COMMUNITY ARTS DEVELOPMENT

It's about harnessing creativity to explore new, creative and exciting solutions to the challenges of life in South Bedfordshire.

It's about improving the quality of people's lives, giving residents the opportunity to express themselves, and to actively engage with the arts as a participant or member of an audience.

We aim to enable people to use the arts to make a positive and lasting difference to their lives.

We try to achieve this by running a variety of community-based arts projects and public art commissions across the District, involving as many people as possible.

We also support local artists and groups by giving advice on how to start up a project, and how to get funding.

We can tell you about the many different types of funding available for the arts and give advice on how to structure an application form. We can put you in touch with other specialist agencies that might be able to help you with your idea.

Here are examples of some of our projects:

Downside Building in the Arts Partnership

Led by South Beds District Council working in partnership with local residents, Dunstable Town Council, Beds County Council and Beds Primary Care Trust. It is steered by Free Form Arts Trust. The partnership is supported by the Arts Council of England East, as one of its five pilot projects in the Eastern region to explore how the arts can be used as a tool for the regeneration of towns and communities.

New Start Magazine (21st November 2003) published an article about the project "The Upside of the Downside". (PDF 1.68MB)