Art sect to split and disperse (7)
I believe the answer is:
scatter
'disperse' is the definition.
(I know that disperse can be written as scatter)
'art sect to split' is the wordplay.
'to split' indicates anagramming the letters (letters split up and reassembled).
'art'+'sect'='artsect'
'artsect' is an anagram of 'SCATTER'.
'and' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for scatter that I've seen before include "Strew randomly" , "Throw in various directions" , "Broadcast" , "Disperse, strew" , "Throw in random directions" .)