‘I’d like to thank my parents, and Lisa Nandy’

Awards ceremonies are ubiquitous in the world of arts and entertainment. A month doesn’t go by without being confronted by the BAFTAs, the Brits, the Oliviers, the Ivor Novellos, the Turner Prize and countless other awards honouring the great and the good in our culture scene.

We see the stars jaunt down the red carpet, watch the shocked surprise and the tearful thankyous, hear the clink of champagne glasses and feel the heft of statuettes in hands.

The wealth of awards for music, theatre, film, television, literature and visual art is testament to the huge importance of the arts in our lives. We make time to celebrate great art and great artists – as we should. Whether it’s those in front of the camera, or the creatives in the director’s chair or the writers’ room, we applaud our brightest and best.

A brilliantly eclectic treasure chest

At Sky Arts, we’ve collaborated for many years with the inimitable Melvyn Bragg, convenor extraordinaire of the UK arts sector, on the South Bank Sky Arts Awards. Melvyn – Lord Bragg – hosted the only awards ceremony in the world which covers the vast spectrum of the arts, celebrating comedy, opera, classical music, theatre, film, literature, television and more, all in one glorious sitting.

Attending that ceremony was a bit like flipping the lid on a brilliantly eclectic treasure chest. You might see Tracey Emin conspiring with Lenny Henry; Stormzy cheers-ing Benedict Cumberbatch; Phoebe Waller-Bridge gossiping with Carlos Acosta and Nicola Benedetti.

When Melvyn made the decision last year to step down from The South Bank Show and The South Bank Sky Arts Awards, we received the news with heavy hearts. Thankfully, and in true Melvyn fashion, he immediately came up with about ten new ideas – we quickly commissioned his film, Art Matters, a passionate manifesto for placing the arts at the centre of British life.

Honouring the legacy

But we didn’t want to lose that moment of celebration. A night to gather dancers, singers, actors, writers, poets, rappers and painters to say well done, and more importantly, thank you. Thank you for your energy, your passion, for entertaining and inspiring us and our children, and for doing it all, increasingly, against the odds.

The inaugural Sky Arts Awards, which took place last month at The Roundhouse, were born out of that desire to honour and build on the legacy of Melvyn’s South Bank Sky Arts Awards. We wanted to continue to celebrate the diverse and vibrant landscape of British and Irish arts and culture by rewarding excellence across all the arts, as no other ceremony does.

And a celebration it was. AC/DC’s Brian Johnson and Guns N’ Roses guitarist, Slash, took to the stage together in an ultimate rock collaboration. Danielle De Niese, Mary Bevan and Aigul Akhmetshina joined forces as the never-before-seen Three Sopranos, and The Darkness played us out at the end of the night, stage-bombed to perfection by Jim and Nancy Moir.

Arts heroes: The engine room of the sector

But to truly celebrate the industry, we needed to acknowledge all the people who aren’t represented at traditional awards ceremonies, but who are the engine room of the sector. The people who run the box office, make the sets, light the stages, feed the crew, test the amps and take our phone calls – all of whom work tirelessly to bring our cultural experiences to life.

We launched the Arts Hero Award to honour all those unsung heroes who keep this economic powerhouse running. Hundreds were nominated, and we were delighted to crown Sally Spencer, the driving force behind Ex Cathedra’s Singing Medicine project in Birmingham, as our worthy winner. Many other Arts Hero nominees from around the country joined us on the night.

But this year, more than ever, we wanted to shout about the importance of the arts at a time when they have been severely devalued. The UK now has one of the lowest levels of government spending on culture among European nations.

Grassroots music venues, local theatres and public libraries close their doors weekly. Arts GCSE entries have declined by 42% since 2010. We are in danger of losing our next generation of artists and, for those who are still engaged, it’s harder than ever to forge a career in the creative industries.

We know awards ceremonies can act as platforms for debating and uncovering the challenges in the industry. Many winners have used acceptance speeches to great effect, calling for better representation, equity and inclusion, among other things.

A manifesto for the arts

But the dire situation our culture sector finds itself in is worth more than a single speech. So, we set out to rally every artist involved in the Sky Arts Awards as a nominee, winner, juror or guest – as well as our viewers at home and on social – around one argument: art matters, and we must fight for it.

Comedian, writer, campaigner and Mummy, Joe Lycett, was the perfect host to lead the charge. On the night he announced our Manifesto for the Arts, which is packed with cost-neutral proposals that the government could immediately action to improve conditions for people working across the arts and culture sector in Britain, even in trying economic times.

It covers reforming business rates, tackling ticket touts, eliminating red tape and the inclusion of at least one arts subject in every child’s GCSEs. We have, of course, submitted it to the DCMS, and we’re hopeful they’ll take our recommendations into serious consideration.

We also hope the Sky Arts Awards will become a key part of our annual programming, a vehicle not just to celebrate, thank, raise glasses and lift trophies, but to send a message as a collective, collegiate industry. We’re not going anywhere.

You can watch the Sky Arts Awards and Art Matters on Sky Arts, Freeview Channel 36 and streaming service NOW.