COMMUNITY ART CLUBS CIC FACTSHEET
for stakeholders and funders
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What are Community Art Clubs?
Community Art Clubs CIC runs art clubs and classes, organises art trips, and helps local artmakers get involved in their communities. All the research shows this doesn’t just help the artmakers - it helps build stronger, happier communities so it’s good value for everyone.
How are they more than local art classes?
The clubs give affordable access to high quality art classes and activities with all materials provided – building skills, confidence and wellbeing. They’re a nurturing, fun learning environment encouraging disengaged, low-ability or low-confidence individuals to enjoy learning through making and looking at art.
But they’re more than that. The artmakers in club aren’t just developing their own creativity. For them, it’s a regular, reliable opportunity to meet with other members of the community, make friends and build social support networks. This reduces loneliness and social isolation and increases community cohesion and helps build a sense of place and belonging. The clubs are also part of their local community, taking part in cultural and village events to
make art an everyday part of life.
Who’s behind them?
Community Art Clubs is a community interest company set up by portrait artist and community educator Rachel Duffield, who is based in south Norfolk and teaches across East Anglia.
She has more than 20 years’ experience as a well-respected member of Norfolk Museums’ learning and engagement team before making painting and teaching her full time work, showing from her own experience that it’s never too late to start creating. Now she wants to help other people to unleash their inner creativity, build skills and confidence, and fully enjoy all the benefits of making art.
Like her classes, Community Arts Clubs are inclusive and nurturing for all abilities and ages. As well as bringing joy to the people taking part, they brings measurable benefits to the communities they belong to.
What is a Community Interest Company?
In layman’s terms, a Community Interest Company (CIC) is legally half way between a for-profit company and a charity. Like a standard company, they can sign contracts and are separate organisation to any individual. Like charities, they have to satisfy regulators that they’re working to benefit the public.
In non-layman’s terms, this is how the government defines a CIC -
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-interest-companies-how-to-form-a-cic/community-interest-companies-guidance-chapters
Our Origin Story
We started small, and local, with the first Community Art Club in the village hall near my house. Very old school - actual real paper posters at the shop and church and whatnot and a couple of ads on Facebook. I put up half a dozen art stations and crossed my fingers.
The six stations filled up. Then as many again. Then double that.
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A year and a half later, it had settled down to 20 regulars at the weekly classes. We organised a trip to Norwich Castle to see an inspiring exhibition on the work of a successful local artist. We won the ‘Most Colourful’ award with our contribution of Monet-inspired flowerpots for our local Village in Bloom show last year.
Even better than that, we have success stories like the elderly woman who arrived new to the village knowing nobody, who now has friends and a full social calendar, and how Art Club was the ‘excuse’ for a teenage lad to spend regular time with his beloved grandpa, and how Art Club is giving time and space to stressed caregivers to pick up a brush and get creative again.
It bears out my idea from the first session, that offering high quality art activities to people in rural communities would not only be great fun, but help the communities more widely.
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There’s a lot of evidence (relevant studies are listed and summarised here) that ‘third places’ in communities - somewhere people meet that isn’t home or work, help everybody. These places don’t have the demands of either, but you mix with a range of people you wouldn’t meet otherwise. Often it’s the pub or church and it doesn’t have to be formal, although it can be. For me, growing up in th 1980s, it was Girl Guides and the local amdram group.
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It resonated with sociology research that I’d read at university about how those kind of spaces are disappearing fast, and communities are the poorer for it. So Community Art Clubs are my way of trying to change that, and after 18 months, I’m proving that it works.
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The next stage is win external funding to upscale the club so other communities can benefit too. ​​
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Can you help?
A donation of just £20 will hire us a venue for two hours, and £30 buys 100 sheets of A3 multimedia art paper (our average art club attracts 20 people, so that's about 4 sessions worth of paper).
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Funding offers are always very welcome, but 'funding' us isn't just about giving lots of money.
It might be that you're able to provide transport for one of our trips to see a gallery or exhibition.
Or maybe you could come along as a volunteer to help with setting up the tables or making the teas and coffees.
We also do a little happy dance for physical donations of watercolour and acrylic paints and brushes, chalk pastels, drawing equipment like pencils, erasers and charcoal, and also kitchen roll, teabags, instant coffee and, last but by no means least, biscuits!
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If you would like to get involved, please get in touch - contact details are here:
You can read or print evidence from academic studies on the benefits of arts in communities and third places here: