Growing the Grassroots

The role of grassroots arts activities in communities

Tuesday 18 October 2011, 10.30am – 4.30pm
Cecil Sharp House, London

The 'Growing the Grassroots' conference was organized through a partnership between Voluntary Arts, the University of Exeter, the Third Sector Research Centre (University of Birmingham) and the University of Glamorgan. The event was sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and hosted by The English Folk Dance and Song Society at their home in Cecil Sharp House, London.

Opened by Ed Vaizey MP (Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries) the purpose of the day was threefold, to:

• Present the initial findings of a scoping study, undertaken by the above partners, into the role of grass roots/amateur arts groups in communities
• Explore the implications of the scoping study in more detail and gather participant experiences of the impact of amateur arts
• Celebrate the amateur arts through performances and presentations.

The presentation of key findings by Jenny Phillimore (University of Birmingham) and Jane Milling (University of Exeter) is available below. A full conference report is available here: Download PDF, 1.31MB.

A briefing and working paper giving more details of the findings of this scoping study will be available shortly.The role of_grassroots_arts_in_communities

Photos from the day