Speight Of The Art - The Mark Speight Foundation Newsroom

About Us

Speight of the Art – the Mark Speight Foundation (www.speightoftheart.org.uk) is a national registered charity (no. 1128085) working to bring the benefits of visual and performing arts to children of all ages.

Speight of the Art was founded in 2008 by businessman and former motorsport television commentator and producer, Oliver Speight, in memory of his son Mark Speight, the star of BBC children’s art programmes such as SMART.

Since 2008 he has brought artistic and creative experiences to nearly 11,000 children from all walks of life throughout the UK, ranging from Mayor Boris Johnson’s Art Week for children that was held in London in 2009 to organising a marquee of arts activities at Stafford North M6 motorway service station!

In the early years Speight of the Art was almost entirely supported by Oliver Speight himself. He sold his house in France to set up the charity and in doing so reached over 10,000 children with Speight of the Art funded workshops. Speight of the Art is currently involved in a project with the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) called ‘Artlands’. It is an exciting joint venture to provide 32 weeks of artistic and creative workshops at the children’s ward of the Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham and in local schools from November 2012 to June 2013. This innovative project, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, has been developed to bring together local school children and children in hospital to take part in a series of artistic and creative workshops led by professional artists on the theme of ‘well-being’.

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