Outdoor Arts: current definition used by ISAN
Outdoor arts describes arts practice that take place outside of conventional art venues such as
theatres and galleries, primarily in the public realm i.e. streets, parks and many other public spaces and
that are staged within a specific period of time.
Outdoor arts embraces a range of genres, art practices and forms including theatre, dance, circus,
spectacle, visual arts, processional and carnival forms including mela, music or any combination of
these.
Outdoor arts involves wide ranging scales of delivery from intimate street-level solo performances
through to spectacle based projects of scale and ambition, and from community processional projects
to stunning outdoor interactive visual arts based installations. Outdoor arts also maximises the
possibilities for participation and engagement through digital devices and online platforms.
Outdoor arts provide socially inclusive opportunities for audiences to experience and participate in high
quality, imaginative and professional arts, often within their own communities. They are used to create
large and small scale communal, and often celebratory events, that can create community cohesion by
bringing diverse individuals, groups and communities together.
Outdoor arts events, both large and small, create a sense of place and can contribute to wider
agendas such as cultural regeneration, and play a vital role in the visitor economy.
ISAN has chosen to embrace outdoor arts as a term that more accurately describes our members
work, preferring it as a more open and inclusive term than street arts, which historically has been often
misunderstood and misleading.
Outdoor arts is the term coined in the Arts Council England’s New Landscapes Report to describe arts
practice that takes place in a range of public spaces, beyond conventional arts venues such as
theatres and galleries.