Communities and Engagement
Discover our development activities, supporting people in all communities across England to engage in creativity and culture.
Our work
Our work
Access to creativity and culture is a fundamental right for all, regardless of background or geography. We’re committed to ensuring that everyone, everywhere, and at all stages of their life, has the opportunity to engage in high quality experiences.
We deliver funding programmes, development activities, practical toolkits and research to support communities across England to engage with the very best creativity and culture.
In 2012 we launched the Creative People and Places programme, which focuses on parts of the country where engagement in creativity and culture is significantly below the national average. We invest money thanks to National Lottery players, who raise £30 million for Good Causes every week. It funds consortium partners in eligible local authority areas to empower local people to decide what kind of creative activity they want to experience in their place.
In 2022 we launched the Place Based Peer Learning Programme, which focuses on the shared needs of Creative People and Places, Local Cultural Education Partnerships and Cultural Compacts. The programme will provide opportunities for these partnerships to build networks, collaborate and exchange knowledge, best practice and ideas, supporting communities to engage with arts and culture.
We’ve supported older people to engage in creativity and culture through our partnership programme with The Baring Foundation, Celebrating Age. We’re also working closely with the Department of Culture Media and Sport and three delivery partners (Libraries Connected, Association of Independent Museums and Creative Lives) to deliver Strand 1 of the Know Your Neighbourhood Fund, investing in projects in 27 eligible local authorities, which tackle loneliness and social isolation and increase volunteering opportunities.
Our Publications and Resources
Creative People and Places launched in 2012 and is an intervention to inspire new ways of thinking about cultural engagement in local authority areas where the official statistics showed historically low levels of engagement.
Discover what co-creation means, how it can help you actively listen to and collaborate with the local community and form new partnerships as well as helpful insight on putting it into practice.
Learn more about Everyday Creativity and how you and your organisation can support this…
Arts Council England has commissioned this guide with 64 Million Artists to support those who are interested in finding out more about Cultural Democracy and exploring how they might put it into practice.
Latest Blog Posts
Tess shares her story about finding her purpose through creativity and culture in the most challenging times of her life.
Celebrating ten years of our Creative People and Places programme.
Throughout the pandemic, cultural organisations and creative individuals have transformed how they work to ensure people can stay connected despite Covid-19 restrictions.
What do Basildon’s shopping centre, Middlesbrough FC, Bradford’s teaching hospital and Rotherham Ethnic Minority Alliance have in common? They’re all set to take their part in transforming the arts and culture in their communities.
As the government launches a number of funding programmes for local communities, Paul Bristow, our Director for Strategic Partnerships, explains how these can be used to help creativity and culture thrive locally.
