Art Reach – 25 Years of Cultural Development is the story, told by the Founding Director, of the evolution of a significant UK cultural consultancy and festival producer. It is a must-read for those struggling to build, or aspiring to develop, arts businesses.

Initiated by David Hill in the mid-1990s, Art Reach has supported more than 250 arts businesses and delivered in excess of 550 projects, reaching audiences of one and half million. It has initiated two major festivals – Night of Festivals and Journeys Festival International, delivering a combined total of 38 Editions in locations across England. Art Reach has also led a number of European-wide collaboration projects, working with partners in eleven European Union countries to deliver outdoor and indoor arts programmes in site specific locations.

Art Reach consultancy work has encompassed business planning, fundraising, governance, programming and marketing, establishing a national and international reputation for high quality support that has made a difference to many organisations and projects of all sizes. The organisation has raised over £60 million to facilitate arts activity and has played a key role in the development of many new arts venues.

This book shares the successes, the failures, the challenges and the lessons. It documents the evolution of a company from early days as a sole trader to development of a hugely successful organisation, now an ACE Band 2 NPO, in a way that will be an invaluable narrative for arts practitioners in the field, or those fascinated by cultural development in the UK from the inception of the Lottery to the present day.