Use or ornament? The social impact of participation in the arts

Nicolas Bourriaud has famously termed socially ‘relational’ (Bourriaud, 2002)

what they say about contemporary culture, what they can actually do for audiences, and what they can offer contemporary social relations.

Such approaches often involve drawing on ‘community capacity’ in the form of friends, neighbours, voluntary and community groups. There is growing evidence about how councils can improve outcomes for people and reduce costs by drawing on these different approaches to optimising care delivery (County Council Network and Newton, 2021).