We are an incredibly creative nation, but the bulk of our cultural activities tend to be overlooked by everyone except those directly involved in them. Paul Baker’s letter (1 January), responding to the proposal for a town of culture (Editorial, 31 December), points out that “every deprived town, despite economic challenges, will have a mix of (often hidden) activity in music, performing and visual arts and wider cultural engagement”.
Voluntary Arts estimates there are 60,000 voluntary arts groups across the UK regularly involving 10 million people. These continue to flourish in communities from the most affluent to the most deprived. We have recently started to make local cultural life more visible by crowd-sourcing a national map of our creativity. You can list your creative group at: bit.ly/CreativityMap.
By recognising and valuing the culture people choose to practise themselves at their own expense, we hope to find new connections between communities and offer hope for a creative, cultural future.
Robin Simpson
Chief executive, Voluntary Arts
• Phil Redmond (Journal, 5 January) says a culture boost for towns must be just the start, and I couldn’t agree more. Bringing people togetherin their own communities is increasingly vital when so many things can divide us. Our village of Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex, with a population of just over 7,000, has three major and dozens of minor cultural events: the St Lawrence Fair in July, which was granted a royal charter by King Edward II in 1311, the community arts festival in September and the Christmas party in the high street, hosted by our brilliant local traders who are holding out against the tide of internet and hypermarket.
We have financial support from our parish and district councils. We are proud of our village and happy to be the first village of culture, Mr Redmond.
Margaret Carey
Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex
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