Future Arts Centres: Creating the Conditions for Change report.
Future Arts Centres: Creating the Conditions for Change report.
Future Arts Centres co-directors Annabel Turpin and Gavin Barlow introduce the Future Arts Centres model of change, a framework built from over 200 significant change stories gathered across the network. Rather than measuring impact through attendance or economic contribution, the model shows how arts centres create the conditions (welcome, safety, relationships, consistency) through which people engage with creative and cultural experiences and, over time, grow in confidence, connection and agency.
Future Arts Centres has published a unique Model of Change which evidences how arts centres create change in people’s lives, communities and places.
Their new report, Creating the Conditions for Change: How arts centres create change with communities through culture and creativity, incorporates new insight, data and analysis, drawing on more than 200 stories.
It sets out how arts centres’ unique Model of Change – with all forms of arts, cultural and creative activities, and experiences at the centre – provides the environment, opportunity, and repeated engagement to deliver person-centred, community and place-level change.
The report’s rigorous and clear evidence codifies why and how arts centres deliver wide-ranging societal benefits, from true engagement and co-production to implementing varied policy priorities; from improving economic and social inclusion to community connectivity and cohesion.
Future Arts Centres will be using this new analysis to highlight at national and local level why the arts centres sector provides a proven and innovative solution for politicians, policymakers and service delivery organisation to help their national and devolved policy ambitions.
The Arts Centres’ Model of Change has arts and cultural activities and experiences at its centre: providing the context in which people feel safe, develop relationships, build confidence, express themselves (through creativity), acquire agency over decisions, and change their behaviours and outcomes. The core model incorporates:
· Conditions – arts centres create welcoming, safe and creative environments where relationships can develop over time.
· Experience – people engage through creative and cultural experiences, activities and relationships, often in ways that feel informal, voluntary and self-directed.
· Change over time – through repeated engagement, people frequently describe growing confidence, stronger connections, greater self-expression and agency, sometimes leading to wider changes in their lives.
Read the full report
Future Arts Centres is a national network of more than 190 arts centres across the UK. They strengthen the sector through leadership and organisational development, peer networks, research and advocacy, championing the essential role arts centres play in communities. Together, our members reach millions of people each year through arts, culture and creative participation.
Authors: Annabel Turpin & Gavin Barlow, Co-Directors, Future Arts Centres
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