Arts and Heritage

In July 2025, the biennial International Festival (IF) took place. Produced by The Stables, IF: Milton Keynes International Festival is now a significant landmark event in the UK’s cultural calendar.

• 63,000 - total attendees across 12 locations
  
  
• 6,160 - number of community participants
  
  
• 72% - events free to attend
  
  
• 93% - felt the Festival had enhanced their pride in MK
  
  
• 97% - felt the Festival enhanced the sense of
  community in Milton Keynes [1]

"We love IF and have attended many things every time it's on. We feel lucky that this is on our doorstep and so much of it is free." (Attendee)

MK Museum launched it's 'Museum for a City Project', aimed at shaping a new permanent exhibition that tells the story of Milton  Keynes through collaboration and co-creation with residents.

• 4,669 face-to-face participant interactions
  
  
• 42% of participants had never been to the museum before
  
  
• 1,328 free entries to the museum under the blue ticket scheme
  
  
• 30 Arts and Heritage Alliance Skillshops with 1359 participants [2]

The launch of the Station Place redevelopment this year was an example of local art showcasing diversity. Titled ‘Walk Your Dream,’ the installation by British Nigerian designer and artist Yinka Ilori was inspired by both Nigerian textiles and Milton Keynes itself. It was complemented by a new planting scheme, with a biodiversity and sustainability focus.

The launch event featured performances by a range of artists from the city, with an emphasis on showcasing diverse cultures across dance, poetry, and performance.

"The amount of time and investment made MK the place to be during July. There is a real sense of community and kindness."

IF Attendee

Alongside cultural inclusivity and community engagement, another theme in arts and heritage this year is the role of arts programmes in supporting the health, wellbeing, and development of different groups in the city.

In 2025, MK Gallery expanded its ‘Our Studio’ programme, thanks to a large strategic grant from Milton Keynes Community Foundation. This supported a studio programme for disabled and neurodivergent 14-25-year-olds, delivering four sessions a week, up from just once a month.

It also acquired a dedicated studio space, part-funded by Milton Keynes Community Foundation.

"Having a newly dedicated studio space has transformed
this opportunity for our participants. They take pride and
ownership in the studio, feel comfortable to express themselves creatively, and as a consequence, we’ve seen
amazing new talent emerging, alongside new friendships
and increased confidence.”

Sophie Bennett, Producer of Inclusion

‘Our Studio’ sits under the Inclusive Practice in the Arts programme (IPA). In the same year, MK Gallery’s flagship family programme, ‘Art and Us’ – for families with children with additional and complex needs – had to end in April after seven years due to a lack of funding.

MK Gallery also conducted 25 school visits and work-shops in 2025, but engagement with schools has had to subside due to no longer having a funded, dedicated schools and education team member. MK Gallery is actively seeking funding to continue and expand both
these projects, and the hiatus is not indicative of the gallery’s work but of the difficult funding landscape currently faced by those working in the arts and heritage.

The work of MK Gallery serves as a case study for the benefit of these programmes, but also represents some of the wider challenges faced by arts organisations in a national landscape where arts funding is shrinking.

• 69,277 visitors to MK Gallery Jan – Sept 2025
  
  
• 18% increase in total visitors to the MK Gallery, Jan –
  Sept 2024 vs 2025 (an increase of 10,541 visitors) [3]

Hannah Ellams, Director of Arts and Heritage Alliance MK, shared that part of the challenge in Milton Keynes is that many grassroots organisations are doing brilliant work but are siloed, focused on their own audiences, and often hidden from the rest of the city. This can make it hard for individuals to keep up with everything going on, and organisations can inadvertently clash on dates or compete for funding.

This is an interesting contrast to some of the other Vital Signs, where organisational collaboration is seen as a strength of Milton Keynes.
Additionally, a survey conducted by OFFSET Projects and MK Community Foundation found demand for additional creative space in Milton Keynes.

The most common barriers to accessing existing creative spaces are: cost; availability; location; lack of facilities and inflexible times.

41% of artist and creative practitioner survey respondents said that they do not currently have regular access to a creative space for their work or practice.

Vital Thinking

How can we strengthen partnership working and collaborative promotion within the arts sector to improve access to funding,
expand support, and help arts organisations flourish through shared resources, skills, and visibility?

Q:Alliance Heritage Project

From June 2024 to October 2025, Q:alliance facilitated a heritage project documenting LGBTQ+ history in Milton Keynes.

When the project began, they’d expected to find one or two documents, but once they dove into the archives, they found hundreds of stories and documents showcasing the rich history of LGBTQ+ voices in the city.

Jay Virgo, Communications & Engagement Manager at Q:Alliance, explains that the project was, “astronomically bigger than we’d ever thought it would be”.

“Milton Keynes is so young, 50+ years isn’t really a long time in the grand scheme of things.

There was so much raw history that people had never heard of and that wasn’t documented. So you’d think there wasn’t really much of a presence here, but there was a massive presence, a massive resistance”.

The project has resulted in a 200-page booklet, documentary films available on the website, educational school packs, and an exhibition which ran during September 2025. It’s also had a huge impact on Q:alliance members and the local LGBTQ+ community.

Jay went on to say: “People have said it’s given them a sense of belonging, it’s given them hope, it’s given them a sense of community, and it’s given them a better understanding of their own history".