4th ENCATC Working Group on Evaluation

Phil Cave is a consultant, speaker and researcher, specialising in public engagement. He was, for over 10 years, Director of Engagement and Audiences at Arts Council England. The Arts Council is the major funder and development agency for arts and culture in England, distributing money from Treasury and lottery funds. Here, he developed radically different thinking around investments to support wider reach and engagement. Phil founded the £80m Creative People and Places programme, which is supporting innovative approaches to creating culture and targeting places where communities have been the least likely to engage. He also developed a national grant programme focused on arts and older people: Celebrating Age. Phil has also been responsible for commissioning several major national audience development initiatives including:

• an open and free-to-use system that now makes it possible for cultural organisations to share data, benchmark their ‘reach’ and target new audiences
  
• The national Family Arts Campaign
  
• Culture Hive – providing advice and training support for audience development
  
• Age-Friendly standards for cultural organisations
  

Before joining the Arts Council, Phil worked for a major research and development agency which supported the tourism and cultural sectors.  He also worked for local government in the area of public engagement.