Writer and editor Maddy Costa explores how three Big Local areas – Newington, Devonshire West, and Winterton – used arts and creativity to transform their neighbourhoods. Echoing Arts Council England’s 2020-2030 strategy, which puts citizen creativity at its core, Costa suggests Big Local communities were pioneering a major cultural shift.
In Local Trust’s series of essays, external experts explored how people and places experienced change throughout Big Local. Each essay considers the lessons that institutions and policymakers interested in devolution of power and responsibility to a community level could take from the programme.
These essays highlight the voices and experiences of people living in some of England’s most deprived areas, around themes such as young people, climate change, sports, power dynamics, heritage and more.
A version of this essay was published on the Local Trust website in April 2019.
A plain-text version of this report will be available soon.
