How culture can improve participation
As it states above, I’m a research fellow from the University of Southampton. Specifically I’m currently the AHRC LUCIA fellow, seconded to the LGA.
Yep. Let’s unpack that a bit.
The LUCIA programme stands for Locally Unlocking Culture through Inclusive Access, and it lasts from April 2026 to March 2027. It’s a nationally funded scheme, run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
It supports six projects across the UK, looking at how culture can improve access and participation, particularly for communities that are seldom heard, or are under-represented or excluded.
I’m working as a fellow embedded in the LGA to connect the findings from these projects to local government needs, and I’m undertaking my own project on participation through socially engaged visual arts practice.
This focuses on how a new model should be grounded in how the sector operates: through studios, galleries and community settings.
The LGA is a partner in the LUCIA programme and was approached to host my fellowship, reflecting its role as the national voice of local government and its work supporting sector-led improvement.
The key reason for that is straightforward: academic research produces a lot of good material, but it is often not accessible or useful for councils in practice.
My role is to translate research findings into formats that are usable, to make sure outputs are clear and relevant, and to work with colleagues and teams across the LGA.
The work is aimed to be genuinely useful for practitioners on the ground.
Across the LUCIA programme, there are projects working throughout the UK. They are using methods such as arts-based workshops, participatory theatre, co-created music programmes and visual arts engagement in different communities and public settings.
What links them all together is a focus on participation, inclusion and building an evidence base around what works in communities.
When we talk about participation, we don’t just mean attending an exhibition or taking part in an arts activity.
What we’re really interested in is participation through culture: being an integral part of civic life, having a community voice and getting truly involved in local decision-making.
We’ll ask questions such as: Who feels able to take part? Who feels represented? Who feels they have a voice? And how can cultural activity in its various guises contribute to tackling all of these questions?
The evidence, after all, indicates that meaningful cultural participation is associated with improved health and wellbeing, greater social cohesion and increased democratic participation.
Yet I’m keen to stress the ‘knottiness’ of this work.
The boundaries between cultural institutions and civic life are now becoming increasingly blurred.
Participation is often embedded in organisations but is not always recognised as such.
Cultural activity is not straightforwardly positive: it can bring people together, but it can also unfortunately reinforce differences and surface tensions within communities.
This research seeks to understand these complexities by working with them.
- If you want to know more or would like to participate, please email J.G.Owen@soton.ac.uk. Find out about all the LUCIA projects