Book Review: The Arts Dividend Revisited: How Investment in Culture Creates Happier Lives
22 March 2025: this blog was published before Arts Council England announced its recommendation to stop the National Portfolio Organisation application process.
In just a few weeks, Arts Council England (ACE) will begin accepting applications from organisations seeking investment as part of its 2027 National Portfolio.
Recently, I noticed that Arts Council England CEO, Darren Henley, has released a fully revised edition of his book, The Arts Dividend. With arts and cultural organisations across England preparing their applications for National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) status, this felt like the perfect opportunity to delve into the mind of the Arts Council’s top official. Here I explore some of the book’s key insights about arts and arts funding in England.
The 2025 edition of The Arts Dividend, in fact titled The Arts Dividend Revisited, is fully revised offering a renewed argument for why public investment in arts and culture is essential and featuring case studies from every artform and every corner of the nation. As Chief Executive of Arts Council England (ACE), Henley is responsible for overseeing the distribution of public funding to cultural organisations across the country. While The Arts Dividend is not an official ACE strategy document, it feels a lot like it could be the thinking behind ACE’s Let’s Create strategy (2020–2030).
Henley of course argues that the arts play a vital role in shaping society, improving education, fostering innovation, strengthening communities and boosting economic growth. At a time when public funding for culture is under increasing scrutiny, particularly in education and local authority budgets, The Arts Dividend acts as a reminder of the multiple ways in which investment in the arts pays for people, society and the economy.
For arts and culture professionals, the book offers a glimpse into the priorities of ACE and the wider cultural policy landscape which will be especially useful if you’re preparing an NPO application.
Investment, not subsidy
One of Henley’s central arguments is that public funding for the arts in the UK should not be viewed as a “subsidy” but as an “investment.” He strongly pushes back against the idea that arts funding is a drain on public resources, insisting instead that it delivers long-term benefits to society.
“From a funding perspective, what matters is that we support talent and champion ambition, imagination, innovation and risk.”
He also emphasises that cultural investment is not a luxury, but a necessity, particularly in the time economic times in which we live right now:
“This book argues that public funding for art and culture is critically important, because a sustained, strategic approach to cultural investment pays big dividends in all our lives.”
For arts organisations applying for funding, this framing is significant. It suggests that successful funding applications should focus not just on artistic excellence, but also on the wider impact of their work whether in education, wellbeing, tourism or community engagement.
Henley also highlights the vital role of local authorities in cultural funding, noting that ACE cannot operate in isolation. The important and necessary role of local authorities to fund alongside ACE cannot be overstated.
However as local authority culture budgets continue to shrink, this raises urgent questions. Least of all that if local authorities cannot afford to contribute to local arts and culture funding who or what will fill the gap?
The seven dividends of public investment in arts and culture
The book is structured around seven “dividends” that Henley argues result from public investment in the arts. These categories provide a useful framework for understanding Henley's point of view on the holistic impact of cultural funding.
1. The Creativity Dividend
Naturally creativity is at the heart of the arts and Henley is clear that public investment should support a broad and diverse range of artistic practice:
“Artists must be able to challenge preconceptions, to think differently and freely, to imagine new possibilities, and to create great art in new ways.”
He also strongly advocates for diversity in the arts, arguing that it is not just a moral imperative but a creative and economic opportunity:
“To liberate the creativity of every part of society, we need a more inclusive and diverse art and culture sector. The arts need to reflect the world we live in – and shed light on the world we want to see.”
For arts organisations, this reinforces the need, which has rightly been prioritised in recent years, to embed diversity and accessibility into programming, leadership and audience development.
2. The Opportunity Dividend
Henley makes a passionate case for cultural education, arguing that every child should have the opportunity to engage with the arts, both in and out of school:
“An excellent cultural education should be a universal right. It brings personal, social and commercial advantages that can benefit the lives of all individuals in society.”
He warns that disparities in access to arts education risk entrenching social inequality:
“Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not.”
This has strong implications for the sector. As arts subjects continue to be deprioritised in many schools, cultural organisations can have an increasingly important role to play in providing creative opportunities for young people.
3. The Happiness Dividend
Henley argues that arts and culture contribute significantly to wellbeing, happiness and mental health. He makes a strong case for the role of cultural engagement in public health:
“The Happiness Dividend comes about when investment in art and culture results in improvements to our health and well-being, enabling us to flourish more than we would otherwise do.”
He also highlights the potential of “arts on prescription” initiatives, which integrate cultural engagement into healthcare strategies. Arts and culture is “cheaper than a pill”, Henley says, when it comes to preventing, promoting, managing and treating physical and mental health.
For arts organisations, this suggests opportunities to work more closely with the health sector, demonstrating the wellbeing benefits of cultural engagement.
4. The Innovation Dividend
Henley acknowledges that technology is transforming the arts, presenting both risks and opportunities. While he expresses concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on artists’ intellectual property, he also celebrates the potential of digital platforms:
“When technology and the arts come together, there always seems to be a real spark of extra creativity.”
He warns that cultural organisations must embrace digital engagement if they are to reach younger audiences:
“Without a coherent strategy for distributing content on handheld digital devices, there is a risk that arts content could fail to connect with whole swathes of the next generation.”
Let’s remember that it’s not just young people who use handheld devices and digital media with great enthusiasm. Smartphone ownership and internet use is almost (but not entirely) universal in Britain today.
5. The Place-Shaping Dividend
Henley highlights the role of the arts in placemaking, arguing that cultural investment can help regenerate towns and cities:
“Cultural institutions of all different types can help define a place, drawing out narratives both for the people who live there and for visitors.”
He also specifically celebrates the role of libraries as vital community spaces:
“Libraries are institutions that have built up trust. They have authenticity about them. And in a world where public space is rapidly being eroded, they represent a safe and egalitarian refuge and resource.”
6. The Enterprise Dividend
Henley insists that public investment in the arts fuels commercial success rather than replacing it. Public investment drives commercial success, Henley argues:
“To maintain our position as a world leader we must continue to invest so that we can stimulate further innovation, development and growth.”
He also calls for greater exploration of new financial models, including the idea that profitable arts businesses could return a financial dividend to public funders:
“We can see spectacular results where public or private money is used to help an arts organisation become more resilient and sustainable, rather than simply to fund its core product.”
7. The Reputation Dividend
Finally, Henley discusses how investment in arts and culture enhances the UK’s global reputation. While this feels like the least developed idea in the book it is still worth paying attention to. In this section he also stresses the importance of partnerships in maximising impact, encouraging organisations to collaborate to strengthen their work.
“When arts and culture organisations work closely together, they often achieve better results than if they go it alone.”
Arts and culture funding
Henley’s The Arts Dividend is a robust defence of public investment in the arts and a useful guide to the thinking behind Arts Council England’s priorities. His arguments reinforce the need for arts organisations to demonstrate the impact of their work in comprehensive and holistic terms - whether in education, wellbeing, economic growth or placemaking.
If you’re considering an application to Arts Council England for National Portfolio Organisation investment or indeed a different source of funding, here are some final thoughts to keep in mind:
Emphasise impact: show clear societal, and if possible economic, benefits including skill development and employment initiatives
Engage with digital: consider how an activity could manifest digitally as well as physically
Advocate for arts education: the fight for cultural education remains critical, can your organisation or project include elements for learners of all ages?
Explore new financial models: think as creatively about financial sustainability and resilience as you do about the artistic work itself
If you are applying for Arts Council funding now or in the future, good luck!