WE HAVE HAD ANOTHER INCREDIBLE YEAR AT THE STARTS AWARD - A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO GOT INVOLVED. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR OPEN SESSIONS & CREATIVE COLLECTIVE EVENTS AHEAD OF THE AWARD LAUNCH 2026!

The STARTS Award is a creative talent development programme for the UK Armed Forces Community. Anyone within this community (serving & ex-service personnel & their families 18+) can apply.

Our mission is to foster fairer access to and greater representation within the Arts industry for emerging visual artists and writer/performers from the UK military community.

We provide professional training & knowledge as well as the opportunity to gain professional performance/exhibition experience in your chose specialty.

"Usually, my life centres around medical problems & trauma, but to get a positive message that something that I had done had sparked an interest in my art & voice felt like a door to a brighter future had opened"

- Award Winner 2023
“A creative life is an amplified life. It's a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, & a hell of a lot more interesting life.”

- Elizabeth Gilbert
"The STARTS Award has been life changing for me. I have not just made friends, I have made family."

- Award Winner 2023
"Making art can enable people to take greater Responsibility for their own health & well-being … & improve the quality of life by bringing greater joy"

- artsandwellbeing.org

"Usually, my life centres around medical problems & trauma, but to get a positive message that something that I had done had sparked an interest in my art & voice felt like a door to a brighter future had opened"

“A creative life is an amplified life. It's a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, & a hell of a lot more interesting life.”

"The STARTS Award has been life changing for me. I have not just made friends, I have made family."

"Making art can enable people to take greater Responsibility for their own health & well-being … & improve the quality of life by bringing greater joy"