Making the Case for Funding Arts and Culture in Rural Places

Article written by Sarah Bird, Director of OUTSIDE, and 2024 Fundraising Fellow.

Fundraising for the arts faces many common challenges regardless of setting, but rural communities in the UK come up against some unique hurdles. With fewer people, aging populations, limited infrastructure, and historic underfunding, rural areas often struggle to support their cultural aspirations. There also exists in our collective imagination a persisting romanticisation of rural life that hides pockets of deprivation, lower wages, and higher delivery costs for services.

At Staffordshire Moorlands Creative People & Places, where we benefit from regular Arts Council England funding, we still encounter many of these challenges. That’s why sharing success stories and innovative solutions is crucial to strengthening the case for rural arts funding.

It’s no secret that rural areas are often overlooked for funding. Rural arts organisations, squeezed by reduced public support and urban competition, struggle to make their case for fair resource allocation. This issue isn’t unique to the arts sector – Rural Services Network has highlighted how urban residents receive 36% more in government spending per head than their rural counterparts. They also note that delivering services in rural areas is costlier, suggesting that the current funding formula needs to be reviewed to ensure a fairer allocation of resources for rural communities.

Adding to this challenge, the loss of the European Rural Development Fund post-Brexit has removed a key source of investment. While the Levelling Up Fund and Shared Prosperity Fund have provided short-term relief, they are due to end by 2026. With devolution – a core focus of the Labour Party’s manifesto – now beginning to extend to rural areas, there’s hope that the voice of rural communities will be better represented in future policy decisions.

Arts Council England’s Private Investment in Culture Survey 2022 also shows that rural areas receive significantly less investment than cities. It’s not just about having fewer wealthy patrons – rural communities often lack the networks and resources to engage large donors or sponsors.

Although Arts Council England does not have a dedicated rural strategy, there has been growing recognition of the need to support these areas.

The Creative People and Places programme, for example, enables rural communities to take control of their local cultural activities. While this scheme was originally more focused on urban settings it is increasingly adding rural communities to its national programme. Arts Council England also hosts a rural stakeholder group informing policy decisions affecting these communities.

Despite the challenges we face, there are inspiring examples of successful rural arts funding programmes. The Rural Engagement Arts Programme in Northern Ireland empowered local communities to decide which arts activities to pursue and how to fund them, with a focus on grassroots involvement.

Similarly, the Rural Creative Challenge in the North East of England supported innovative arts projects, proving that with the right support, rural communities can create impactful cultural experiences.

Collaboration is key to overcoming the funding challenges in rural areas. Partnering with sectors such as tourism, agriculture, and health allows arts organisations to tap into new income streams. For example, several projects have worked with local farming communities, blending arts with agricultural events to attract a more diverse range of supporters.

In Staffordshire Moorlands, we’re developing a cultural strategy aimed at strengthening partnerships with sectors like housing, health, and education. A recent project in Cheadle celebrated local astronomer Mary Blag, one of the first women accepted into the Royal Astronomical Society. By using a mixed-income model – combining donations, ticket sales, sponsorships from businesses like JCB and Alton Towers, and support from local councils and organisations like the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Film Hub Midlands – we successfully brought world-class arts to our rural area. This approach shows how place-based models can unlock new opportunities.

The arts sector can perhaps learn from other industries too. Organisations like Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) and the environmental sector have built strong local networks, generating consistent funding and support. Similarly, community sports have embraced crowdfunding and membership schemes to sustain grassroots initiatives. These models offer a roadmap that rural arts organisations could follow to diversify their income models.

Not all funding streams are equally accessible in rural areas. Securing donations and major philanthropic gifts is harder in less densely populated areas with lower incomes. However, crowdfunding campaigns and membership schemes have proven successful where there is strong local engagement. Public funding from trusts and foundations remains essential, but rural organisations often struggle to demonstrate the same “reach” or impact as their urban counterparts.

Most importantly, the arts must remain at the heart of rural life. By advocating for fairer funding structures and embracing new models of fundraising, rural communities can preserve their cultural vibrancy and continue to bring people together through creativity.

As Max May from Rural Arts Yorkshire said, “If we create a narrative where you can only access culture in the city, what we’ll see is a decline in rural investment. Every community needs to keep arts at its heart—otherwise, we’re lost.”