Partying with Kings

It was almost a year ago when I met HVH Arts for the first time.  I was presenting the Childcare Works Choice Award for excellence in the provision of Holiday Activities and Food programmes (HAF for short), in the grand location of the House of Commons terrace no less.  The winner was the Sir Hubert Von Herkomer Foundation (more easily known as HVH Arts), who provide HAF in the Kentish Town area of Camden.  We love HAF at Coram Hempsall’s and Childcare Works.  So, it was especially brilliant to be there that day and to present the award – shining the spotlight on what works well. 

HAF is both ambitious and life-changing and we are privileged to play our small part in its continued success.  The experiences that children and young people enjoy in their school holidays help them and us all to achieve better outcomes throughout their continued learning, education, and development, and into their future lives.  And over the past year it has been great to visit HVH and to keep in touch.

In selecting the winner of the Childcare Works award, we were looking for achieving such great outcomes through tangible and transferable approaches, and proving the difference made through data and evidence, examples of collaboration, and achieving added value.  We also needed to know that HAF was truly engaging communities, offering development and capacity building that reduce stigma and social isolation, all through the offer of new opportunities because of attending HAF.  Debbi and colleagues from HVH were thrilled to be the winners and extended an invitation for me to visit their summer activities in 2023.  What I found, that August, was all of that and more, all discharged through a vibrant programme of arts focused activities like graffiti workshops, community kitchens, fashion photography and various other things.

It’s not every day you attend a party with Kings.  But that’s what happened the other day.  I joined HVH Arts to celebrate the work of their organisation, the achievements of children and young people through HAF, and to see three young people receive bursaries, in the name of the late great actor Helen McCrory, to support their continued development in the arts.  The kings I refer to were Emmy and Golden Globe winner and HVH patron Damain Lewis (King Henry VII in Wolf Hall), and Kingsley Ben-Adir (Bob Marley in One Love) – himself brought up in Kentish Town. 

This struck me profoundly, I know from personal experience, when I was a marginalised white working-class boy, how the world was opened-up to me through quality, enabling, and equitable services just like HAF in my school holidays.  My wider world was on screen, TV, or film, that is where things seemed to happen for me, and it was where I could escape to, be inspired by, and dream about.  I ought to mention we were also joined by Royal Ballet principal dancer Reece Clarke, actor and producer Sadie Frost, and TV actor Fay Ripley.  Still now, I get a thrill if I see someone or meet them in ‘real life’.  I could see in the faces of those children and young people attending the launch, that they thought and felt much the same as me.  But the serious point is that such opportunities connect artistry with aspiration and achievement.  A job well done HVH.

Louise leading the HVH graffiti workshop in August