Join the movement

Convening is at the heart of what we do. More than 5,000 people are part of the What Next? movement, meeting regularly through UK-wide conversations and regional Chapters. Whether you’re an artist, freelancer, cultural organisation, local authority, museum, library, educator, funder or policymaker, there’s a place for you to connect, contribute and help shape the future of arts and culture.

We bring together the breadth of voices across the UK’s cultural ecology, creating trusted spaces where different perspectives can be heard, ideas can be tested, and local experience informs national dialogue. Through conversation, collaboration and shared learning, new partnerships, shared priorities and collective responses can emerge.

We believe that bringing people together in conversation has the power to inform, inspire and challenge people to think differently—strengthening their own organisations, the wider cultural ecology and the communities they serve.

Find your local Chapter on the map or join one of our upcoming UK-wide conversations.

UK map

Lead Locally

Help strengthen your local cultural community by starting a What Next? Chapter. If there isn’t already a Chapter in your area, we’ll support you to bring people together, build new connections and create a space where people can share knowledge, explore ideas and respond to local opportunities and challenges – set up your own.

Anyone with the motivation to connect people can lead a Chapter. All you need is the enthusiasm to convene others, a little time and a commitment to creating open, inclusive and constructive conversations where every voice is valued.

By connecting local experience with the wider What Next? movement, Chapters help ensure that ideas, insight and learning flow in both directions—strengthening local networks while contributing to national dialogue.

 

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Sustain the movement

At a time of significant change for the cultural sector, independent spaces where people can connect, learn from one another and respond collectively have never been more important.

What Next? is the UK’s largest independent, free-to-access movement for arts and culture. Through our network of regional Chapters and UK-wide conversations, we create the conditions for collaboration, connecting freelancers, cultural organisations, local authorities, funders and policymakers, and bringing local experience into national dialogue.

Your support keeps What Next? free, independent and inclusive. It enables us to sustain regional Chapters, convene UK-wide conversations, and ensure that the spaces we create remain accessible and welcoming, so that people from across the cultural sector can connect, collaborate and shape the future of arts and culture.

  1. Support What Next?
  2. Connect with us

 

 

  • Art is as complex as we are. It is hard for any one of us, artist or not, to understand who we are and what we genuinely do and art, which comes out of this creative chaos, reflects our situation and helps us recognise its variations, how we connect and disconnect with other people, places and ideas.
    Siobhan davies, artist and choreographer

 

Inspiration

What Next? Welfare, Benefits and Access to Work briefing

This briefing has been put together by What Next? in collaboration with a range of d/Deaf and Disabled arts, cultural and creative leaders, including; Tom Ryalls and BAP, Graeae, DASH, Spare Tyre, Disability Arts Online, Access All Areas, Decode, Diverse City and Unlimited. We aim for it to be a working document that clarifies the political landscape surrounding welfare reform, and which flags up key actions that colleagues can take; alongside initiatives, data, information, reporting and campaigns.

Summary of headline findings from What Next? Roundtables on Hodge Review of ACE

Arts Council England is currently under independent review by Baroness Hodge, supported by an expert panel and a civil service team These opinions and statements about the current and future remit and processes of Arts Council England were all made at What Next? Roundtables with the Hodge Review team. We have created an anonymised summary of the opinions and statements about the current and future remit and processes of Arts Council England. We have submitted this to the formal consultation. This document represents a reflection of the discussions that took place and should not be taken as the views of the What Next? team or the movement as a whole.

What Next? Local Authorities Briefing Paper 24/01/2024

This paper serves as a background to the conversation What Next? colleagues held in January about Local Authorities. At this current moment, the process of making the case for the arts is hugely difficult: arguments that pit culture spend against other departments and needs are unlikely to cut through in this crowded and urgent space, and arguments that rely on long-term economic growth are difficult to enact when all available funding is diverted to averting short-term crisis. In this landscape, how we make decisions about the arts and cultural provision that we want to enable and protect, and we how we take a shared and collaborative responsibility for this process becomes even more important.

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