Arts Council of Great Britain

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The Arts Council of Great Britain was a

fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (later merged into Creative Scotland), and the Arts Council of Wales. At the same time the National Lottery was established and these three arts councils, plus the Arts Council of Northern Ireland
, became distribution bodies.

History

Peter and The Wolf
at an aircraft factory in the Midlands during World War II
CEMA performers and Royal Navy officer aboard HMS Duke of York during World War II

In January 1940, during the

Sir Henry Walford Davies and George Dyson also involved. John Denison took over after the war.[4]

A royal charter was granted on 9 August 1946[5] followed by another in 1967. The latter provided for functions in Scotland and Wales to be conducted by two committees known as the Scottish and Welsh Arts Councils[2] – the basis for the later Scottish Arts Council and Arts Council of Wales.

The council's first chairman was John Maynard Keynes who used his influence in government to secure a high level of funding despite Britain's poor finances following the war. The majority of this funding was directed to organisations with which Keynes had close ties such as the Royal Opera House and was restricted to Central London. Keynes used his political influence to ensure that the Arts Council reported directly to the Treasury rather than an arts minister or the education department as had been the case with CEMA, establishing the principle of an 'arms length' relationship between UK arts policy and the government of the day.[6]

After Keynes' death in April 1946 government funding was reduced but the Arts Council received wide recognition for its contribution to the

Robert Adams's Apocalyptic Figure, Elinor Bellingham-Smith's The Island, Lucian Freud's Interior near Paddington, William Gear's Autumn Landscape, and Robert MacBryde's Figure and Still Life.[7]

Under the

South Bank Centre. In 2003 sculpture in the collection was moved to a base in Yorkshire
.

During the 1970s and 1980s the Arts Council came under attack for being elitist and politically biased, in particular from the prominent

Peter Hall
, who resigned from the council in protest. In 1987 the restructure inspired by Rees-Mogg cut by half the number of organisations receiving Arts Council funding. During the same period the Arts Council began encouraging a greater level of corporate sponsorship for the arts.

On 1 April 1994 it was replaced by the Arts Council of England, the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales, each with their own new Royal Charter; the Arts Council of Northern Ireland already existed as a distinct body. At the same time, the National Lottery was established and the Arts Council of England became one of the distribution bodies. For the first year after the change in organisation, the Arts Council of England acted to follow through on the final plans of the Arts Council of Great Britain.[8]

Chairpersons of the Arts Council

Chairman Served
John Maynard Keynes
 1946
Sir Ernest Pooley
 1946–1953
Sir Kenneth Clark
 1953–1960
The 4th Baron Cottesloe 1960–1965
Baron Goodman
 1965–1972
Patrick Gibson (created Baron Gibson in 1975) 1972–1977
Sir Kenneth Robinson 1977–1982
Sir William Rees-Mogg 1982–1989
Peter Palumbo (created Baron Palumbo in 1991) 1989–1994

References

  1. ^ "Dumb: Culture Inc". The Guardian. 28 October 2000. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-1-135-97097-0
    .
  3. ^ Jacques, Reginald. 'The Work of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts', in Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 93, No. 4690, April 27th, 1945, pp. 275–284
  4. ^ Webber, Howard. Before the Arts Council: Campaigns for state funding of the arts in Britain, 1934–44 (2021)
  5. ^ Who's Who in Music and Musicians' International Directory. Burke's Peerage Edition, London, 1962.
  6. ^ Myers, Rollo. 'Music in Battle-dress', in Music Since 1939 (1947), pp. 9–30
  7. ISBN 978-0-7190-6060-1
    .
  8. ^ The Arts Council of Great Britain – 49th annual report and accounts 93 94. London, UK: The Arts Council of Great Britain. 21 July 1994.

Further reading

  • Hewison, Robert (1995), Culture and Consensus: England, Art and Politics Since 1940, Methuen
  • Sinclair, Andrew (1995), Arts and Cultures, The History of the 50 Years of the Arts Council of Great Britain,
    ISBN 1-85619-342-X

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arts_Council_of_Great_Britain&oldid=1220235591"