This paper summarises findings from a roundtable event – What Can Creative Democracy Be? – held on 22 April, 2026 at Goldsmiths, University of London. The roundtable focused on exploring ways to better define, and begin to apply in practice, the idea of Creative Democracy, a term that Future Arts Centres have been using to talk about the bridging role that arts centres can take between local communities and public sector bodies.

Future Arts Centres Co-Directors Annabel Turpin and Gavin Barlow joined partner Tim Jones of TJ Culture at UKREiiF 2026 to convene a cross-sector workshop on one of the most urgent questions facing the government’s New Towns Programme: what should a cultural infrastructure standard for new places look like?

A case study exploring ARC Stockton’s use of the Most Significant Change methodology since 2019, sharing how story‑based evidence has helped the organisation understand its impact more clearly and supported ongoing learning and decision‑making.

This report shares learning from the Individual Giving Action Research Group, which implemented and tested individual giving initiatives in arts centres.

Exploring how developers and arts centres can build deeper, smarter partnerships that deliver lasting value for places, people and projects.

Future Arts Centres and Arup have joined forces to highlight the critical need to restore ageing cultural infrastructure and support creative communities across the UK.

Diversifying our staff teams is a key agenda for most arts centres. Many of us have reviewed our recruitment policies and practices with varying degrees of success. There is a growing body of expertise in this area but time, resources and finding appropriate advice are all barriers to making effective changes.

The Inclusive Recruitment Action Research Group (October 2023 – March 2024) explored these issues and this document shares headline learning and ‘top tips’.

The Collaborative Commissioning Action Research Group (September 2023 – March 2024) was set up to build on the success of commissioning models developed in arts centres. This report shares an overview of the activity and learning from the group.

In 2023-2024, a Future Arts Centres action research group learned about the Most Significant Change evaluation methodology and tested how it can be used in a UK arts centres setting.

This report explains the Most Significant Change evaluation approach, the benefits and impact of the action research and what we learnt about the value of arts centres.