About Us
Future Arts Centres is a national network of more than 180 arts centres, working together to champion the unique role these creative spaces play at the heart of their communities.
We connect and support leaders across the UK to share practice, spark innovation, and influence policy, ensuring arts centres remain vital, inclusive, and resilient. Rooted in local life but united in vision, we believe arts centres are essential civic spaces where creativity and communities meet, shaping a future where culture is for everyone.
Our objectives
Champion arts centres as essential civic and cultural spaces, rooted in their communities and responsive to local need.
Support leaders and organisations through collaboration, peer learning, and the sharing of best practice.
Foster innovation and creativity by encouraging new ideas, models, and partnerships across the sector.
Influence policy and decision-making to secure recognition, investment, and long-term sustainability for arts centres.
Promote inclusion and accessibility, ensuring that arts centres welcome and represent the diversity of the communities they serve.
Strengthen resilience and sustainability so that arts centres can thrive in a changing social, cultural, and economic landscape.
History
Future Arts Centres began in 2013 as a peer support group of arts centre leaders who came together to share challenges, ideas, and ambitions. Born out of a spirit of mutual support, the network quickly became a trusted space for collaboration, where leaders could learn from one another and advocate collectively for the role of arts centres in civic life. That ethos of peer support and shared learning continues to underpin everything we do today.
Over the past decade, Future Arts Centres has grown into a national network, championing the essential role of arts centres as creative, community-led spaces at the heart of local life. We have led major national commissions, influenced cultural policy, and supported arts centres in adapting to a rapidly changing world.
In April 2023, Future Arts Centres became an independent registered company and secured funding from Arts Council England as an Investment Principles Support Organisation (IPSO). This marked an important step in strengthening the network’s capacity to support and advocate for arts centres across the country, while staying true to our founding values of openness, generosity, and collaboration.