neighbourhood renewal & community cohesion

Arts build community pride
We believe that culture and the arts should be placed firmly at the heart of both neighbourhood renewal and community cohesion.

The arts have the capacity to:

Develop individual pride and community spirit
Help reverse the spiral of decline in disadvantaged areas by fostering a new sense of community and civic pride amongst residents
Attract new commerce and businesses to deprived areas
Provide a positive focus for community activity and innovative training opportunities
Recognise and celebrate cultural diversity to the cultural benefit of the whole community

Working together to build community spirit
DCMS and Arts Council England support the work of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).

They aim to bring about the renewal of neighbourhoods, building community cohesion in disadvantaged and excluded communities.

What is community cohesion?
The development of Community Cohesion is the attempt to build communities with four key characteristics:

A common vision and a sense of belonging for all communities
The valuing of diversity
Similar life opportunities for all
Strong and positive relationships between people from different backgrounds and circumstances in the workplace, in the school and within neighbourhoods.

How does this work?
Arts Council England has numerous examples of how arts based interventions are building community cohesion; many through lottery funding distributed via the Arts Council.

Visit Arts Council England to find out more.