Boundless Creativity Report

About Boundless Creativity

Boundless Creativity was set up as a joint research project by UK Research and Innovation’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), in partnership with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). The project has examined the role of innovation in shaping cultural experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and generated a new evidence base to inform the recovery, renewal and future growth of the UK’s cultural and creative sectors.

The key aims of Boundless Creativity are as follows:

• Provide new data and real-time intelligence on the impact of COVID-19 across the UK’s arts, cultural and creative sectors;
• Investigate the impact of COVID-19 on new technology-enabled distribution platforms and online cultural participation, consumption and user preferences across a range of audience groups;
• Identify how the cultural and creative sectors can innovate through their content and business models to build resilience against future shocks;
• Explore the links between cultural participation and mental health and well-being and how these differ across audience and population groups;
• Recommend specific research and policy interventions to drive engagement with the issues highlighted in this report, including those which will allow the sector to maximise the potential of new digital and immersive technologies in engaging and diversifying audiences.

Between September 2020 and February 2021, the project held a series of roundtable discussions with representatives from across the cultural and creative sectors, under the guidance of an Expert Advisory Panel. The Panel brought together expertise from across the arts, cultural, creative and higher education sectors to discuss key insights and findings and to make recommendations.