Arts Council England

Arts Council England is the national development agency championing arts, museums, and libraries, rooted in a post-war vision to advance creativity for personal and societal renewal. Guided by 'Let's Create' strategy, its core values—ambition, quality, environmental responsibility, dynamism, inclusivity, relevance—drive funding toward a nation where everyone accesses high-quality cultural experiences and expresses creativity across life stages. It empowers charities through partnerships fostering artistic excellence, community empowerment, innovation, and capacity building, believing cultural engagement sparks individual wellbeing, vibrant communities, place-shaping, and social-economic impact via creative growth at personal, organizational, and sector levels.

It invests in music, theatre, dance, visual arts, literature, combined arts, museums, libraries, and music education hubs, prioritizing projects delivering creative activities, public engagement, and audience development for children and young people, diverse communities, and isolated individuals seeking connection through cultural participation. Supported interventions include youth arts groups, festivals, grassroots music venues, professional development and skills training for creatives, therapeutic arts activities enhancing mental health and emotional wellbeing, inclusive community-led programs addressing social isolation, innovative outreach for ethnic minorities and underserved rural communities, organizational capacity building for charities advancing diversity and accessibility, environmental sustainability initiatives in cultural spaces, and place-based strategies promoting intergenerational creativity, confidence-building through performance and visual arts, and collaborative sector development for long-term cultural resilience.

Exclusions encompass non-arts activities, individual medical treatments, and projects lacking public benefit or artistic quality; it avoids statutory education or mainstream welfare without cultural focus. Distinctive for its arm's-length leadership in creative policy, national England-wide remit emphasizing children, young people, inclusivity, and sustainability, it prioritizes grassroots charities, youth creativity, diverse practitioners, and community empowerment via evidence-based, innovative arts interventions valuing lived experience, collaboration, and measurable cultural impact over conventional social services.