Our current projects:

Babigloo Music for Babies

An approach to early years music-making for the very youngest children (under one year) and their parents or carers. It is the brainchild of Jenny Gordon, a Dorset-based musician, who saw a need for quality musical provision to support new parents who were experiencing anxiety and low-level post-natal depression. Find out more >

Case for Culture Dorset

Arts and culture strengthens our communities, boosts our local economy and improves the wellbeing of locals and visitors. We understand the value of our sector and now we’re building a strong case for culture to advocate and evidence its impact in Dorset. Find out more >

Culture+

A programme supporting artists, creatives, and arts organisations businesses to thrive in Dorset. Culture+ a delivery partner in Dorset Growth Hub Programme invests nearly £1M into Dorset, funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Arts Council England.

Through Culture+, we are delivering more enterprising approaches and beneficial social impact for the cultural sector. Impacts include:

• Encouraging the arts and cultural sector to diversify and build new income streams and revenue models
• Training and skills development in establishing social enterprises.

Dorset Coastal Connections, People and Places project

Led by Dorset Coast Forum, People and Places is made up of 18 related projects from Christchurch to Lyme Regis.

The projects connect our urban and rural coastal areas, promoting the Dorset coast as a whole. The programme is creating and safeguarding jobs as well as delivering measurable economic, social and environmental benefits. Find out more>

Dorset Moon

We’ve commissioned a brand new festival over three weekends in June 2019. Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon makes its Dorset debut in three stunning locations where a full programme of lunar-inspired events will create an experience that is out of this world. Find out more>

Dorset Next

A group of ten young creative adults who all identify as having a disability are taking part in business development sessions across eight months.  During this programme the group will work on art-specific development with other creative professionals and focus on five key areas: time, space, money, skills and confidence. Find out more>

Face Forward

We are supporting 40 marginalised young people in North and West Dorset so they can become work-ready. We mentor youngsters aged 15-24 who are not in education, employment or training. Participants take part in creative activities. Led by Ansbury Guidance, this project is funded by the European Social Investment Fund and Big Lottery. Find out more>

Gerakan Kreabilitas

Our first international project, working with Indonesian social enterprise, Ketemu. We are bringing together diverse creatives, empower disabled creatives to design and produce marketable products and services, and encourage creative enterprises to work and develop disabled friendly workforces mainly in Indonesia. Find out more>

Libraries as Cultural Hubs

We’re supporting the delivery of a diverse programme of arts and culture in Weymouth and Gillingham libraries. This includes creative workshops, performances and artist and writers residences. Find out more>

Little Keep: Cultural Hub

The Arts Development Company’s home in Little Keep is thriving as a business hub. We’re now home to nine creative industry organisations. We provide affordable rent, networking and meeting spaces.

Raise the Roof

A group of partners have been working with Assemble Studio to explore how we could use local materials to construct affordable housing.

Short Breaks

Designing and delivering 1,200 hours of quality arts experiences for children with disabilities across Dorset. Our programme gives their parents/carers a break. We’ve successfully delivered this Dorset County Council contract since 2015.

Stepping into Nature

We are a partner in this Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)-led programme. Our job is to deliver health and wellbeing benefits for Dorset’s older people, including those living with dementia and their carers. We provide artist-led workshops and access to outstanding natural landscapes.

SWarm

SWarm is a pilot leadership programme bringing together eight female-led cultural organisations to explore regional leadership pathways for women in the arts. This pilot programme combines business entrepreneurship and cultural practice, and has programme design and impact evaluation at its core. Find out more>

Establish new social investment funding models for Dorset

With financial support from the government’s Mutuals Support Programme, we are conducting scoping research into appropriate new investment models and mechanisms for supporting a rural model of investment in the arts and culture. The results of this research will establish unique models as most examples of social investment models are based around large, urban conurbations. We are hoping it may lead to the establishment of a Dorset Cultural Investment Fund.

The research is led by Sarah Forster, CEO and founder of the Good Economy Partnership and Dan Gregory, a leading social enterprise advisor.