Our strategic vision for the next five years 

"We understand the value of local voices, local distinctiveness and local vitality. The cultural ecology needs small, micro groups, and to connect those with others to make communities sustainable, vibrant and diverse. We're bringing a spotlight to those communities, and we're helping to amplify their voices." David Bryan CBE, Chair of Creative Lives

Creative Lives' focus is on local creative groups – not-for-profit, volunteer-led groups whose creative activities are shaped and directed by the people who take part in them. These groups exist almost everywhere, and involve people from almost every community. 

We are constantly evolving to address the changing environment in which we operate. We repositioned the organisation in 2021 to make ourselves more relevant and use our capacity and resources more effectively, focussing more of our work on supporting communities to express their voices, work in collaboration and have a greater civic role.

We believe 2024 represents both a moment of opportunity and a moment of real need for Creative Lives, because of the challenges facing local communities, recent policy changes by Governments and Arts Councils, increasing recognition of the value of everyday creativity, the development of social prescribing and the continued contraction of local government.

To focus our activities more effectively we have developed a new strategic vision for Creative Lives which sets out our bold ambitions for the next five years.

Read our new Strategic Plan 2024-29 below or download it here.