Arts Council England
Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The arts funding system in England underwent considerable reorganisation in 2003 when all of the regional arts boards were subsumed into Arts Council England. The boundaries of the regional offices are now co-terminous with the standard English Regions.
It is a government-funded body dedicated to promoting the performing, visual and literary arts in England. Since 1994, Arts Council England has been responsible for distributing lottery funding. This investment has helped to transform the building stock of arts organisations and to create lots of additional high quality arts activity.
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[edit] History
The Arts Council of England was created in 1944 as the Arts Council of Great Britain, which was then divided to form the Arts Council of England, the Scottish Arts Council and the Arts Council of Wales in 1994. At the same time the National Lottery was established and the Arts Council of England became one of the distribution bodies. This increased responsibility saw the Arts Council of England grow back in size to the point where it was larger than before the 1987 restructure.
In 2001 Chairman Gerry Robinson announced a further restructuring in which the Arts Council of England would be merged with the existing regional arts boards to form a single organisation: Arts Council England.
[edit] Governance and administration
Arts Council England has a national council of 15 members including the Chair. The national council meets five–six times a year and is made up of representatives of the arts community with six of the members also representing the regional councils and one seat reserved for a Black or Asian person. Each has a board of 15 members (except for the South East, which has 20 - eight of which are from local and regional government) made up of representatives of their regional arts community and local government. The regional councils are:
The appointment of the Arts Council England Chief Executive is made by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, a position held by Alan Davey since 2008. Each regional council had an Executive Director and each art form has a specialist advisor. The Arts Council England divides its funding into the following headings:
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[edit] Chairs of Arts Council England
- Sir Gerrard Robinson: 1998–2004; businessman and executive
- Sir Christopher Frayling: 2004–February 2009; Rector of the Royal College of Art (London)
- Dame Elizabeth Forgan: 2009–2013; broadcaster and journalist
In September 2012, it was announced that Sir Peter Bazalgette would succeed Forgan as Chair.[1]
[edit] Executive officers
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[edit] Criticism
The Council attracted criticism from the Parliamentary select committee responsible for its oversight for supporting a lottery-funded programme to subsidise UK film production that resulted in a series of films that failed to find distribution. There was also a series of costly capital projects such as the Royal Opera House and the Lowry Centre that required additional funding. In the case of the Royal Opera House the select committee found the Arts Council had broken its own procedures. In 2005 it was announced that the Arts Council England's budget was capped resulting in an effective £30m reduction in its budget.
The Arts Council of England funds a controversial cultural festival, the Festival of Muslim Cultures.[2]
In March 2006, the Arts Council announced a review of its National Office that would "enhance efficiency and delivery while continuing to provide respected and focused arts leadership and drive", whilst proposing to lose 42 posts, mainly arts specialists, so that the organisation will no longer have dedicated national leads for areas including contemporary music, interdisciplinary art, moving image, architecture, broadcasting, opera, social inclusion, disability, and so on.
Arts Council England's music policy was controversial with jazz enthusiasts. Chris Hodgkins, in his 1998 paper Jazz in the UK,[3] pointed out that more that 90% of its music budget went on opera[citation needed] while jazz, with an equivalent audience size,[citation needed] received less than 1%.[citation needed] The funding landscape has improved since with funding for NWJazzworks and Manchester Jazz Festival 2012.[4][5] Among other areas funding has diversified into youth music such as National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, National Youth Jazz Collective and South Asian Music Youth Orchestra (SAMYO) etc.[6] More recently it was raised in the House of Lords by Lord Colwyn on 11 May 2006 as documented in the Lords Hansard Columns (1058 to 1060).[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Brown, Mark (4 September 2012). "News Media Peter Bazalgette Peter Bazalgette named chairman of Arts Council England". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- ^ Peter Tatchell - Human Rights, Democracy, Global Justice[dead link]
- ^ http://www.nwjazzworks.org/reports/8Jazz_in_the_UK,_C_Hodgkins.doc NWJazzworks
- ^ "Grants and funding opportunities available for jazz musicians, promoters and projects". NWJazzworks. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ^ "About NWJazzworks". Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ^ "National youth music organisations". ACE. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ^ Lords Hansard text for 11 May 2006 (60511-06)
[edit] External links
- Arts Council England consultation website
- Arts Council England
- Artists taking the lead
- Arts energy
- Arts jobs
- Own art
- Take it away
- Arts councils of the United Kingdom
- Performing arts in England
- English art
- Arts in England
- Organisations based in England with royal patronage
- Non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government
- Department for Culture, Media and Sport
- 1994 establishments in England
- Governance of England
- Government agencies established in 1994
- Funding bodies of England
