Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing Government support for partnerships between local businesses and community arts projects, events and venues, to assist with costs, volunteering and wider support.

The Government welcomes partnerships between local businesses and community arts organisations. Collaborations such as this offer many benefits by promoting health and wellbeing; creating social cohesion and connectivity; and fostering civic engagement, including volunteering.

DCMS provides funding to community arts projects in England through our arm’s-length body, Arts Council England (ACE), who are currently working with partners – including businesses – to strengthen cultural and creative opportunities in communities across the country. Government investment in the Creative People and Places programme, the Cultural Development Fund, and the City of Culture programme are central to this.

Alongside this, the innovative DCMS and ACE funded Cultural Compact model – a recommendation from the independent Cultural Cities Enquiry – has created partnerships that bring together a city or town’s cultural sector, and extend out to sectors and stakeholders beyond culture to provide leadership and strategic capacity helping urban areas make a step change in their strategic governance of culture.

In addition, ACE’s Reset Programme, which launches in Spring 2023, will encourage applicants to consider ways of developing their business models with other arts and culture organisations as well as those in other sectors.