belfast to Edinburgh, Coventry to Kent. In Hounslow, the students of Heston Community School will be asking 'what is the future of education?'. The Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester is staging a discussion on the rich legacy of creativity in the city's life. In Camforth, Queen Elizabeth school is looking at the role of schools in shaping the cultural life of rural communities. And the BBC will be there reporting on it all - it's a huge push from our producers across the UK, as well as our network radio stations.
Television is taking part too. For the next month, BBC Two has asked leading figures to make four half hour programmes looking at different areas of the arts that matter most to them. Maxine Peake is presenting a programme on culture and politics, Lynn Barber on popular culture and Armando Iannucci on 'High' culture. Over on BBC Four, we're hosting an Artists Question Time to let the public ask the questions to some of the greatest forces within British culture.
Get Creative and Do
The second, and central strand to the campaign, is Get Creative and Do. We simply want people to get involved and each month we'll be highlighting creativity themes from our programming and, through the Get Creative site, linking people up to projects and groups they can take part in. BBC2 is offering primetime Saturday night arts treats each month and they're proving a great focal point for other programming too. Over the course of the year, we're focusing on film, dance, singing, poetry and acting.
Highlights include our film season in May with A celebration of Pinewood at 80, a series of interviews with Britain’s foremost actors and directors, and Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode’s film making competition for Radio 5 Live. And in the autumn, we're holding a BBC theatre festival which combines a star-studded new production of The Dresser with documentary profiles of local theatres, and a new scheme with the Arts Council of England and the Battersea Arts Centre to get theatres and theatre companies exploring news of making and broadcasting theatre on the BBC.
I'm also excited by a new spoken word scheme from BBC Radio 1Xtra, with support from Radio 1 and working alongside the Arts Council of England. It’s all about reflecting and enriching the UK’s growing spoken word scene, to help find and develop brand new performance poets. Along with our new Young Writers Award with Radio 4 and the Reading Agency, this is a major commitment by the BBC to nurturing emerging writing talent.
Get Creative and Share
The campaign ends, one year on, with Get Creative and Share. We'll be using our services to celebrate what people have done, profiling the best work, and joining in a weekend long creativity festival with organisations across the country. Just remember: Get Creative is about prioritising the thing you love doing, or think you might if you had time to give it a chance.
And who knows? I might finally write the Number One hit that eluded me in my twenties.
Jonty Claypole is Director, BBC Arts
- Be inspired to do something creative on our Get Creative website
- Follow @BBCGetCreative on Twitter