How can cultural value be co-created with audiences in a democratic and collaborative way? Ben Walmsley shares seven recommended reads with ideas from leading practitioners and researchers.

What is cultural democracy and how have ideas about cultural democracy – from the radical to the pragmatic – influenced policy and practise? David Stevenson shares seven recommended reads on cultural democracy and challenges you to think about how cultural participation is understood and supported in the UK.    

Are you thinking about participation and the different values we all bring to our experience of culture? Here are six recommended reads that will help you explore the different meanings people give to ‘participation’ and how this affects the approaches we might take.

Each year thousands of people take part in 64 Million Artists 31 days of free creative challenges. #TheJanuaryChallenge takes place across social media and promotes creativity, peer support and wellbeing. This report explores the impact and reach of The January Challenge online and offline.

An in-depth look at new approaches to touring participatory international performance in England.

A behind the scenes look at Theatre Royal Plymouth‘s Our Space project from three different perspectives. In  Blog 3 Big Issue vendor, member of Project X and Our Space Steering Committee member, Clive Rowe, tells us his story.

A behind the scenes look at Theatre Royal Plymouth‘s Our Space project from three different perspectives: Engagement Manager, practitioner, participant. In the first of three blogs Sara Baldwin, Engagement Manager for the theatre takes us through how the programme started, how it’s evolving to meet the needs of the community and the impact its having ... Read more

This report by Josephine Burns based on documents and data analysis by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, summarises 14-18 NOW’s five-year programme and tells the story of a unique undertaking that brought together art and heritage with a vision ‘to support the creation of artworks by contemporary artists, to engage and stimulate the UK public in fresh and engaging ... Read more

The AMA is backing the OF/BY/FOR ALL change network and following its progress through a range of blogs, case studies and videos. Our series includes a number of Q&A sessions with participant organisations who are furthering their mission to become OF, BY and FOR their communities.

This Field Guide is the final output of The Future Of Cultural Heritage: a year-long collaborative innovation process convened by the New Citizenship Project, working with a cohort of twelve individuals from six organisations across the sector.

In the week New Citizenship Project launches its Field Guide to Purposeful Participation they take us through their journey over the last 12 months  exploring what it really means to think of people as participants in shaping cultural heritage, and institutions as places for that to happen.

A treasury of arts activities for older people. 50 activities, long and short for use with older people in any setting. Published by The Baring Foundation. Written by Liz Postlethwaite

Annabel Thomas, Arts Development Manager at Trinity College, London explains why youth engagement is key to develop strong and lasting connections with potential audiences.

This Cultural Spring and bait Case Study share their Creative People and Places (CPP) programme working to raise participation in arts and culture on South Tyneside and Wearside.

Creative People and Places teams, artists, evaluation partners and critical friends share a selection of approaches, models and methods for evaluating participatory arts programmes.

Learn from Derby QUAD’s experience of engaging and working with over 60-year-olds in a participatory filmmaking project.

Gain top tips for funding and delivering a long-term vision, finding participants for large-scale community projects, and building valuable partnerships.

Learn how Literature Wales adapted an international initiative to engage young people in literature.

This is an in-depth US-based case study documenting the successes of COCABiz: a programme of the Center for Creative Arts that supports the business community in St. Louis, Missouri with integration of artistic practices. COCABiz was a project incubated in EmcArts.org’s Innovation Labs for the Performing Arts programme in 2009, and has since grown into ... Read more

Transported is a strategic, community-focused programme that aims to get more people in Boston Borough and South Holland enjoying and participating in arts activities. This report on Transported’s Empty Shops project explains how empty shops were utilised as pop up arts spaces in August 2013.