Community Management of Local Cultural Assets: Implications for Inequality and Publicness

Abstract

AbstractRex offers a much-needed examination of the application of the community asset transfer (CAT) process to cultural infrastructure in England. CAT is the transfer of publicly owned buildings to a third-sector organisation. Several local authorities have sought to transfer buildings used for cultural activity in response to funding cuts implemented by central government in 2010. Drawing on original research conducted in three locations across England, the chapter explores the inequalities that arise from implementing this approach in a period of austerity. It also argues that the business models underpinning these organisations limit their ambitions to make culture accessible to a broad range of demographic groups. The chapter argues that cultural policy should consider these spaces as key sites where its ambitions for the cultural sector to become more democratic could be realised.