We have an open and working definition of an arts centre:

Arts centres are public-facing, building-based cultural organisations, rooted in and shaped by the places and communities they serve.

While every arts centre is different, they typically share a number of characteristics. They:

• bring together multiple artforms and different kinds of cultural and creative activity under one roof, rather than being principally defined by a single artform
• take an active artistic and curatorial role, developing, commissioning, producing or presenting work rather than primarily providing space for others
• combine spaces for performance, exhibition, participation, making, learning and social activity
• respond to their communities and locality, often working with partners across education, health, local government and the voluntary and community sectors
• operate with a mixed-income, social-enterprise approach, generating income that is reinvested in their artistic and social purpose

There is no single arts centre model, and organisations will reflect these characteristics to different degrees. What connects FAC members is a shared approach: combining artistic ambition with a broad cultural and civic role, and allowing their relationship with people and place – rather than a particular artform – to shape what they do.

FAC membership is therefore not simply for any organisation that operates a cultural venue or presents more than one artform. We consider the organisation as a whole, including whether it has a genuinely multi-artform identity, its artistic purpose, its relationship with its community and place, the role of its building, and the breadth of its cultural activity.

Whilst we actively want to support and collaborate with organisations that don’t fall within that working definition (e.g. theatres which are single art-form, or organisations primarily focussed on artist development), Future Arts Centres has been established to support the broad but unique challenges faced by the arts centres sub-sector, so membership applies to the organisations that meet these considerations. Please get in touch if you have any questions or if you’re not sure if your organisation fits this working definition.