What is Art Is Key?
Art Is Key supports 17–25 year-olds living with HIV to share their stories through the creative arts, producing powerful pieces of music, drama, spoken word, and even podcasts.
Every year, a group of young people come together over several sessions to co-produce a piece of work with Chiva and professional artists, in collaboration with performing arts organisation, Turtle Key Arts. It’s a safe space to explore and express experiences of living with HIV and use these as inspiration. All costs and travel are covered.
Get involved
Applications to Art Is Key 2026 are now closed. Please follow our social media account for any updates on future programmes.
Previous years
Journeys (2024)
The Journeys is a mix of creative expressions developed by young people working with professionals in drama and music. They took part in art sessions to create props and scenes and together created this motion animated film. Writing and performing on the topic of Journeys, young people explored their journey of HIV as well as connecting with the theme of journeys to the UK.
Voices of the House (2021/2022)
In 2021/2022, the Art is Key group wrote and produced the musical Voices of the House, which explored their experiences of growing up with HIV.
It was created through a series of online workshops and in-person residentials, and performed at the 16th annual Chiva conference, receiving a warm response.
“This weekend has been great. We worked together to create something which has an in-depth message, formed from the foundations of acceptance, unconditional love, insecurities, fear, a sense of belonging and identity.”
Art is Key alumni project (2020)
Throughout July 2020, we ran an Art is Key alumni project to celebrate all the creative work delivered since 2013 on this programme. Young people worked with professional artists virtually throughout the month to create new material. This captured some of the experiences of connection between young people who had attended Art is Key previously and current feelings around lockdown and the impact of COVID-19.
A collective song and group poem were produced and shared during an alumni event held online at the end of the month. Previous Art is Key participants along with Chiva trustees, funders, and partners attended the virtual celebration. Work from past projects was also shared and young people gave live performances of drama, poetry and music.
Listen to A Place Where I Belong, a song written by young people from Art is Key during lockdown.
The ArcHIVe podcast (2019)
In 2019, Art is Key participants produced the ArcHIVe podcast, which included conversations, poetry, and music exploring stories of growing up with HIV. All material was written by the young people, the background music was produced by one of the participants, and the narrator was a project facilitator who also grew up with HIV.
“It’s only right we have our stories told, by us, for us, about us… I am me, not HIV.”
The podcast talks about misinformation on HIV and AIDS, stigma, managing HIV medication and how difficult it can be to talk to other people about living with HIV. And that through building a community and feeling accepted, young people can become empowered. It shows young people living with HIV as ambitious, powerful, and positive about their lives and future aspirations. They are a strong community determined to change the story of HIV.
Life Growing Up (2018)
This award-winning film came out of Art is Key 2018, where participants worked with performance poets, musicians and a drama director. They shared their experiences of growing up with HIV in individual interviews, which formed the basis of a theatre piece and then short film Life Growing Up, written and produced by Danny Scheinmann and Sarah Sutcliffe.
- Listen to poems written and performed by Art is Key participants in 2018.
- The film is available in British Sign Language and with subtitles here
The film was directed by Simon Baker and produced by Tamsin Herbert, starring Alistair Nwachukwu, Jack James Ryan and Maia Watkins. It won the Long-form Under £5million Turnover Category at the 2020 Charity Film Awards.
Chiva would like to thank all those who made this film possible: those named above, the young people who shared their stories, and ViiV Healthcare for funding the project. We would also like to pay tribute to Simon Baker who sadly passed away in 2019.
Find out how we’re bringing Life Growing Up to classrooms around the UK and Ireland.
If You Knew (2016)
In 2016, Art is Key participants worked alongside a professional filmmaker and drama facilitator to generate the ideas, characters and scenarios that would form the basis of their film, If You Knew.
The film explores the experiences of two young people navigating their adolescent lives with HIV. One is determined to tell her peers about HIV and chooses to give a talk at college for World AIDS Day. The other character has not long been in the UK and is struggling to accept her HIV and take medicine. The two characters then meet at Chiva’s Freedom to Be (F2B) support camp.
The young people who wrote, produced and acted in If You Knew wanted to explore challenges around taking HIV medicines continually, and how sometimes clinic appointments can create anxiety. They also wanted to spotlight positive messages of hope and encouragement.
A week was spent making the film at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, with young people taking roles as technicians, camera operators, directors, producers, and actors.
The first Art is Key (2013)
In 2013, we delivered the first Art is Key project with Turtle Key Arts and Platform. Drama, music, and poetry were used to explore experiences young people raised around navigating teenage life with HIV.
This clip is from the final sharing session.
