How do culturally and racially diverse young people participate in the arts? And how does this participation shape particular kinds of skills, competencies and resources that are produced through arts participation? Studies of arts’ ‘impacts’ too easily aggregate the diverse ways in which the arts are experienced. Claims about the economic value of the arts are expressed crudely in terms of numbers of jobs, contribution to growth or a general sense that the arts ‘regenerates’ communities and economies, but there is often little acknowledgement that the arts are not an inclusive space.