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Trisha Lee

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Whether building a town for giants, building revenue or helping students build their own social enterprise, MakeBelieve Arts is showing the way.

MakeBelieve Arts is a theatre and education company offering programmes in schools and settings outside the classroom to develop the creative potential of children aged two to 15.

As a social enterprise, the company charges for its services; where possible, at a market rate. Profits are re-invested to support the work it does.

Based in Deptford, MakeBelieve Arts has established itself as a high quality provider of services in Lewisham and neighbouring London boroughs. It aims to expand not just across London but throughout the UK and beyond.

With a turnover of £300,000, and employing 32 people in the particularly under-employed profession of drama, the company is both successful and ambitious.

Yet, by her own admission, success was not something that Social Enterprise Ambassador Trisha Lee experienced in her own education.

Trish, who founded the social enterprise in 2002, left school with no A levels. It was only when she was put in touch with what she now realises was a prototype social enterprise, that she realised her vocation.

“At the time I thought they were a bunch of hippies but they were running things like catering businesses staffed by young people who made all the decisions. They were the first people to ask me what I wanted to do with my life,” she says.

Trish discovered her love for theatre and became part of the arts community – a sector she says is full of social enterprises that simply don’t realise what they are.

“Arts organisations don’t have a problem with grant dependency because there simply aren’t the grants available,” she says. “You have to be enterprising to survive but the problem is that most wish they had core funding. We’re flipping that argument on its head and saying we don’t want to be solely dependent on core funds; instead we’re celebrating the diversity of our income streams and enjoying the freedom that gives us.”

Since MakeBelieve Arts often works in schools where a significant proportion of the children are from economically disadvantaged families, the enterprise works hard to balance the need to generate income with making the work affordable to all. It charges modest fees and supports the work through grants and sponsorship.

At St Matthew Academy, set up in Lewisham in 2007 after the closure of two failing schools, MakeBelieve Arts is making a big impression. It has developed programmes to help make maths education more fun, engaging and creative.

Vice Principal, Michael Barry, says that simply having Trish in the classroom has a positive influence on the students. He is still blown away by the feedback from one student who said: “We learn more when we’re having fun and this is fun.”

Trish will soon be working even harder to spread that positive energy with a plan to help one school and its students set up their own social enterprise.

She says: “My message is if you really want to make changes and make a difference you can find a way. If you want it enough you can do it.” 

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Quick Facts

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• From Summer 2008 to Spring 2009 MBA worked with 5,625 pupils and 795 parents/teachers
• The bulk of MBA’s work takes place in areas that rank in the bottom 20 per cent when it comes to deprivation – including parts of the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Greenwich and Southwark
• Last financial year MBA paid £90,000 in freelancer fees to the particularly under-paid and under-employed professionals in theatre
• In 2010, MakeBelieve Arts was shortlisted for the Social Enterprise Achiever Award at the Lewisham Business Awards
• In 2010, MakeBelieve Arts was awarded the new Social Enterprise Mark by the Social Enterprise Coalition

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