This study has been commissioned by the Gulbenkian Foundation to inform its arts policy-making. The Foundation’s Social Welfare and Education programmes have supported a considerable number of projects in rural areas, but so far the Arts programme has done very little. At a time of increasing concern about rural disadvantage, it seemed that the Foundation might be able to help by examining the role of the arts in the rural context.

Thus the researchers Trevor Bailey and Ian Scott were asked to report on the main issues concerning the sustenance and development of Rural Arts, to consider if the Foundation could have a useful role to play and, if so, to define what that role might be and how it could b carried out.

This report was written for the Foundation itself. As it contains much interesting and useful material, we have decided to make it available to a wider audience. It is important to state that it is not, and was never intended to be, a definitive or exhaustive research document on rural arts. It is a discussion paper, a starting point for debate, and as such we hope you will find it interesting and useful.

Trevor Bailey and Ian Scott have produced studies on various approaches to rural community affairs, in the UK and elsewhere, but most of their experience has been first-hand and practical. Professionally it has involved a wide range of work with and for rural communities (from village appraisals to the first Reels on Wheels); experimental employment promotion schemes; a national village-based adult education provision, aiding community development; a national rural video unit and archive; broadcasting, journalism and consultancy for a feature film, all with a rural bias. As members of their own villages they have enjoyed the mixed pleasures of being on the parish council and the village hall committee, of being part of local shows and entertainments or bringing in outside arts groups, and of conducting village campaigns.