East Sussex Cultural Prospectus 2026
Culture and Collaboration: Our Shared Commitments for East Sussex
This section presents the East Sussex Cultural Prospectus 2026 in a text-only format.
Please use the index links on the left to navigate around the document.
Published: March 2026
Culture and our County
Our natural landscape and our distinctive places provide the setting and inspiration for an incredibly rich and diverse mix of cultural destinations and activities.
Micro-clusters of creative enterprises such as design, gaming, fashion, music, screen, and the visual arts contribute directly to local employment, growth and vitality.
Our county boasts a mix of boldness and vibrancy that is unique to East Sussex, and which sits alongside its built heritage and local character.
Many leading cultural organisations, freelancers, and creative enterprises have their historic roots here or have chosen to be based in East Sussex, London’s extraordinary neighbour, where they flourish in a welcoming environment with its own compelling qualities.
Culture is who we are, how we live our lives, how we connect and communicate, and how we make sense of our environment and place. Culture is transformational, for individuals and whole places. Culture is part of what makes East Sussex unique.
Culture is a route to positive change. Culture creates new possibilities and enables diverse communities to live well. Culture drives impact and investment:
- For the economy: generating employment, catalysing innovation and driving growth
- For talent development: providing opportunities to gain skills and develop sustainable careers
- For health and wellbeing: enabling people to participate, be active and thrive
- For a sustainable environment: supporting regenerative culture that respects and protects the environment
- For communities: bringing people together, enhancing town centres, boosting neighbourhood renewal
Culture East Sussex - a collective voice
Together, the culture and creative sector in East Sussex has unlocked, and will continue to unlock, impactful investment for the county. This is demonstrated by our trailblazing partnership, Culture East Sussex - a network of public bodies, cultural partners and individuals convened by East Sussex County Council.
The Culture East Sussex (CES) portfolio of cultural organisations and creative enterprises includes strengths across a broad range of art forms and creative sub-sectors. CES is a collective voice for culture across East Sussex, promoting the diversity of the sector and encouraging collaboration and shared commitments to areas of mutual interest.
We want to ensure culture and creativity is the foundation of a prosperous and inclusive county. The cultural sector is vital to the renewal of our coastal towns and, through innovative programming, anchors community life, attracts high value cultural tourism and drives innovation and economic growth.
Looking ahead, devolution is a huge opportunity for the wider Sussex region. Culture represents one of the keys to success, with the unlocking of strategic investment and the ability to work at scale to grow the creative economy.
Through this period of significant change, as we move forward with devolution alongside local government reorganisation, we will work together to ensure culture continues to improve lives, while contributing to growth and prosperity.
We will also be open and transparent about the challenges faced within the cultural sector and will be supportive of all organisations, taking a realistic approach and advocating for the sector’s needs as well as championing the demonstrable benefits culture brings to communities across the county.
Culture By Numbers
- 93%
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of people say cultural experiences improve their quality of life
- 84%
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of people say cultural experiences make places more enjoyable to live in
- £12 of economic impact
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our cultural organisations generate more than £12 of economic impact for every £1 of public investment
- 62 million visits
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culture is a major force in our tourism economy, with around 62 million visits to Sussex as a whole annually, generating £5 billion a year
- 14%
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of all local jobs are in the culture sector
- £33.8 million
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of Arts Council England funding was secured across East Sussex between 2018 and 2024
- 8
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National Portfolio Organisations are based in East Sussex
- £15 million
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is generated by Glyndebourne alone for the local economy, supporting close to 700 jobs
- £16.1 million
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is the calculated combined economic impact of the 2023 Turner Prize at Towner Eastbourne, and Eastbourne ALIVE (the wider cultural programme)
- £67 million
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worth of investment-ready projects county-wide with the potential to generate growth across the cultural sector and deliver economic impact are captured by Culture East Sussex’s Culture Priority Pipeline
The data presented is based on the East Sussex Cultural Sector Data and Evidence Review, Marshall Regen Ltd., 2025.
Our Original Strategic Priorities
Culture East Sussex has championed the shared ambition of the culture and creative sectors to make a positive difference in East Sussex, driving impact across the county and wider devolved geography.
The East Sussex Cultural Strategy’s original three priorities are:
Priority 1 - Create an environment where great cultural experiences are available to everyone to enhance their quality of life.
Priority 2 - Create an environment which enables the cultural and creative economy to expand and enhances the ability to attract and retain other businesses.
Priority 3 - Develop and promote well packaged cultural tourism offers which celebrate the identity of East Sussex, raise its profile and attracts more visitors and businesses to the county.
These three priorities have shaped a set of cultural commitments focused on creating lasting positive difference as we adapt to the changes ahead.
Our Commitments
Culture, Growth and Prosperity
The Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy launched in June 2025, will channel support to eight growth-driving sectors, including the Creative Industries. Culture provides the talent, ideas and stories which power the Creative Industries: a sector which generates a Gross Value Added (GVA) of £124.6 billion, contributing 5.7% to the national economy and employing 2.4 million people [1].
The East Sussex Economic Prosperity Strategy prioritises prosperity for people and place with ambitious plans to 2050. It affirms the importance of making the most of the county’s creative, cultural and environmental opportunities, alongside investments in connectivity.
In East Sussex the Creative Industries, inclusive of the cultural sector, are on an upward trajectory contributing to growth and prosperity. County wide, our creative industries are powered by over 3,000 enterprises employing over 7,000 people, alongside many more freelancers.
The county is a growing hub for digital creatives, the visual arts scene is rich in its variety and diversity, and each part of East Sussex is home to a unique mix of designer makers, artists, performers, writers and more. Increasing numbers of talented people are choosing our county as a place to locate, build and flourish, enabling them to access our distinct cultural and natural landscape and be part of the London and South East creative super-cluster.
Culture is also key to a flourishing tourism sector and central to the overall quality of place. East Sussex has a proven track record in attracting cultural investment, and with the structures and establishments in place we intend to build on this to support future growth. The East Sussex, Brighton and Hove and West Sussex Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) has established a Visitor Economy Strategy for Growth, paving the way for further cultural tourism development.
Our commitment: Together, we will unlock new investment to enable conditions for creative growth.
[1] https://www.business.gov.uk/invest-in-uk/investment/sectors/creative-industries/
Embracing talent, shaping positive futures
Culture in East Sussex thrives in an ecosystem that encompasses every art form, from organisations, festivals and events large and small, to communities of creative enterprises that include many freelancers. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we support this diverse cultural landscape so that all communities and all ages can access culture.
We will work to facilitate skills and educational provision to enable talent to reach its full potential in this vital growth sector. This includes collaborating with universities to nurture clusters of activity and boost cultural infrastructure, and partnerships with schools and colleges to unlock investment in training programmes and industry talent pipelines to nurture inclusive growth. Focus is needed to address significant challenges and gaps in provision, such as in music education, and on future-proofing the cultural sector in an age of accelerated digital transformation.
We want to focus on providing opportunities for young people in a county where too many talented individuals leave to fulfil their ambitions in other places. We will align with the Get Sussex Working Plan to encourage and enable creative talent into employment and self-employment.
Our commitment: Together, we will create more local jobs and build a cultural and creative sector built on fairness and inclusion.
Enhancing our health and wellbeing
Clinically robust research shows that cultural participation is good for mental and physical health. Across East Sussex, culture, health and social care partnerships have developed, especially through the period of post-pandemic recovery and healing. This is demonstrably improving the health and wellbeing of local people, with particular impact on older and younger people.
The cultural sector is partnering with the NHS, Public Health, universities and organisations with a track record in culture and health to co-create a strategic approach for culture, health and wellbeing. This is critical given the demographic profile of East Sussex and the wider region, with an ageing population and sharp health inequalities across different places. This is particularly seen between the coast and inland, with the former facing multiple acute health challenges while at the same time enjoying something of a cultural renaissance.
Our commitment: Together, we will ensure the provision of culture is relevant, accessible, and impactful, improving lives and delivering positive outcomes for health and wellbeing.
Regenerative Culture
As a cultural and creative sector, we want to be responsible custodians of the environment. We are committed to achieving carbon neutral status and building coalitions to tackle the climate emergency.
The county and wider region is home to significant knowledge, expertise and innovation relating to environmental sustainability – in our universities, and within our science and technology sectors. With our artists and cultural organisations, we want to maximise the area’s full potential as a sustainable development pioneer, using creative and interdisciplinary collaboration to foster innovation.
We will encourage approaches which preserve and reimagine our heritage, our natural landscape, and place-based regeneration, such as through micro creative clusters, where economic growth can be achieved sensitively and sustainably.
Our commitment: Together, we will prioritise culture as an agent for environmental regeneration, prioritising a responsible and sustainable model for growth.
Pride in Place
Across East Sussex, culture is a change-maker: generating jobs, attracting visitors, and offering renewal, shared purpose and hope. This is evidenced in the ways cultural organisations have been catalysts for regeneration, and how the county’s many events and festivals have brought communities together to provide inspirational experiences which genuinely change people’s perceptions of where they live.
Put simply, culture delivers pride in place. It is through culture that we will collectively thrive.
Our commitment: Together, we will continue to grow cultural opportunity and build a cultural ecosystem which gives local people opportunities to participate, collaborate and renew.
Now and the future
The culture and creative sector in East Sussex is built on collaboration. Through the established leadership of Culture East Sussex, we will continue to develop opportunities to connect, create and grow.
By working together with shared purpose to drive impact, we will ensure Culture remains a dynamic and positive force in East Sussex - across all sectors, for all communities, and at scale, now and in the future.