We’re an independent ‘think & do tank’ dedicated to the UK’s creative, cultural & heritage ecosystem.
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We’re working to ensure that more people and communities across the UK benefit from the power of creativity, culture, and heritage.
We support our sectors to access the resources and recognition they need to thrive - now and into the future.
We champion under-represented voices and push for policymaking that’s more inclusive, transparent, and open to all.
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The UK’s creative, cultural and heritage sectors are a powerful force for social and economic good. They enrich lives, bring communities together, and drive national prosperity.
Yet these sectors face growing pressures - from funding constraints to structural inequalities - that threaten their future.
We believe a more inclusive and sustainable path is possible, and we’re committed to helping the sectors realise it.
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We work collaboratively with stakeholders across the ecosystem to ensure our approach reflects diverse perspectives and priorities.
Through our consultancy and partnerships, we:
Help clients define and pursue clear policy goals.
Build inclusive coalitions on issues of national importance.
Engage directly with elected officials and decision-makers.
Partner with universities and research institutions on projects with national and global impact.
We are supported with direct and indirect grant and/or core funding from:
Our Work
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We carry out rigorous research that helps creative, cultural and heritage organisations — and the policymakers who support them — make informed, evidence-based decisions.
Our work doesn’t sit on shelves; it moves agendas forward and empowers organisations to act with confidence.
From incisive policy reviews and insight-driven discussion papers to peer-reviewed academic research, our work sparks debate and leads to real-world impact.
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We don’t just react to change - we help shape it.
Our policy design work is grounded in evidence, built for real-world impact, and tailored to the fast-moving realities that our sectors face.
We blend rigorous analysis and sector expertise with political insight and sensitivity, ensuring our ideas land credibly with the decision makers who’ll implement them.
We monitor legislative developments in all four UK parliaments and are increasingly working in regional contexts with mayors as devolution extends.
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We help our sectors and partners make their voices heard.
By convening roundtables, running policy labs, hosting public events and producing accessible thought leadership, we connect creative and cultural stakeholders with key decision-makers.
Our advocacy builds shared understanding, raises visibility, and secures the recognition and resources that the sectors need to thrive.
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We help organisations understand and communicate their impact.
Using mixed-method approaches, we combine quantitative data with lived experience to explore what’s working, what’s not, and what can be improved.
Our evaluations go beyond measurement - they support reflection, sharpen strategy, and provide a credible evidence base for future funding and policy decisions.
We collaborate with people and organisations across the UK’s creative, cultural and heritage sectors - helping them show how their work enriches lives, strengthens communities, and drives national prosperity.
Our role is to help these sectors understand their impact, tell their story, and secure the support and investment they need to thrive. As a for-purpose organisation, we combine the public spirit of a support body with the focus and energy of a consultancy.
Together with partners across the UK, we’re tackling big challenges - from widening access and reducing regional inequalities to building a more sustainable future - so that creativity, culture and heritage can benefit everyone, everywhere.
£21 million
Funding secured for clients
300+
Organisations supported
25
Projects successfully delivered
Who we work with
We initiate and lead projects our own projects and also work in partnership with others to drive towards shared policy priorities.
We work with a wide range of stakeholders, including creative firms, cultural institutions, local authorities, universities, trade unions, funders, parliaments and national governments.
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We help creative firms, cultural institutions and others think about their position within the ecosystem, measure their impacts and articulate how they support policy priorities at a range of spatial scales.
We also help our sectors to get their work recognised by decision makers and put compelling cases for investment together to secure their long-term future.
Our ecosystem focus means that we are able to develop work that benefits everyone - not just those with the time and resources to commission work from us.
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We work with senior leaders, elected politicians and civil servants across the country to boost creative, cultural, and heritage outcomes locally and regionally.
We increasingly partner with elected mayors and their teams to maximise the opportunities that devolution presents.
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We work with researchers and higher education institutions on research projects and help them translate findings into actionable policy recommendations.
We help researchers get their work in front of key decision-makers across a range of government departments to inform live policymaking processes.
Our work supports universities in achieving their goals under the Research Excellence Framework and Knowledge Exchange Framework.
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We work with national governments across all four UK nations, briefing Ministers, Cabinet members, and Secretaries of State and their teams on key policy developments.
Collaborating closely with civil servants, we also help develop practical solutions based on our findings.
We influence policy through evidence submissions to committees and all-party parliamentary groups, while uniting the creative, cultural, and heritage sectors to make sure their priorities reach senior parliamentarians.
Find out about our services
Professor Ben Walmsley, Dean at the University of Leeds
“Culture Commons have affected a step change in the traction that our research is getting with key policy stakeholders at all levels. I really can't recommend them highly enough.”
Latest News
Rosie McPherson, Artistic Director of Stand and Be Counted Theatre
“As an arts organisation, we’ve wanted to have more influence on policy making for years. Culture Commons have opened that door. We've now put across our views to the Home Office and had a meaningful response - that’s just major for us.”
Live Projects
Culture Commons is leading up a national open policy development programme exploring the risks and opportunities that the ‘devolution revolution’ presents to our sectors. A coalition of 30 partners from across the UK have come together to co-commission new research and developing policies that could help us make the most of this period of considerable national change.
The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK
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Developing a Blueprint for a new National Cultural Data Observatory
We’re working with the Centre for Cultural Value, The Audience Agency and My Cake to scope a blueprint for a new national body that will help people, places and organisations to collect, collate and communicate data better.
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Updating UK Government investment priciples through the Measuring Culture & Heritage Capitals project
We’re working with Historic England, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and others to help develop a new framework to measure Culture and Heritage Capitals that will inform an update HM Treasury's ‘Green Book’ approach to investment.
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Setting a new policy direction for the English Civic Museums Network
We’re working with a network of nearly 100 museums across England to identify a new set of policy objectives based on a fast-moving political landscape, develop a new Statement of Purpose and secured investment from the UK Government.
Professor Pascale Aebisher MBE, Lead Researcher on ‘Pandemic & Beyond’
“Culture Commons have had a truly transformative impact on our project. They have radically shifted the ways we engage with policymakers in Westminster, devolved governments and regional leaders through their ready-made networks.”
Featured Publications
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Strengthening the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Submission of Amendments
Author
Trevor MacFarlane
Description
This detailed policy submission sets out a series of proposed amendments to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, designed to embed culture, creativity and heritage within England’s emerging framework for devolved governance. The paper argues that high-quality devolution depends not only on shifting powers but on building the civic and cultural capabilities that make places thrive. It proposes statutory recognition of culture as a devolved competence, new duties for Strategic Authorities to produce Cultural Ecosystem Plans, establishing Culture Forums and appointing Culture Commissioners, alongside measures for cultural data, infrastructure, community rights and investment. Together, these amendments would ensure culture sits alongside transport, housing and skills as a core pillar of place-based leadership — turning devolution into a living expression of local identity, trust and pride in place.
Published as part of The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK.
October 2025
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Culture-led capital projects: catalysing local decision making in place
Discussion Paper
Partners
University of Kent
Author
Dr Cara Courage, Dr Lucrezia Gigante (Culture Commons), Professor Catherine Richardson (University of Kent).
Editor
Trevor MacFarlane
Description
This paper examines how culture-led capital development projects are creating new opportunities for local cultural decision making in the UK. Through an analysis of two live case studies – Docking Station (Medway, Kent) and Harmony Works (Sheffield, South Yorkshire) – we examine how capital development projects function as important nodes within creative, cultural and heritage ecosystems, as well as their potential to enhance the voice of local people within them. We make several tentative recommendations for future policy support mechanisms that could ensure the flourishing of such projects in future.
Published as part of The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK .
April 2025
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A review of devolution and the UK's creative, cultural, and heritage ecosystem
Discussion Paper
Author
Eliza Easton (Erskine Analysis), Trevor MacFarlane (Culture Commons), Jack Shaw (Labour Together).
Description
This discussion paper examines the evolving relationship between the UK’s creative, cultural and heritage sectors and the process of devolution across all four nations. Drawing on detailed analysis of policy, funding and governance trends since the late 1990s, it explores how local authorities, combined authorities and devolved administrations have engaged with the creative economy, highlighting uneven investment, the effects of austerity, and the rising influence of regional mayors. The paper identifies key challenges and opportunities for embedding culture more deeply within devolved systems of governance and proposes ways the sector can better position itself to shape and benefit from future waves of devolution.
Published as part of The Future of Cultural Devolution in the UK.
November 2024