DCMS expands Culture Priority Places to bolster museum attendance

The government has identified 81 local authority areas as Culture Priority Places where cultural funding and investment will be concentrated, based on low attendance at museums and libraries alongside high deprivation.

DCMS made the commitment to expand its existing  in its Culture Priority Places in response to the Independent Review of the Arts Council.

The list has been specifically developed for application in programmes relating to museums, libraries, and the visual and performing arts. How the list will apply to individual programmes will be determined on a case-by-case basis and made clear through published guidance for each relevant programme.

The methodology ranked lower-tier local authority areas based on three measures of physical engagement with culture from the 2023-24 Participation Survey: physical attendance at an arts event in the last 12 months, physical attendance at a library in the last 12 months, and physical attendance at a museum in the last 12 months.

Areas were also ranked based on their share of neighbourhoods experiencing both high deprivation, as measured by the Indices of Multiple Deprivation, and high community need, as measured by the Community Needs Index. The government describes this as “double disadvantage”.

The methodology excluded local authority areas that have received high per-capita levels of Arts Council funding since 2021, on the basis that in these areas the policy challenge is not the level of funding but how it is deployed and who it is reaching.

The list builds on Arts Council England’s existing Priority Places programme, which has been prioritising 54 places since 2021 with a commitment to continue that support until 2027. According to DCMS, this programme has been effective in increasing funding focused on local authority areas with higher levels of deprivation.

Twenty-three new areas have been added to the Arts Council’s existing Priority Places, creating a combined list of 81 places rather than replacing the existing programme. The government states that research has recommended taking a long-term approach to cultural development in places.

Existing Arts Council Priority Places also on the list include Ashfield, Blackpool, County Durham, Great Yarmouth, Rochdale, Stoke-on-Trent and Walsall.

According to the government, it expects the approach to support a meaningful shift over time of investment and participation in culture in Culture Priority Places. The government states it is clear about its high ambition in this respect with funding partners.

Culture Priority Places will change over time, with areas no longer deemed priority places when they have achieved real change in their cultural participation and provision. The government will work with the Arts Council on a methodology to determine which places will leave the list and when, to be set out in due course.

DCMS will work with funding partners including the Arts Council to determine for which policies, programmes and funds the Culture Priority Places list will be used.