Arts service

The arts cover a wide range of creative opportunities including visual arts and crafts, media arts, performing arts and literature.

We aim to help and encourage everybody in the community to have equal access to a range of high quality arts opportunities, either as participants or audiences.

We work in partnership with other organisations to make sure the arts opportunities on offer reflect the needs of the local community.

Wiltshire Cultural Strategy 2024-2030 - Connecting through creativity

Wiltshire will be a vibrant beacon of culture where the joys of curiosity, community, nature and heritage help imagine new futures and improve the quality of life for everyone. Our vision is for Wiltshire to be a place of creativity, celebration and connection, inspired by the rich diversity of our surroundings, powered by culture, driven by purpose, and united in action.

By 2030, our vision is for a better-connected place where culture is the heartbeat of every village, town, city and landscape. Through creativity, shared experiences, a collective commitment to our environment and access for all, we aim to foster a sense of belonging that resonates with everyone. Wiltshire will be a place where culture supports health and happiness, where young people and creative enterprise can flourish and where economic growth is stimulated through distinctive and vibrant places where people want to visit, live, work, and raise a family. We want all residents in Wiltshire to enjoy the benefits that culture brings including those who face additional barriers to cultural engagement and creative participation.

Wiltshire Council is designing the strategy around seven key themes:

• Identity - Culture connects people with the places they live. It helps to discover more about our environment, its history, and its heritage
• Community - Use arts and culture as a vehicle to revitalise town centres and increase footfall. Increase engagement with nature and the environment through culture and reduce the environmental impact of cultural activity.
• Health and wellbeing - Support good physical and mental health and wellbeing and community resilience.
• Economy - use arts and culture as a mechanism to support economic growth in Wiltshire.
• Tourism - Use art and culture to attract greater visitor numbers to Wiltshire and increase tourism
• Communicate - Increase the number of people experiences and creating culture in Wiltshire
• Connect - Enable the creation of a diverse creative workforce for the future.

The themes are underpinned by three principles

• Empower others - take and enabling approach, working in partnership, co-creating and making things easier for independent action
• Environment - Be ambitious in caring for and enhancing the natural environment and addressing climate change
• Access - Working towards universal 'cultural entitlement; and ensure all opportunities are designed to be inclusive and accessible to all.

Wiltshire Cultural Strategy 2024-2030 (PDF, 4 MB)(opens new window)

Arts in Wiltshire

The arts service hosts its own blog The Arts in Wiltshire (opens new window). The blog is used to help identify and share opportunities and ideas that come to the arts service from the arts sector, and help those with a great project to reach out across the county to connect with other artists and communities. As well as being a creative space, the blog is a place for those working in arts and culture to keep up to date with jobs, opportunities, funding, resources and training.

If you would like to contribute please visit The Arts in Wiltshire blog (opens new window) or contact arts@wiltshire.gov.uk (opens new window).

Join our mailing list (opens new window) to receive our Arts in Wiltshire newsletter to keep in touch with opportunities in arts and culture in Wiltshire.

Information, advice and signposting

The Arts Lead is based at the Trowbridge Wiltshire Council  office but also works from the  Young Gallery in Salisbury.

You can keep up-to-date with the service and opportunities in the sector on The Arts in Wiltshire blog (opens new window).