Arts And Culture
About
We support arts and cultural organisations that benefit the lives of individuals, communities and society through their work and use our investments to help organisations to become more sustainable and resilient.
Who we are
Arts & Culture Finance sits within Nesta’s Investments directorate and contributes to the organisation’s wider work in the Creative Economy. We manage several social impact investment funds aimed at organisations in the arts and cultural sector on behalf of our funding partners. You can see our partners for each fund by visiting that fund’s page.
Why we do this
We believe that arts and culture play an essential role in our everyday lives, in the forging and understanding of our identity and in growing the UK’s economy. They inspire, challenge and educate us.
As part of the economy, the arts and cultural sector drives growth, creates job opportunities and generates valuable income for our communities.
We also recognise the power of arts and culture to transform people’s lives and be an instrument of social change. There are shining examples of how arts and cultural organisations engage some of the most vulnerable and marginalised communities and help tackle deeply entrenched social problems.
Our vision for arts and culture
- We live in a society where a diverse and sustainable arts and cultural sector enriches people’s lives through motivating cultural engagement and participation and using the power of arts and culture to change lives.
- Arts and cultural organisations are able to articulate more clearly the positive social change they are uniquely placed to have on individuals and communities.
- The social impact of arts and cultural organisations grows as a result of a new impact culture.
- The public at large understand the value of arts and cultural organisations.
- Motivated repayable finance is an established, widely accepted and used form of financial support for arts and cultural organisations.
- Arts and cultural organisations are resilient and thriving, free to plan their future and take autonomous risk with impact and programming strategy and practice.
Learn more about the background to Arts & Culture Finance and the funds we manage >
See how we use social impact investment to support arts and cultural organisations >