UK Arts and Social Change

Arts activity has an increasingly important role to play in social transformation in the UK. The role of arts and sport in achieving social inclusion was formally acknowledged in 1997 by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport Policy Action Team 10. Since then there have been policy initiatives recognising the role of culture in regeneration, community cohesion and civil renewal (see http://www.culture.gov.uk/3206.aspx)

There is a wide continuum of arts activity in the UK that achieves social change, which ranges from mainstream arts audience development with excluded people, to projects achieving purposeful and planned social outcomes with a wide range of people and communities who are experiencing poverty, disadvantage or discrimination.

At root is the transforming potential of the arts as part of the wider framework of culture which influences human values, beliefs and behaviour. Arts activity for social change empowers and enables people to explore ways of improving their quality of life, whether that is releasing the true potential of individuals or bringing communities together to celebrate or find solutions to shared problems.

Creative Exchange has been connecting up organisations, people and thinking in this area since 1997. It has developed a number of papers related to this field which can be downloaded below in Pdf formats.

Developing the role of the arts in UK social policy

A discussion paper - Helen Gould, Creative Exchange, August 2004

(Acrobat PDF document, 16 pages 3.4 Mb)

 

Emerging issues in Arts and Social Inclusion

Creative Exchange, 2003.

(Acrobat PDF document, 15 pages  0.5 Mb)

 

Further information

Creative Exchange ceased operations in July 2008. Further information about this field may be available from the following UK websites and organisations:

Department of Culture Media and Sport: http://www.culture.gov.uk/3206.aspx
Mailout: http://www.e-mailout.org/
East Midlands Participatory Arts Forum (EMPAF) ttp://www.empaf.com/
Social Arts Network: http://socialartsnetwork.ning.com/
Anne Peaker Centre for Arts and Criminal justice http://www.apcentre.org.uk/
Foundation for Community Dance: http://www.communitydance.org.uk/metadot/index.pl
Sound Sense - the National Network for Community Music: http://www.soundsense.org/metadot/index.pl
For international contacts in similar areas see Culture and Development microsite.

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ACE ASI Report (Final).pdf	469.62 KB