Arts Council England is an arm's length

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of ...

of the

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The arts funding system in England underwent considerable reorganisation in 2002 when all of the

regional arts board The regional arts boards (formerly regional arts associations) were English regional subdivisions of the Arts Council of Great Britain History As the Arts Council began to move away from organising art activities in the 1950s, regional offices ...

s were subsumed into Arts Council England and became regional offices of the national organisation. Arts Council England is a government-funded body dedicated to promoting the performing, visual and literary arts in

. 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 much additional high-quality arts activity. On 1 October 2011 the

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) was until May 2012 a non-departmental public body and registered charity in England with a remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, libraries and archives. Its function ...

was subsumed into the Arts Council in England and they assumed the responsibilities of the council.

History

The Arts Council of Great Britain was created in 1946 by Royal Charter on the initiative of

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...

. It received a revised charter in 1967. On 1 April 1994, it was divided to form the Arts Council of England, the

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council ( gd, Comhairle Ealain na h-Alba, sco, Scots Airts Cooncil) was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the ...

, 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. This increased responsibility saw the Arts Council of England grow back in size to the point where it was larger than before the 1987 restructuring. In 2001 Chairman

Gerry Robinson Sir Gerrard Jude Robinson (23 October 1948 – 14 October 2021) was an Irish-born British business executive and television presenter. He was non-executive chairman of Allied Domecq and chairman/chief executive of Granada. Early life Robinso ...

announced a further restructuring in which the Arts Council of England would be merged with the ten

s to form a single organisation: Arts Council England.

Lets Create

In 2020, Arts Council England published 'Lets Create', a new 10-year Strategy for the sectors within its remit. 'Let's Create' includes a new vision statement, designed to inform Arts Council England's work and priorities to 2030: "By 2030, we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish, and where every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences." The Strategy is structured around three outcomes: * Creative People * Cultural Communities * A Creative and Cultural Country Arts Council England has also set out 4 'investment principles': * Ambition and quality * Dynamism * Environmental responsibility * Inclusivity and relevance

Governance and administration

Arts Council England has a national council of 15 members, including the chair. The national council meets ten times a year and is made up of representatives of the arts community with five of the members also representing the area councils. Each area council has a board of 15 members made up of representatives of their arts community and local government. There are five area councils: * North * Midlands * London * South East * South West The Chief Executive of the Arts Council England is appointed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Alan Davey was Chief Executive from 2008 to 2014. He was succeeded by

Darren Henley Darren Richard Henley , born February 1973, is the Chief Executive of Arts Council England and an author of books about the arts. He is a member of the UK government's Creative Industries Council. Education He is a graduate of the University of ...

. Each area council has an

Executive Director Executive director is commonly the title of the chief executive officer of a non-profit organization, government agency or international organization. The title is widely used in North American and European not-for-profit organizations, though ...

and each art form has a specialist advisor. The Arts Council England divides its funding into the following headings: * Combined Art (Festivals) * Dance * Education * Literature * Music * Research * Theatre * Touring * Visual Arts

Chairs of Arts Council England

Grey Gowrie Alexander Patrick Greysteil Hore-Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie, (26 November 1939 – 24 September 2021), usually known as Grey Gowrie or Lord Gowrie, was an Irish-born British hereditary peer, politician, and businessman. Lord Gowrie was als ...

(foundation–1998), 2nd Earl of Gowrie, former Arts Minister, poet and art dealer * Sir Gerrard Robinson (1998–2004), businessman and executive * Sir Christopher Frayling:(2004–February 2009); Rector of the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It o ...

(London) * Dame Elizabeth Forgan (2009–2013); broadcaster and journalist * Sir

Peter Bazalgette Sir Peter Lytton Bazalgette (; born 22 May 1953) is a British television executive and producer, best known for producing over 3000 episodes of BBC's Food and Drink and Ready, Steady, Cook. He was elected President of the Royal Television Soci ...

(2013–2016); Executive Chairman of

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc is listed on the ...

* Sir

Nicholas Serota Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota, (born 27 April 1946) is an English art historian and curator, who served as the Director of the Tate from 1988 to 2017. He is currently Chair of Arts Council England, a role which he has held since February 2017. ...

(2017–); former Director of the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

Executive officers

Mary Allen Mary Allen (born 22 August 1951) is a British writer, broadcaster, arts administrator and management consultant best known for her controversial and turbulent period as Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House. Early career She was educated at ...

: Secretary General, 1994 –1997 *Peter Hewitt: Chief Executive, 1997–2008 * Alan Davey: Chief Executive, 2008–2014 *

Chief Executive, 2014 to present

Funding programmes

Arts Council England is a distributor of a core funding programme, complemented by National Lottery funding.

Culture Recovery Fund

In 2020 it administered the

Culture Recovery Fund The Culture Recovery Fund is a grants programme issued by the UK Government as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund aims to financially support cultural organisations in England (such as theatres, museums, and music venues) which had bec ...

to arts venues and organisations in England affected by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Former funding programmes

Arts Capital Lottery

From 1994 it oversaw a national capital fund with grants for new buildings, public art and the renovation of existing arts buildings. The story of the Capital programme is told by Prue Skene who chaired the Lottery Panel, in ''Capital Gains: how the national lottery transformed England's arts''.

Sampad Arts

Arts Council England utilises public funding to support Sampad Arts, a

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

-based agency that produces dance, music and theatre productions, and provides professional development for young artists, in association with mac (formerly the Midlands Arts Centre).

Museums

Arts Council England supports a limited number of museums as Major Partnership Museums: 16 single museums or consortia were supported 2012–2015, and a further five were added for 2015–2018, bringing the total to 21. Arts Council England also supports other museums via "Strategic Funds."

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 The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

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. 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", while 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, and disability. Arts Council England's music policy was controversial within the

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

world. Chris Hodgkins, in his 1998 paper ''Jazz in the UK'', pointed out that more than 90% of its music budget went on

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

while jazz, with an equivalent audience size, received less than 1%. The funding landscape has improved since with funding for NWJazzworks and

Manchester Jazz Festival {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 Manchester Jazz Festival is an annual 9-day-long festival focused on showcasing contemporary jazz from the North West of England and beyond. mjf 2017 The 2017 Manchester Jazz Festival took place from 28 July to 6 ...

2012. 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. On 11 May 2006 it was raised in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...

by Lord Colwyn, as documented in the Lords

Hansard ''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official prin ...

Columns (1058 to 1060). In May 2015, the right wing Board of Deputies of British Jews, released a statement objecting to Arts Council England's funding of ''

The Siege ''The Siege'' is a 1998 American action thriller film directed by Edward Zwick. The film is about a fictional situation in which terrorist cells have made several attacks in New York City. The film stars Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Tony Sh ...

''. The Palestinian play depicts a 2002 incident where armed

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...

fighters sought refuge in

Church of the Nativity The Church of the Nativity, or Basilica of the Nativity,; ar, كَنِيسَةُ ٱلْمَهْد; el, Βασιλική της Γεννήσεως; hy, Սուրբ Ծննդեան տաճար; la, Basilica Nativitatis is a basilica located in B ...

in Bethlehem. A 39-day siege ensued, and eight of the Hamas troops were killed by Israeli snipers, before the remaining forces surrendered. The

English Touring Opera English Touring Opera (ETO) is an opera company in the United Kingdom founded in 1979 under the name Opera 80 by the then-existing Arts Council of Great Britain. In 1992 the company changed to its present name. Today it is sponsored in part by Art ...

attributed its firing of white musicians in 2021 to "firm guidance" from the Arts Council.

References

External links

Arts Council England consultation websiteArts Council EnglandArtists taking the leadArts energyArts jobsOwn artTake it away
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arts Council England Arts councils of the United Kingdom Bloomsbury Performing arts in England English art Arts organisations based in England Organisations based in England with royal patronage Organisations based in the London Borough of Camden Non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport 1994 establishments in England Governance of England Government agencies established in 1994 Funding bodies of England Arts organizations established in 1994