Interested in setting up your own art-K?

Why art-K?

art-K is a child education specialist, putting children first and enjoying seeing them growing into becoming their own artist. The programme of art projects was developed by Kathryn: our creative director with a degree and long experience at senior level in speech and language therapy. Kathryn applied the micro-steps she observed in the development of speech to her love of art. For over 20 years, Kathryn taught children a whole range of her art projects, before even thinking about expanding or duplicating the program. Then her club had become so full (140 kids through the house each week!), that she started to think about Franchising.

All our franchisees are independently-minded people. They end up running a wholly owned business, having been provided with the insight into how art-K develops and runs its own branches. It offers them all independence: to use their initiative, unencumbered, to further the positive purpose of teaching children art – and with the prospect that hard work will bring them rewards.

An art-K Franchise means different things to different Franchisees. Some are keen to maximise income: these can go through the VAT limit and open seven days a week. Others want to balance work/life, with fewer students over five or six sessions a week. While still meeting the minimum targets, these Franchisees have the financial security to choose what they do with the balance of their time – typically, this might be to free up time to be with their family.

Our mission

There are over 30 art-K clubs across England and together they teach over 3000 children a week. This makes us the largest dedicated educator of children’s art skills in the country, and we’re only just getting started. art-K may not be as established as some other well-known institutions, but our website traffic is higher; we’ve been featured on ITV, BBC Radio London and referenced in The Guardian as journalists look for stories and content around art.

As a network, our first ambition is to reach 10000 children a week under tuition, and as an art-K Franchise, you would be helping to achieve that milestone and recognition for art.

Why do we want to achieve that number? What will we do with it?

We want to build a professional company that teaches art, and also has all the necessary management support team to cover finance, HR, H&S, Recruitment/Training, Marketing, etc. – so we can provide a teaching environment that dedicated art teachers feel secure and proud to work within.

To securely and viably provide that environment, we are building up 10000 students a week and providing the best service to ensure word-of-mouth draws more and more students into the joy of learning art skills.

art-K is already building that management team right now; we employ over 40 full time staff (including the art leaders, but excluding Franchisees), so there’s a wealth of support and advice to draw on. In addition to employing those core full time positions, clubs also provide part time and contract assistant positions (currently there’s over 300 assistants contracted) and, as a result, become a pivotal art space for local communities.

We believe in a rounded education, and fine art provides a unique opportunity for children to understand that different people see things differently – and that’s OK. That people from different walks of life and cultures can all find art a fun, experimental, and engaging pastime. From our view, art can and should be part of building a cohesive culture which encourages interest or empathy for different or opposing views. We configure our classes to minimise any sense of competition, which helps keep the environment relaxed and conducive to new ideas and creativity.

At its core, art is about expression and no matter what age students are at, or stage of development, that expression is a photograph of the student’s dexterity and cognitive ability and is a unique point in time and space. Children develop so quickly that these artworks will never be repeated. The art made in our classes might stay on a parent’s walls for all their lives.

With the quantity of students under tuition, we are constantly reviewing the programme with a view to improving all the time. No other art organisation has the quantity or quality of feedback to make these improvements.