Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 24.04.2025 
At Artiq, culture isn’t an initiative – it’s the foundation of everything we do. It powers our growth, shapes our values, and connects us to each other and the artists and clients we serve. That’s why being shortlisted for the UK Company Culture Awards in the Best Agency to Work For category is more than just a moment of recognition. It’s a celebration of who we are and what we stand for.
Artiq is an international art agency on a mission to create a sustainable, thriving creative economy. We connect clients in the workplace, hospitality, and residential sectors with exceptional artists and cultural experiences while ensuring that artists are fairly paid and their work respected.
In the last three years alone, we’ve paid over £7 million to artists and makers, completed projects around the world, and have grown a network of thousands of talented creatives. Our business model is proof that culture and commerce can, and should, coexist.
Founded in 2009 by a team of two, Artiq has grown into a global agency with a team of over 45. Our people include curators, consultants, researchers, designers, technicians and more, and they are the driving force behind our success. Many have grown their careers here over the years, with several team members nearing a decade with the business.
We entered the Best Agency to Work For category to spotlight something that’s long been central to our success: our people-first culture. As our team has grown rapidly over the last two years, we’ve worked hard to retain the sense of purpose, connection, and inclusion that defines working at Artiq. We believe great culture is not a “nice-to-have” but a business imperative. Our work exists at the intersection of creativity and impact, and our team needs an environment where both can flourish. This award recognises that effort. It’s not just a milestone for us as a business, but also for every individual on our team who brings our values to life each day.
We’re incredibly proud of the culture we’ve built. It’s one rooted in inclusion, fairness, and opportunity. We champion underrepresented voices in the arts, focusing on individual merit and potential rather than labels. We have a 57% female Board, including two women who joined in the past year, and we actively create pathways into the creative industries through collaboration with programmes like 10,000 Black Interns and universities such as The Courtauld and UCL.
From paid sabbaticals to our Help to Buy Art scheme, our benefits reflect the value we place on our team. We offer enhanced family leave, paid charity days, moving days, a peer-reviewed bonus system that recognises how our team live our values, and a generous £1000 training budget for every employee, every year. Our hybrid model (three days in-office, two remote) strikes a balance between flexibility and collaboration and we’ve introduced “team days” to bring close collaborators together in person, improving connectivity and reducing unnecessary online meetings. These small but meaningful changes make a big difference.
Being shortlisted for the UK Company Culture Awards validates everything we believe: that building a sustainable, inclusive, and inspiring culture is good for people and business. As our Chair Patrick McCrae recently wrote, “Creativity doesn’t happen in isolation – it grows through connection, collaboration and the interplay of diverse perspectives. At its core, creativity is about storytelling: building and weaving narratives shaped by the varied voices of a team”
This recognition helps us do more of what matters. It helps us attract and retain brilliant people, champion fairness in the arts, and lead by example in an industry that can be difficult to break into. It tells the world that culture is not only worth creating, but worth protecting.
