Loneliness in the UK is growing, with 1 in 4 adults in the UK feeling lonely sometimes, often or always. This can have a notable impact on health and wellbeing. Art and creativity participation can have a powerful impact on people's lives, fostering wellbeing and supporting happier healthier lives, but access to culture isn't fairly distributed - in the past year, 20% less individuals from the most deprived communities in England visited a museum, compared to their most advantaged peers.

ArtConnects works at a local level to connect individuals of all ages and backgrounds to their local culture, bringing people closer to the art around them and helping them to better understand and appreciate their area. Using Art UK’s Tagger as a starting point, (a crowdsourcing tool that allows people to ‘tag’ artworks with descriptive words) we head out to discover art in the community, and link art from local collections to real-life places.