The importance of creativity in addressing issues within urban regeneration and social exclusion has been widely recognised over the past ten years and examples exist across the world.

In the UK projects include the regeneration of docklands in Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Cardiff and other maritime cities and towns. In Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham much of the regeneration has been based around the canal and railway systems that brought the industrial revolution and prosperity to these great Victorian cities. Here, new uses have been found for derelict land, urban living quarters have developed along canal banks and creative quarters have been created.

In fact a feature of many of the urban regeneration projects in the UK has been the creation of cultural or creative quarters. In Sheffield, the former powerhouse of the international steel industry, the Cultural Industries Quarter is now the centre of a significant regional hub of the creative economy. This is a reflection of the importance of European funding to the regeneration process in the UK. EU programmes, largely with partnership funding from local government, have financed many regeneration, and by extension, social and community arts projects over the past twenty years.

With the extension of the EU later this decade, the focus of these programme will shift from the UK to the accession states. Only one area of the UK looks set to continue to qualify for structural funds, Cornwall in the south west of England.

In Cornwall a number of agencies are already being developed, largely through EU funding, to serve the regeneration agenda, these include Cornwall Arts Marketing, Creative Kernow and the planned Cornwall Heritage Marketing. All of these agencies seek to provide information to the wider general public about arts events and creative opportunities, which will then charge the regional economy through the development of new businesses oriented towards the tourism or creative industries.

The impact of culture and creativity on regeneration was discussed at a conference organised by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in February 2003. Building Tomorrow: Culture in Regeneration examined the role of culture in regeneration projects, drawing heavily on the experience of the North of England.

But social and community arts are not just about the regeneration agenda, they are also about ordinary people developing their own creative talents and expressing them.

Many of these projects are funded through regeneration budgets. Some are funded through programmes that have been developed to ensure that disadvantaged communities are given access to information and resources that they don’t usually have or as a tool to develop the communities themselves. Some again are about giving pride back to an area that has lost its identity.

Local Government (Local Authorities or City or District Councils) are the principal delivery mechanism for the funding of social and community arts projects. They have an immediate interest in ensuring the well-being of their citizens and communities and most today have Cultural or Arts and Heritage Departments, developing and delivering strategies for the provision of accessible arts activity and arts activity with its roots in local communities.