As a global community we have been dealing with the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic for more than a year now, and as things start to slowly open up and our lives look like they might one day return to some semblance of normality, individuals, organisations and government and public sector bodies are once again […]
The global pandemic has changed life as we know it – from how we shop and where we work, to where we can go and who we can meet, and the result of the ongoing restrictions is that many of us have more time on our hands and far less to do with it. For […]
The internet and the digital technology required to access it has never seemed more important to the daily success of our lives, and indeed our survival, as it does in 2021. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which took hold across the world in 2020, at the time of writing many are still dependent […]
Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is, in brief, what happens when physical and intellectual wealth – think everything from concert halls, churches, to leisure centres, saunas and cinemas – combine and develop with the people and communities that use them. Defined by UNESCO as ‘a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill, as well as the instruments, […]
Arts and cultural engagement is linked with positive health and wellbeing outcomes. A scoping World Health Organisation report analyses data from over 3000 studies. In 2018 and 2019, Daisy Fancourt worked with the World Health Organisation on a report examining the links between arts and cultural engagement and health outcomes. Fancourt reviewed the findings from […]
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Armstrong discusses the vital role the creative sector needs to play in our recovery and long-term future with Chief Economist of the Bank of England, Andy Haldane. The culture industry has had a tough pandemic. Theatres struggling, TV and film production adapting slowly, live music, galleries and cinemas trying to survive. […]
Author and journalist Mark Fisher explores the impact of access to music participation with Assal Habibi, Assistant Research Professor of Psychology at the Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California. Being a teenager from a deprived background must be especially hard during the pandemic. But one such group of youngsters have had an advantage. They’re […]
Big Noise is an intensive, immersive model of music education which delivers benefits far beyond instrumental skills. Inspired by El Sistema, set up in Venezuela in 1975, increased confidence, greater resilience, improved focus and discipline are just a small number of the benefits associated with participation in Big Noise, as identified over several years of […]
Brendan Cormier, Senior Design Curator, V&A. The first days of lockdown in the UK will be remembered as strange and surreal: the news cycle in hyperdrive, every day new instructions from the government, and everyone everywhere trying to pivot as fast as possible to a constantly changing scenario. Particularly striking was how a handful of […]
Belief in humanity, even in the darkest of times is the enduring lesson of Jan Karski’s extraordinary life. A Polish World War II hero, Holocaust witness, and late beloved Georgetown Professor, his legacy is explored in a powerful monologue Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski, delivered for the Special Edition by Oscar-nominated actor David […]
When the Heron Foundation revolutionised its investment model it raised eyebrows and plaudits across the spectrum from small non-profits to Wall Street. Its mission to help people and communities help themselves out of poverty drove a massive revision of its strategy resulting in a commitment to invest in organisations able to help achieve its mission […]
The Edinburgh International Culture Summit brings together Culture Ministers, artists, thinkers and arts leaders from around the world to share ideas, expertise and best practice, with a view to inspiring positive change in cultural policy and investment.
For the 2018 Culture Summit, we caught up with with Prince Théogène Niwenshuti, David Levenhal and Dr Catherine Calderwood on the relationship Culture can have on the well being of people.
Prof Richard Sennett talks to us about what makes good Cultural Investment and the problems cities face today in cultural investment.
Prof Richard Sennet and Dr John Bingham-Hall talk to us about Theatrum Mundi, an organisation set up with the aim of improving the understanding of cities through education and research.
What is Culture? Why does it matter? We went across Europe to hear what people had to say.
We went to speak with artists in Edinburgh to discover what does Culture and Arts mean to them.
With the cultural centre of gravity about to shift to Edinburgh for the summer, British Council have published the Edinburgh International Culture Summit report. ‘Connecting Through Culture’ reflects discussions held in the Scottish Parliament during the last Culture Summit. It focusses on three topics: culture in a networked world, culture and wellbeing, and culture and […]
The final report from the 2016 Edinburgh International Culture Summit, Culture: Building Resilient Communities explores the vital issues facing today’s policymakers and cultural sector. The report, authored by the British Council, reflects discussions that took place in the Debating Chamber and Committee Rooms of the Scottish Parliament, based on the theme of the role of culture in […]