Department for Culture Media and Sport

arts and communities

We work with other government departments to strengthen communities through the arts.

We believe that the arts can help individuals and communities by:

  • bringing people together
  • strengthening relationships between local residents
  • welcoming differences 
  • removing social barriers

This belief led us to launch the UK City of Culture scheme, which will begin in 2013.

We work with other government departments to help them to recognise the importance of arts. We:

  • work with the Department of Health, on ways that the arts can help improve wellbeing in the UK
  • work with Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), on using the arts to regenerate local communities
  • are an active member of the Ministry of Justice’s Arts Forum which uses the arts to break cycles of offending behaviour
  • are part of the UK Borders Agency Arts and Entertainment Taskforce, which helps artists and performers from abroad to visit the United Kingdom