Big ambitions for Culture and Communities - Cross Party Group

Tickets are now live for the next edition of the Cross Party Group (CPG) on Culture and Communities, for which Culture Counts is Secretariat. This event will take place (online and in person, at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh) on the evening of Wednesday 04 June 2025, and you can book tickets here.

At the beginning of 2025, we launched new series of inquiry for this group, exploring “big ambitions for culture and communities”. To kick off, in February 2025 we held an open-contributions event, where attendees each shared their one-minute BIG IDEA for culture and communities. These ranged enormously, from the practical to the philosophical! Some of the themes that emerged were:

  • Scotland’s rich diversity of black and global majority artists and creative practice, and the importance of celebrating, connecting and profiling that.

  • The work required to make equal access to performing arts for marginalised and disabled people a reality.

  • The presence of culture already within all communities, and the role of artists and culture as ‘social glue’ and as essential catalysts for innovation, equity and resilience.

  • Culture’s transformative role and potential in health and education, and the importance of embedding culture in public health, education and place frameworks.

  • The work required to ensure that arts and culture are available to all children, regardless of background.

  • The possibilities in terms of forging better links between culture and other areas of the policy agenda.

  • The practicalities of enabling and supporting cultural lives (through funding, infrastructure and pathways)

You can access the minutes of all previous meetings on the Scottish Parliament website.

To continue this series, at our June event will take a deep dive into one of these themes, exploring the role of museums, libraries and other cultural institutions as community hubs, and the role of culture as "social glue", especially in addressing current concerns around division, polarisation, isolation and the mainstreaming of extremist (far right / misogynist) voices. 

After that, we’ll continue our deep dives in October 2025, before reviewing our discussions and sharing some recommendations on future priorities for culture and communities in early 2026.

These meetings are open to all, but you must be a member of the CPG Culture and Communities to attend. If you are not a member then please join the group here.

Kathryn Welch