Arts and Culture is Vital for Everyone

Sun 1 Nov 2020

Art and Culture is vital for everyone

The Arts Development Company have put together some short videos to show you why, and to celebrate the positive social impact arts and culture has in Dorset.

Social impact is a significant, positive change to a social issue, for example loneliness and isolation. The Arts Development Company use various tools to measure the social impact of the projects they support, including Artsreach.

In this particular project, we explored the impact of volunteering, arts and culture in our rural communities.

Each year we present a programme of professional arts and culture events in the heart of Dorset's rural communities. We currently partner with over 56 communities and have over 300 volunteers, who gave over 3400 hours to Artsreach events in 2018/19. Watch the film below to hear what some of the volunteers connected with Artsreach had to say about what volunteering means to them.

Volunteering reduces isolation, builds communities and gives volunteers a sense of belonging


Artsreach Socio-Economic Impact Study

Artsreach has also explored the social and economic impact of the arts in rural Dorset, conducting interviews with nine volunteers at a sample of five Artsreach promoting venues between May-September 2019. In addition Artsreach’s relevant and regularly collected statistical information from 2019 was analysed, in order to draw on a mix of qualitative and quantitative information. The final report highlights some interesting conclusions, which we hope you will find an interesting read:


Please take a moment to view the full series of short films by The Arts Development Company about the value of arts and culture in Dorset

Video filmed and edited by the team at Pageant Productions, commissioned and funded by: