TV & FILM
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COMEDY
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FASHION
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LITERATURE
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PHOTOGRAPHY
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MUSIC
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THEATRE
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DANCE
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ART & DESIGN
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ARCHITECTURE
TV & FILM • COMEDY • FASHION • LITERATURE • PHOTOGRAPHY • MUSIC • THEATRE • DANCE • ART & DESIGN • ARCHITECTURE
The Art of Connection
The Film & Archive
The Art of Connection is a documentary film and public digital archive about the people bringing creativity into hospitals, care homes, classrooms and community halls, and an invitation to reconnect with our creative legacy and with one another.
The film brings the eye of the creative industries to work usually seen through a clinical lens, and making visible the networks of social connection and support already holding the field together.
We follow three people from different ‘Englands’, at three stages of using creativity to improve outcomes in their communities, filming observationally across a year, spending days with each of them at moments that matter. The organisations are delivery partners rather than subjects, shaping who we film and how.
The subjects in our film are all working on something urgent:
Loneliness is now a recognised public health priority for the WHO, compounding fast once it sets in; connection built across generations cuts both ways, helping older people as much as young people.
A boy who’s never felt he belonged in spaces like a theatre by 15 or 16 can decide he never will, and settle into the ones everyone else already expects him to.
A child who doesn’t get the right SEND support before a key school transition can end up excluded or disengaged for good.
The archive holds the film alongside commissioned writing, recorded conversations and participation resources, free to use and open to the public. Titles, animation, typography and the original score are made by emerging UK talent.
Why It Matters
31%
lower risk of dying early for people who go to galleries, theatre or concerts every few months.
100 an hour
deaths worldwide are linked to loneliness, more than 871,000 a year.
1 in 11
16 to 24 year olds in England feel lonely often or always, the highest of any age group.
Almost half
The arts’ share of GCSE entries has almost halved since 2010.
Get involved
We'd love to hear from:
People who work in the creative industries and want to use their skills to improve their communities
Funders and partners who want to back the project
If that's you, come and talk to us.