Co-Creating Change – Battersea Arts Centre

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch) is one of the founder funders of Co-Creating Change, a network and programme facilitated by the Battersea Arts Centre which explores the role which artists, cultural organisations and communities can play to co-create change together around the UK and beyond. Since 2018, the UK Branch has contributed with £180,000 to this programme.

In its initial phase, Co-Creating Change network has enabled cultural organisations to develop their civic and social role by sharing skills, approaches and good practice across different geographic areas. Since 2020, Co-Creating Change has shifted its focus to consolidate and disseminate work to date, through learning events, growth and scaling of commissions and developing an International Marketplace of Ideas, all of which will increase impact and wider access to learning and replication. 

The Battersea Arts Centre has a strong track record of bringing together effective multi-disciplinary networks, including the Collaborative Touring Network and The Agency, a creative process model to help young people set up their own artistic projects and businesses, which adapted a methodology from Brazil to partners in Manchester, London, Cardiff and Belfast. The network also draws on BAC’s Agents of Creative Change model, previously funded by the UK Branch and Paul Hamlyn Foundation and is a proven approach to spreading exceptional socially engaged practice.