This year long programme will encompass a range of events, from reginal events in local communities to large international conferences bringing together researchers from the arts and humanities (and other disciplines where appropriate), research organisations, community groups, creative practitioners and other community partners.

Our largest scale Utopias event will be the Connected Communities Festival exploring Community Futures and Utopias which will see local activities taking place across the country between March and July. The Festival is being undertaken in partnership with The Somerset House Trust as a part of Utopia 2016: a year of Imagination and Possibility – four seasons of events, exhibitions and new commissions celebrating the idea of Utopia to mark the 500th anniversary of Thomas More’s influential text. Utopia 2016 is a partnership between the Somerset House Trust and its neighbours King’s College London and the Courtauld Institute and Gallery.

The 2016 Festival will support high quality participatory arts research and research co-production activities across the UK on the theme of community futures and utopias and will provide an opportunity to explore creative ways to build upon, and widen and deepen community engagement with, research being undertaken by the Connected Communities Programme and with wider AHRC/RCUK–funded research.