'It's an emergency': Why artist Stuart Semple is giving £30k of art supplies to 50 schools in one day

Stuart Semple is surrounded by boxes. Towering stacks of them – packed with powder paints, glue sticks, drawing pencils, and even chocolate, tea and biscuits. “It looks like chaos at the moment,” he says, laughing. “But we’re getting through it.”

When we speak, the British artist is preparing to send more than £30,000 worth of art materials to 50 London schools in a single day. The project, called ART-AID, is a massive, self-funded donation drive taking place today (Wednesday, 11 June) which will see each school receive more than £600 in high-quality art supplies, plus a personal visit and workshop from Semple himself. Semple has joined social mobility education charity Debate Mate to make this happen.

It’s a joyful moment – but one grounded in frustration and urgency. “It’s been a good few years that I’ve been hearing from teachers about just how dire it is,” Semple tells Big Issue. “And I thought we just had to do it. It’s not getting any better. This just has to happen.”

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There’s no symbolic date for the launch, no World Art Day or government initiative to coincide with. “It’s not getting any better and it’s not on the agenda,” he explains when Big Issue asks why now. “We’ve had a new government for a while, and there’s talk about art in schools. But I’m not seeing it. And the truth is, it’s getting worse, and these kids are in complete poverty.

“We know that two-thirds of secondary school teachers are actually using their own money to provide basics for students. The art teachers have been putting their hands in their pockets for years to buy things like glue sticks. And I can’t just sit here and make all these art materials and not share it with them.”

For Stuart Semple, the mission is personal. Growing up working class, art class was a sanctuary. “It was the only place I could really be myself,” he recalls. “My art teacher, Mrs Summers, saw something in me… and I wasn’t getting that anywhere else.” But the materials were basic, often of poor quality. “I didn’t realise till a lot later how much easier it was to express myself with good materials. If you give teenagers really bad art materials, it looks rubbish. And then, of course, they feel like they’ve got no confidence, and then they stop doing art because they feel like they’re rubbish.”

The ART-AID kits are deliberately different. Each includes some of the most iconic materials Semple is known for, including his famously vibrant “pinkest pink” and “blackest black” paints. “I find that they really inspire people”, he says. “It’s got a story. It inspires people. They dream about what they can make with it. It’s exciting for them.”

Semple isn’t just providing paint – he’s proving what’s possible for these children. He’s planning on going into some of these schools to lead workshops, where he’ll help students make a collaborative artwork for their school. “There aren’t creative paths laid out for these youngsters. Because it may not be the academic subjects that are the thing for them; there’s no discredit in being a creative person. It’s not less than, but they feel like it is.”

“I remember when I was a kid, I didn’t even know any artists. I didn’t even think it was a real thing. They’d have the police come in to talk about careers, but you never met an artist. So I can do that.”

He’s also pledging a portion of every Culture Hustle sale, his popular artist materials company, to keep the initiative going. “This is the beginning of something, not a one-off. Whenever anybody anywhere in the world buys any of our paints, that is going to help a school kid in the UK have materials that they don’t have. That’s the idea. And we’ll keep going, and maybe next we’ll do Manchester or Birmingham. As soon as we can do another drop, we will.”

The need for supplies, Semple says, is everywhere. Art GCSEs have dropped by 47% in the past decade. Only 8% of people working in the arts today come from working-class backgrounds. “That means that the whole world is only hearing the voice and the perspective of the richest, most elite people in society. We can’t have that. It’s completely imbalanced.”

He pauses. “It is a creative crisis. It is an emergency.”

But this moment of generosity comes as Stuart Semple faces another battle – one that is far less joyful. In the months leading up to the ART-AID launch, a French court ruled against him in a lawsuit brought by the estate of Yves Klein. Semple had spent ten years developing a vivid blue pigment called “Easy Klein” – a tribute to the avant-garde artist he idolised. The court sided with Klein’s estate, arguing that Semple had unfairly capitalised on Klein’s legacy and imagery. He’s been ordered to pay €16,000 in damages.

He’s appealing the verdict. But the financial and emotional cost is steep. “I’m losing sleep over it. I can’t afford to fight them. They know I’ll run out of money before them, and they’ll win. If I could get to court in Paris and say my piece, I think I’ve got a good chance. But to get there, it’s tens and tens and tens of thousands of euros that I just don’t have.

So why go ahead with ART-AID now?

“Actually, doing this is kind of giving me a bit of sanity and something else to focus on,” he laughs. “It’s a good thing, and it’s an important thing, and I’m just kind of getting my teeth into that.”

Today, Stuart Semple will deliver the kits to 50 schools across London, meet students, and lead workshops in schools throughout the day. He’ll also continue building a network of artists and materials to support the next generation, from showcasing other working-class creatives to donating more books and resources.

“It is almost like a first aid kit,” Semple remarks, referencing the name of his project. “We are on the brink of having a whole generation of non-creative people.

“ART-AID is a package of support. Creativity and imagination – it needs to be fed.”

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