A better place to live: how arts and culture investment is improving communities
From creating jobs and supporting education to boosting tourism and making weekends fun, public investment in art and culture benefits the local economy and the community.
Folkstone - Culture contributing to regeneration and restoration
Folkstone - Culture contributing to regeneration and restoration
Since it was established in 2002, the Creative Foundation has helped transform the old town of Folkestone into a Creative Quarter, populated by artists and home to a university and creative industries. This work has seen 90 buildings restored and 300 jobs created. Through the Quarterhouse, a performance venue for music, theatre, dance and comedy, the Creative Foundation has a year-round programme that engages local communities and schools.
Over the last six years, we’ve invested nearly £2 million of public funding in several projects led by the Creative Foundation – including the 2014 and 2017 iterations of Folkestone Triennial. Between them, these two festivals have attracted 285,000 visitors to Folkestone and generated a direct benefit of £10.7 million for the local economy.
Mansfield - Providing community space to create
Mansfield - Providing community space to create
In Mansfield, our National Portfolio funding makes the Old Library a central part of the community.
Equipped with a recording studio,100-seat studio theatre, exhibition area, cafe and Mac suite, the Old Library offers something for everyone: from teaching spaces, to workshops and performance.
Pennine Lancashire - Celebrating the community and its history
Pennine Lancashire - Celebrating the community and its history
Along the Leeds & Liverpool canal, the Super Slow Way project has helped over 100,000 people access more arts and culture in their local area.
The project has brought artists to the towpath and empty mills, wharfs, libraries, churches and pubs along its stretch, to work with the people that live there – and we’re proud to have invested £3 million to help make this happen
Everyone involved, to any degree, was like, wow, we’ve never had anything like this in our area
Rauf Bashir, Super Slow Way participant
Projects like Fabrications have explored and celebrated the textile industry in galleries, museums and former textile mills across Blackburn, Hyndburn, Burnley and Pendle.
Swindon - Improving children's development
Swindon - Improving children’s development
Prime Theatre works with Drove Primary School, one of the largest and most diverse primary schools in the South West. 75% of the school’s 700 pupils speak English as an additional language.
By delivering weekly performance poetry sessions to Drove Primary’s Year 6 pupils, Prime Theatre helped them achieve the most progress in reading across Swindon’s primary schools.
Helen Swanson, the school’s Principal, said: “The value of having weekly performance poetry sessions has, I believe, contributed to the outstanding outcomes for our children at the end of Year 6.”
Barking and Dagenham - Involving the whole community
Barking and Dagenham - Involving the whole community
Creative Barking and Dagenham is a programme working to engage more local residents in arts and culture.
Benefiting from £1.6 million investment by the Arts Council over six years, the programme has introduced DAGFEST in Dagenham Village, a cross-arts and crafts participatory workshop for adults and opened up ballet and opera to more people by bringing it to Thamesfest in Barking Riverside.
There was a lot of isolation earlier – now it’s becoming more of a neighbourhood, and community spirit is increasing
Deepa Srinath, Creative Barking and Dagenham participant
It’s also supported social cohesion, bringing together the different local communities’ stories of the river and connecting stories of Barking and Dagenham to the Totally Thames Festival through The Silk River, a Re-imagine India project led by Kinetika.
Tell your story
Tell your story
Tell your MP, council and local residents how your work makes your community a better place to live.