Symposium by the sea
Wednesday 21 October 2026
Join the discussion
Be part of the conversation about cultural access in rural and coastal places
-
2: What This Looks Like in Real Life
- Funding that reaches more people — how systems could work better
- Putting community at the centre — not just as “outreach”
- How big institutions can help — especially in rural and coastal areas
- Reaching wider audiences — what gets in the way, and what helps
What are your thoughts?
Supported by
Emma Larkin
We keep hearing that big institutions want to ‘reach wider audiences’. But what actually gets in the way? And what would it take for rural places to stop being treated as outreach targets and start being treated as cultural centres in their own right?
Barry Meadows
What we’re seeing through The Bigger Picture is that the real shift happens when rural and coastal places are treated as cultural centres from the start, not as outreach destinations. Funding systems often get in the way because they’re still built around large institutions and urban assumptions. But when community spaces, local organisations and the people who use them are placed at the centre of decision‑making, everything changes — the work feels rooted, audiences feel recognised, and partnerships become genuinely two‑way. That’s what wider access looks like in practice, and it’s what The Bigger Picture is trying to surface.