Culture and Global Challenges

Creating opportunities for people, institutions and places to respond to challenges with local impact and global relevance.

Young people lying on their backs in a row all next to each other, looking upwards from a bright background.

Our work in Culture and Global Challenges

Our work in Culture and Global Challenges supports artists, cultural practitioners, creative organisations and policymakers to respond to major social and environmental issues in their work and support sustainable development, whilst developing their creative practice and networks.

Through training programmes, grants, research and policy engagement, we take a people-centred approach that places co-creation and local leadership at the heart of our work.

We work with under-represented groups, including women and girls, LGBTQIA+ communities and disabled people to explore and share their experiences through the arts, culture and heritage.

Working with partners, we champion the central role of the arts, culture and heritage in tackling global challenges around five themes: Cultural Heritage; Creative Climate Action; Diverse Narratives; Gender Equality; and Disability Arts.

MONDIACULT 2025

We're presenting a series of dialogues on the role of the arts, culture and heritage in enabling and driving sustainable development at the world’s biggest cultural policy conference from 29 September – 2 October, hosted by the Government of Spain.

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Photograph of Safiyy al-Din Jawhar, a restored medieval Islamic monument in Cairo taken at night. The focus is on the courtyard which has plants.

Explore our work by theme

An image of The Buddha carved into the side of a large boulder or mountainside

Cultural Heritage

Our work in heritage supports artists and communities who are coping with the...

Three women in saris stand in a row with their faces obscured by hand-held masks on sticks with the faces of women painted on them.

Gender Equality

We explore the challenges faced by women across the world through the arts and...

A dress rehearsal of The Argonauts in Kyiv, Ukraine, part of Unlimited: Making the Right Moves

Disability Arts

We support international platforms, networks and opportunities for collaboration...

Resources

Explore our wealth of research, policy and advocacy resources.

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