Our vision

Explore the strategy

Our vision

OUR DEFINITION OF CULTURE AND CREATIVITY
OUR DEFINITION OF CULTURE

‘Culture’ means many things to many people and is often used to refer to food, religion and other forms of heritage. Here, though, we use it to mean all those areas of activity associated with the artforms and organisations in which Arts Council England invests: collections, combined arts, dance, libraries, literature, museums, music, theatre and the visual arts. By describing all of this work collectively as ‘culture’, rather than separately as ‘the arts’, ‘museums’ and ‘libraries’, we aim to be inclusive of the full breadth of activity that we support, as well as to reflect findings from the research we commissioned for this Strategy, which showed that members of the public tend to use the words ‘the arts’ and ‘artists’ to refer specifically to classical music, opera, ballet or the fine arts. Similarly, we have used ‘creative practitioners’ rather than ‘artists’ as an umbrella term for all those who work to create new, or reshape existing, cultural content.

 
OUR DEFINITION OF CREATIVITY

‘Creativity’ describes the process through which people apply their knowledge, skill and intuition to imagine, conceive, express or make something that wasn’t there before. While creativity is present in all areas of life, in this Strategy, we use it specifically to refer to the process of making, producing or participating in ‘culture’. We also recognise that the traditional boundaries between and around cultural activities are disappearing as new technologies and other societal changes alter the ways in which many artists, curators, librarians and other practitioners work, as well as how culture is made and shared. We’re excited by these changes, which we expect to accelerate over the next decade – and in response, we will become more flexible about the range and type of cultural activities that we support over the years to come.

BY 2030, WE WANT ENGLAND TO BE A COUNTRY IN WHICH THE CREATIVITY OF EACH OF US IS VALUED AND GIVEN THE CHANCE TO FLOURISH, AND WHERE EVERY ONE OF US HAS ACCESS TO A REMARKABLE RANGE OF HIGH-QUALITY CULTURAL EXPERIENCES

We believe that creativity and culture are deeply connected, but different. Creativity is the process by which, either individually or with others, we make something new: a work of art, or a reimagining of an existing work. Culture is the result of that creative process: we encounter it in the world, in museums and libraries, theatres and galleries, carnivals and concert halls, festivals and digital spaces. In this Strategy, we are drawing a distinction between the two because we want everyone to have more opportunities for both: to be creative, and to experience high-quality culture. Having the time and tools to develop personal creative potential can be profoundly fulfilling, while engaging in culture is often a route to inspiration and delight. Taken together, they can help us make sense of ourselves and of each other: they provoke and uplift us; they unite communities; and they bring us joy. If access to either creativity or culture is limited by where people come from or what they do, the whole of society loses out.

A child taking part in an art activity at a museum
Photo by Children from Ingleton School working on arts projects, The Bowes Museum
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Let's create a nation full of creators

Many people already lead wide-ranging creative and cultural lives: they dance, draw and write; they read, visit museums, and listen to music; and they encourage their children to do the same. Much of this activity is not publicly funded, and has therefore traditionally fallen outside of the Arts Council’s remit. But with this Strategy, we aim to recognise and champion the creative activities and cultural experiences of every person in every town, village and city in this country, and to ensure that, over the next 10 years, we support more people to express and develop their creativity and create more opportunities for them to enjoy the widest possible range of culture. We will do this because we believe that everyone, everywhere should benefit from public investment in creativity and culture, given their power to fulfil us, and to transform the communities in which we live and work. And we will do this because we want England to strengthen its reputation as one of the most creative countries in the world.