"Culture is the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features that characterizes a society or a group. It includes creative expressions, community practices and material or built forms." Our Creative Diversity: The UN World Commission on Culture and Development Report
Social and economic development suffers when cultural expression, a fundamental human right, is inhibited. Yet in our globalised world the means of cultural expression and terms of exchange are unevenly distributed. Tools such as the internet help spread culture like never before, but practitioners and audiences alike lack equal access.
We help governments recognise the value of culture, literacy and freedom of expression as accelerators of national development, resilience and sustainability. We offer civil society groups the tools to influence public policy at home and abroad, and support training, conferences and festivals through our grant making.
Our literary, film and visual arts prizes – from the Commonwealth Writers' Prize to Commonwealth Connections arts residencies – carry real weight around the globe. We reward the best and brightest in new and emerging talent and champion practitioners from economically poor, but culturally rich, nations where institutional support is scarce.
By banging the drum for diversity, innovation and tradition and nurturing arenas where creativity can flourish, we improve dialogue and understanding among Commonwealth people, communities and governments. Promoting cultural considerations through all our work areas and programmes, we seek to lodge cultural policy making firmly at the heart of governmental decision taking.