working for the arts 2 - arts council england · in this millennial year, the arts council has...

artsworking for the

annual review 2000

The Arts Council is the national body for the arts in England.We distribute public money to artists and arts organisationsfrom Government and the National Lottery, both directly andthrough the 10 English Regional Arts Boards. We commissionresearch, promote innovation in the arts and provide adviceand information. Working as an independent, non-political body, at arm’slength from Government, we champion the arts - promotingthe importance of artistic endeavour to the economic,physical, social and, not least, the spiritual wellbeing of the country. Our funding programmes seek to support the highest artisticachievements, and to make these available to as manypeople as possible; to encourage new work and newaudiences; to bring challenging art to all sections of thecommunity; and to celebrate the diversity of cultures thatcontribute so much to the richness of England’s artistic life.In this millennial year, the Arts Council has already persuadedGovernment of the necessity of increased public funding toensure that England’s arts communities - among the mostdynamic, vibrant and resourceful in the world - survive andthrive. We will continue to make the case for the artsthroughout the year and into the longer term.

The Arts Council’s Annual Review 2000 is in two parts:

Working for the ArtsAccounts and Lottery Report

See it online at: www.artscouncil.org.uk/review2000/

to the Arts Council of England’sAnnual Review for 2000

Welcome

03 THE ARTS COUNCIL OF ENGLAND

Louise Bourgeois' 30-foot to

wers -I Do, I U

ndo, I Re-do -

dominate Tate Modern's huge Turbine Hall. V

isitors c

an mount

the spiral stairca

ses to reach platforms w

here chairs are

surrounded by large sw

ivel mirro

rs.

Collection of th

e Artist. C

ourtesy Cheim & Read, New York.

In spring 1999, we set ourselves some tough goals.We wanted to see the new, leaner Arts Councilbecome fully operational as a national policy bodyfor the arts. We wanted to tackle some majoroutstanding problems, especially those facing theorchestras and regional theatres. We wanted to takea fresh approach to the use of lottery funds forcapital projects, and we wanted to make furtherprogress with delegating both lottery and grant-in-aidfunds to the Regional Arts Boards (RABs).

We also announced five new priorities for our work:the individual artist; new art forms including newtechnology; diversity and social inclusion; childrenand lifelong learning; and touring and distribution.These policy priorities shaped the way in which fundsare being allocated. Our new Arts Capital Programmeand the National Touring Programme, for example,place a strong emphasis on the policy priorities.

In November 1999, the Arts Council’s new structurebecame a reality. The new structure places a strongemphasis on research, advocacy, the development ofnational policy and major new initiatives, as well asour continuing role as a funder of the arts.

We have carried out reviews of two sectors facingfinancial crisis. All but one of the nine orchestrasfunded by the Arts Council were carrying deficits. Weundertook a swift and comprehensive review and, byOctober 1999, we were able to announce a freshstart for the orchestras. We are providing substantialsupport from our Stabilisation fund to enable theorchestras to work more flexibly and to offer thebroadest possible repertoire to audiences.

Regional theatres have suffered from inadequatefunding since the mid-eighties, making it harder for

them to take creative risks. We commissioned areport by Boyden Associates into the state of the50 English regional producing theatres. Thisprovided the basis for The Next Stage, which wepublished in May 2000. This sets out our vision forthe whole theatre sector, including the regionaltheatres, national and touring companies and thecommercial sector. We identified the need for anextra £25 million a year to reinvigorate theatre. Inpartnership with the RABs and other stakeholders,detailed plans are now being developed toimplement our national policy for theatre,published in July 2000, that will transform thesector for the 21st century.

In July 1999, we announced details of thecompletion of our first capital programme. Theplan earmarked £269 million for 46 projects,subject to their submitting satisfactoryapplications. They included the Music Centre,Gateshead; the Laban Centre in south east London;and Poole Arts Centre. Since the start of thelottery, we have distributed £1,072 million to over2,000 organisations across the country.

Delegation of funds to the RABs has gathered pace.Small lottery awards are now being delegated tothe RABs and many organisations formerly fundeddirectly by us have now become RAB clients.

Finally, we achieved a major and most welcomeincrease in grant-in-aid funds in the Government’ssummer 2000 spending review. Our challenge for the coming year is to ensure that we develop imaginative plans for using the extrafunds, to benefit artists, arts organisations andaudiences alike.

This year, the Arts Council’s new role has really beenput to the test. We had made a commitment tobecome a more strategic organisation, focusing onnational policy, research, advocacy and the strategicuse of grant-in-aid and lottery funds. I believe wehave made significant strides in all of these areas.

One of our major aims during the past year has beento increase funding for the arts - historically, thearts have been underfunded in the UK. As Chairmanof the Arts Council, I have taken huge pleasure intravelling around the country and seeing the sheerdiversity and vibrancy of the arts impacting onpeople’s lives. In the New Statesman Arts Lecture inJune 2000, I stressed the importance of investingproperly in the arts - not just for their own sake,but also for the value they add to our lives. It wasgratifying to learn, therefore, that the Governmentwill increase the amount of Treasury funding for thearts by an additional £100 million a year by 2003/04.The additional funds will make it possible for moreart of the highest quality to be available to morepeople across the country.

An earlier boost for the arts came in the Budget in

March, when the Chancellor announced changes totaxation on charitable giving. These included radicalnew tax incentives to encourage charitable donationsof quoted shares and securities. Changes in the giftaid programme will also help. Since most artsorganisations are charities, these changes shouldhave a major, positive impact on arts income.

With additional funding agreed, we must nowconcentrate on fulfilling another of our ambitions.We have made progress in cutting red tape for ourclients. But still I hear the familiar complaint that wecreate too many hoops and barriers to our fundingschemes. Clearly, we must balance publicaccountability - especially with regard to lotteryfunds - with the need for simplification. I amconvinced we can make life simpler, and I’mdetermined we shall.

Finally, I should like to offer warmest thanks andbest wishes to the three members who retired fromthe Council this year - Christopher Frayling, AndrewMotion and Prue Skene. They have been invaluablesources of knowledge and support and I shall miss them.

championing

Gerry RobinsonChairman

Gerry Robinson Peter Hewitt

Peter HewittChief Executive

the arts


The Milton Keynes Theatre and Gallery opened in October 1999, a striking complex sculpted into the urban centre. The gallery, with three large spaces, hosts mainly contemporary artists. The theatre has a visually stunning atrium, is multipurpose at the touch of a button, and seats 1,400.The project received a lottery award of over £20 million.

‘This is a great time to be talking about the arts.Most people I have talked to lately feel that we arein the midst of some kind of dramatic shift in thecultural life of this country’ said Gerry Robinson inhis New Statesman Arts Lecture.

The Arts Council’s role is to fund the arts and todevelop policy at a national level. This meansinvolving and consulting practitioners andstakeholders and exercising leadership. It also meansdeveloping a vision for the arts and promoting thisvision to all concerned: the public, the artscommunity and Government.

Acting for the arts

In spring 2000, the Arts Council commissioned apublic attitudes survey from MORI. The resultsrevealed strong support for publicly funded arts,across all ages and social groups.

The Arts Council undertook a major review oforchestral music during 1999, which has given a freshstart to subsidised orchestras. Seven of the symphonyorchestras were given the opportunity to reconsiderall aspects of their operation - artistic,organisational and financial. As well as removingtheir debts we have committed ourselves to investingin their future development.

2000 saw the launch of a major new policy fortheatre. Based on extensive research, it identifiesthe problems faced by regional producing theatre,including fewer performances, smaller audiences,less new work being commissioned, less employmentfor artists and a ‘risk averse’ culture. It sets a course

that will ensure a brighter future with a dynamic,revitalised theatre engaging with young people andmulticultural England, where more new work willoffer greater choice to audiences.

Both reviews demonstrate the Arts Council’s desireto resolve financial crises in arts organisations, whileat the same time looking ahead to developresponsive and flexible arts provision.

Winning the argument

The Arts Council lobbied Government hard for extracash and was delighted to learn that, in the reviewof public expenditure, an additional £100 million ayear by 2003/4 has been earmarked for the arts. Weare increasingly developing a strategic role - talkingto Government and others about what the arts needand how they contribute to society. We are alsodelegating more funding decisions to the regionallevel. The Arts Council should and will continue tofund the major national arts organisations but,increasingly, local and regional arts policy will bemade closer to the people it affects, by our partnersin the 10 English Regional Arts Boards.

Looking forward

During the coming year, the Arts Council willcontinue to give a lead on matters of nationalimportance to the arts. Our objective is to make artof the highest quality available to all sections ofsociety. To this end, we will be working with andbeyond the publicly funded arts to ensure a climateof success for artistic creativity.

The Arts Council no longer simply gives out money. We now set nationalpolicy and act as an advocate on behalf of the arts community and artsaudiences, to Government and others.

a

leadingrole


Mind the... gap...get into bed with a dynamic adaptation of John Steinbeck’s OfMice and Men. This Bradford-based theatre company performswith an integrated cast which includes actors with a learningdisability. The play toured nationally in spring 2000, and bypublic demand was back on the road in September.

driving

innovation


Innovation keeps the arts alive and kicking. Pioneering artistsgive a fresh perspective to our world, while new media offeruntried ways of expressing our responses to it.

Breakthrough

Breakthrough - launched in August 2000 - is a uniqueprogramme which will support experimentation andrisk. Selected organisations will need to show clearevidence of pioneering new ground in terms ofinnovative and creative arts practice. Around 15awards will be made, and the organisations we will beworking with are likely to have at their heartinnovation in arts production/presentation;education; diversity; or social inclusion. The aim is tocreate successful role models for the future andencourage greater investment in the arts.

New spaces for the arts

The internet is changing the way we live our lives.More than just a communication tool, it offers newways of working, new ways of thinking. With £1.5million over the next two years, the Arts Council isestablishing ArtsOnline, which will benefit artists andaudiences and widen access to the arts in England.ArtsOnline will include an online venue featuringexhibitions with specially commissioned work andwebcasts in audio and video. Over the first 12 months- from December 2000 - six online exhibitions will becurated for the site and each day will highlight a newpiece of art.

How can we reach for ‘a more complete version ofthe truth’?

This was Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture,Media and Sport, speaking at Whose Heritage?, a

conference on cultural diversity and the arts,organised by the Arts Council and North West ArtsBoard in November 1999.

The richness of England’s cultural diversitychallenges preconceptions and, at the same time,delights with a constantly shifting and fluid scene.New forms develop from combinations of the old:evident in any of the dozens of carnivals across theland, in the writing of the new young generation ofblack Britons like Zadie Smith, or in the musicalexperimentation of Mercury Music Prize nomineeNitin Sawhney.

Creating change

Diversity 2002 is an Arts Council major initiativeaiming for a ‘sea change’ in cultural diversity -defined, in this instance, as Black, Asian and Chinesearts and artists.

It will place diversity at the very forefront of ourwork, reinforcing professional practice andmainstreaming works that have already created theirown considerable engine for change.

Making the Map - hosted on the Arts Council website- will be the public face of Diversity 2002, workingwith Regional Arts Boards and other bodies nationallyto increase awareness and appreciation of culturaldiversity. Making the Map will create a forum in whicheveryone can participate in a debate on thechallenges involved in setting the course for thefuture of arts in England, with particular regard tocultural diversity. Visit us atwww.artscouncil.org.uk/wider/makingmapindex.html

Blast TheoryLondon-based live art group Blast Theory continued blurring the lines between performance and real life with their interactiveinstallation Desert Rain. Through a stunning re-working of the arcade game concept, the

audience become the players in a computerisedGulf War scenario. Information and visualisationwere based on research with veterans from thatwar, making the experience both a sombre andexhilarating one for participants.

new audiences

In 1998, the Government gave the Arts Council newfunding specifically to develop new audiences.Through the New Audiences Programme, we havedistributed - directly and through the Regional ArtsBoards - over £5 million to projects designed tocombat the factors that prevent people fromparticipating in the arts: lack of local availability,travel problems, unfamiliarity, lack of information,and cost.

Some of the New Audiences strands included:

● Arts Ride: encouraging innovative transport and ticket schemes

● New Contexts: arts presented in non-traditional spaces

● Test Drive the Arts: promotional incentives for people to try new experiences

● Regional Challenge: work with the Regional Arts Boards

Projects targeted people who traditionally do notparticipate in the arts, including young people, ruralcommunities and people from inner cities.

The size of the projects varied from £260,000 forBirmingham Arts Marketing to develop its integrated‘SmartCard’ scheme to small, localised awards forsmall scale schemes. A key part of the NewAudiences Programme was encouraging honestevaluation: getting participants to identify bothstrengths and weaknesses in their approaches so that everyone could share and benefit from lessons learned.

Examples of projects include:

● Premiership Audiences: presenting live artsentertainment to over 340,000 spectators at 10Middlesbrough Football Club matches

● Firestarter: new musical talent presented to festival audiences estimated in the region of 240,000 people

● Clockwork Orange presented by Northern Stage toclubbers at the Sunderland Empire nightclub

● The Ballet Bus brought people from rural communities in Cumbria into Barrow-in-Furness for English National Ballet performances, and transport schemes in Hampshire and Warwickshire linked people in rural communities with local venues

● 25 orchestras were involved in Music On Your Doorstep, engaging people with classical music through community and educational events

In its first year, more than 1.3 million people attendedNew Audiences Programme activities.

The New Audiences Programme has encouraged peoplewho attended arts for the first time to come back: 32%of people participating in Test Drive the Arts NorthWest returned, this time paying for their own ticket.

The programme has also encouraged young people: theproportion of young people in the audience of SheffieldTheatres as part of the How Much? projects was 41%,compared to 7% previously.

Research shows that almost half of all people wantmore opportunities to take part in the arts – the NewAudiences Programme is continuing to help them to do so.

Opening up the arts to more people in more places.


inspiring

I am the room that understands waiting,with my box of elderly toys, my dog-eared Women’s Owns

permanent as repeat prescriptions, unanswerable as ageing,heartening as the people who walk out smiling, weary

as doctors and nurses working on and on and on

U. A. Fanthorpe

Poems in the waiting room inspires audiences who are not onlynew, but captive! Posters show poems on the theme of waiting,and are displayed in medical waiting rooms. The project began inLondon and the Midlands and the poems were all newlycommissioned, from 50 poets.

December

The stunning r

edevelopment of th

e Royal

Opera House, Covent G

arden, opened to

enormous a

cclaim with

a Royal Gala in th

e

presence of Her M

ajesty, The Queen. T

he

project receive

d a £78.5 million lotte

ry

award. The Opera House now provid

es the

Royal Ballet with

a permanent h

ome.

In a funding p

ackage worth

£500 million

for the tw

o years 2

000–2002, we se

t out

innovative plans fo

r spending o

ur centra

l

government grant. S

ignific

ant funds a

re

provided fo

r the new prio

rities –

new work

and new artform

s, the individ

ual artist,

young people and lif

elong learning,

diversit

y and so

cial in

clusio

n, and

increasin

g audiences fo

r the arts.

November

Whose Heritage? ta

kes place in Mancheste

r

– a cuttin

g edge co

nference that q

uestions

the concept o

f herita

ge in today’s

multicultu

ral Britain. O

rganise

d by

ourselve

s and th

e North West A

rts Board,

it brin

gs together fo

r the fir

st time arts,

museums and herita

ge representative

s

with leading v

oices fr

om the Black

and

Asian arts

worlds. I

t urge

s museums a

nd

galleries to

provide more inclu

sive ve

rsions

of histo

ry and cu

lture th

rough the fu

ll

spectrum of th

eir work.

Floral Hall, Royal O

pera House

January

Joanna MacGregor, internatio

nal concert

pianist and member o

f the Arts

Council,

receives th

e South Bank S

how Award

for Classic

al Music.

The judges c

ite her

work on th

e 1999 national So

undCircus

tour with

the Arts

Council’s C

ontemporary

Music Network,

and her London premiere

of Harris

on Birtwistl

e’s Clocks

at the

BBC Proms.

March

The National St

udent Music

Awards final is

held, afte

r 15 sh

owcase heats around th

e

country th

at featured up to

60 bands. The

awards promote fre

sh talent w

hile giving

student m

usicians th

e chance to

perform

in a professional enviro

nment. Our

Firesta

rter g

rant funds th

e marketin

g and

promotion.

We announce that 3

4 spaces p

resenting

the visual arts

across E

ngland will

receive

an extra £2 millio

n a year. T

his helps

address the needs o

f those presentin

g a

wide range of w

ork, inclu

ding the vis

ual

arts and cr

afts, photogra

phy, new media,

artists'

film and vid

eo, live art a

nd

archite

cture.

February

Charles S

aatchi donates 1

00 works,

valued at over £

500,000, to th

e Arts

Council collectio

n. The gif

t features w

orks

by artis

ts who have fo

rmed th

e bedrock of

the Young B

ritish Artis

t phenomenon. T

he

Arts Council

collection is

the most activ

ely

used and widely circu

lated of all t

he

national co

llections.

Cinéfilm play the N

ational StudentM

usic Awards

Billy Ellio

t, premiered au

tumn

2000,

was one of th

e last fi

lms

we backed before re

sponsibilit

y

for film fu

nding tran

sferre

d to

the new Film Council

in April

2000.

Set durin

g the 19

84

miners' str

ike, th

e film te

lls the

story

of a yo

ung boy w

ho finds

dancing h

elps him co

pe with his

mother's death

. The fil

m is the

directo

rial d

ebut of S

tephen

Daldry,

former a

rtistic

directo

r

of the Royal

Court Theatr

e

in London.

The Mirror is

one of our

supporters i

n the su

ccessf

ul

campaig

n to se

cure extra

funding for th

e arts.

Towards 2000/2001

May

Andrew Motion, a

n Arts Council

member, is a

ppointed as Poet L

aureate.

Gerry Robinson sa

ys ‘I a

m sure th

at he

will be an outsta

nding advocate fo

r

poetry in partic

ular, and lit

erature in

general. He is

passionately c

ommitted

to developing the ro

le of the re

ader

and writer in

our socie

ty, and I h

ave no

doubt that h

e will be a worth

y and

effectiv

e succe

ssor to

Ted Hughes.’

April

Channel Theatre

Company receive

s a

lottery

award to buy a

nd refurbish

a

rehearsal and works

hop base in Thanet.

The company p

rovides sm

all-scale

touring n

ationwide and educatio

n

workshops fo

r local co

mmunities a

nd

schools.

It has a

lso re

ceived money

from th

e European Regional

Development Fund, fo

r its ro

le in

regeneration.

We announce 30 grants t

o independent

dance companies fo

r projects

totallin

g

£779,000. These are fo

r makin

g and

touring d

ance work of va

rious st

yles,

including c

ontemporary, jazz,

South

Asian, Ir

ish, a

nd African people's d

ance.

1999-

2000 As part o

f the Natio

nal Year o

f Reading, w

e place writers

in

schools,

reaching 35,000 pupils acro

ss 30 lo

cal educatio

n authorities. T

he

results are se

en in sc

hool newspapers,

showcases o

n the web, in

festiv

als,

and in th

e pupils’ enthusia

sm: ‘H

e [Bria

n Moses] showed us h

ow to give

a

structu

re to a poem th

at made it

really paint p

ictures in

your h

ead’.

October

We brief th

e Regional A

rts Boards, o

ur

regularly-funded orga

nisatio

ns and

recipients o

f lotte

ry awards, a

bout the

need to meet th

e require

ments of th

e

Disabilit

y Discr

imination Act.

Through

papers and se

minars, we su

ggest a

ctions

that arts

organisa

tions c

ould take to

be

ready for 2

004, when arts

providers w

ill

have to ta

ke reasonable ste

ps to

provide acce

ss.

June

We announce our new fin

ancial st

rategy

and new structu

re, to co

me into place

in November. A Pa

rliamentary

Select

Committee ackn

owledges that th

e Arts

Council has u

ndergone a ‘ra

dical

transfo

rmatio

n in its co

mposition’, a

nd

that the Se

cretary

of State’s

appointment o

f Gerry

Robinson has

‘already p

roved to be a so

und

decision’.

August

The picturesque Theatre

by the La

ke

opens in Keswick

-on-Derwentwater,

with su

pport from a lotte

ry award. It

’s

the last new re

pertory

theatre to

be

built in th

is country

in the 20th ce

ntury.

July

The Artists i

n Sites fo

r Learning s

cheme

gives g

rants to 12 projects

. Visu

al

artists w

ork with

a range of p

eople and

projects to

offer e

xperience and

learning about c

ontemporary visu

al arts

practice. T

he projects ra

nge from:

developing the cr

eative uses o

f

software in sc

hools; makin

g

photographic i

mages and a perfo

rmance

with sta

ff and cu

stomers o

f a large

supermarke

t; to workin

g with

teenagers

to make their o

wn miniature artspaces.

September

The Axis database go

es online, a

t

www.axisartis

ts.org.

uk, with

support

from us a

nd the Jo

int Inform

ation

Services C

ommittee. It

is the large

st

interactive database of co

ntemporary

British art o

n the web. V

isual artis

ts

including s

culptors, conceptual artis

ts,

print m

akers, ceramicis

ts, design

ers,

painters, photogra

phers, vid

eo artists,

jewellers, live

artists,

glassm

akers,

metal worke

rs, furnitu

re designers a

nd

digital artis

ts provid

e a full C

V and up

to nine samples o

f their a

rtwork.

Joanna MacG

regor

1. East Midlands Arts supportsthe Belgrave Mela in Leicester,where local artists and community groups created agiant Rangoli. The GuinnessBook of Records came to filmthis record-breaking decoration, traditionally madefor Indian festivals.

3. Tiata Fahodzi toursMakinde, by Femi ElufowojuJnr, which fuses West Africanmusic, dance and drama and isbased on Macbeth.

2. The Northern Sinfonia.

a year in the life of

the Arts Council

The year 2000 is Year of the Artist. In a blaze ofpublicity, 1,000 artists were given residencies in1,000 places across the country - often in placeswhere the public least expects to find them.Residencies range from anything to sound artist KateTierney working on the Radio 4 programme to theCornelius Cardew Ensemble creating a ‘pub opera’with the unsuspecting drinkers at the Millers Arms inCanterbury. The placements bring new ideas into newcontexts, with a sense of playfulness and adventure.This celebration of the artist is the culmination ofour Arts 2000 initiative that began in 1992. Year ofthe Artist is managed by the Regional Arts Boards.

In 1999/2000, we initiated a number of newprogrammes that have grown from earlier investmentin work with young people, professional artists andarts organisations.

Funded by the Arts Council and Regional Arts Boards,the Arts Education Interface is working with twoEducation Action Zones in Bristol and Corby. Youngpeople, artists and teachers develop creativeprojects together, putting the arts at the heart ofraising standards in schools. Another innovativeproject supported by the National Lottery, inpartnership with the European Union, is CAPE -Creative Arts Partnerships in Education - in Leedsand Manchester. This focuses on the creativeengagement of young people and local artists.

Building on the work of the Arts Council’s pioneeringInterim Funding Scheme, the Government hasintroduced new Dance and Drama awards, for youngpeople beginning their careers in dance, drama andstage management. The success of our schemehelped persuade the Department for Education &Employment to fund the new awards. Funding will be made available for tuition and maintenance costs through the higher and further educationfunding councils.

As part of its commitment to the individual artist,the Arts Council has invested £1 million over twoyears to provide a framework for continuing


the artistThe Arts Council wants artists and arts professionals to benefitfrom sustained investment in their development and training atall points in their creative careers.

professional development for artists, arts managersand other arts professionals. This represents thebiggest single investment in professionaldevelopment within the sector in the Arts Council’s history. It will be delivered with the RABs, Metier (the national training organisation for the arts and entertainment sector) and other partners.

The Arts Council is nurturing the artists, managersand administrators of the future through the launchof careers advice - Your Creative Future - inconjunction with the Department for Culture, Mediaand Sport and the Design Council.

The Arts Council handbook, Employing DisabledPeople, which was launched by Arts Minister AlanHowarth in July 2000, encourages people withdisabilities to work within the arts sector,particularly where capital investment, funded by theNational Lottery, has resulted in a new generation ofaccessible arts buildings.

Ensuring that all young people, professional artistsand administrators benefit from the lifelong learningagenda is the aim of a new programme of CreativePartnerships. At least 12 centres will benefit fromnew funding made available to the arts byGovernment in its review of public spending.

The Arts Council is offering a range of internationalfellowships and opportunities over the next twoyears. The Individual Artist Programme will initiallyprovide about 40 international fellowships across all arts disciplines with a view to creating a longerterm programme. Through collaboration with other national bodies, international agencies and practitioner-run organisations, the Arts Council is working across all continents withinnovative host institutes, academies, studios and artist-led organisations. The fellowships offer opportunities for critical, practice-basedresearch and enable production of innovative new work.

Highlights

1. The Regional Arts Lottery Programme is launched,the first lottery programme managed by theRegional Arts Boards. The programme set aside £13 million in its first year for arts activity and projects across the country, focusing on access, education, production and distribution of new artcommissions, and investment in projects which support artists. (May 1999)

2. We announce a new package for orchestras. Thisprovides substantial funds through the Stabilisationprogramme to help orchestras – several with large,

historical debts – move to a more flexible way ofworking. It also gives them scope to offer a morevaried repertoire. (October 1999)

3. The National Touring Programme is launched, tohelp take art of any type and scale to audiencesacross England. The programme encourages dynamic relationships between artists/producers,venues/promoters, and audiences. (November 1999)

4. The English National Opera premieres, to hugecritical praise, The Silver Tassie. This is a new workby composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, commissionedwith Arts Council funds, and based on the play bySean O’Casey. It’s a box office success and is alsoshown on television. (February 2000)

5. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announces taxreliefs as part of his 2000 Budget a boost for charitable giving. We campaigned for these changesto taxation on charitable giving, and worked withthe Charities Aid Foundation to provide informationand advice to arts organisations to help them takefull advantage of the changes. (March 2000)

5. Gerry Robinson, comedian Griff Rhys Jonesand Culture Secretary Chris Smith promotethe tax changes.

4. The Silver Tassie, EnglishNational Opera.

nurturing

Kathryn Tickell Kathryn is a composer and performer whose roots lie firmly inthe North Tyne Valley of Northumberland. She specialises in theNorthumbrian smallpipes, a small bellows-blown bagpipe. Acompetition winner by the age of 13, she has recorded manyalbums, featured on television, and performed on stage withSting and Jimmy Nail. Kathryn sees herself as one in a long lineof Northumbrian musicians and is deeply committed to passing onthe music to the younger generation.

building a new understandingAs the national body for the arts in England, it is our responsibilityto ensure that policy and planning for future development isunderpinned by hard evidence. The Arts Council is putting in placea comprehensive research strategy to ensure that we have thefacts we need.

The Arts Council commissioned The Henley Centre topaint a picture of what Britain will be like in 2010and what this will mean for the arts. Society as awhole has more money to spend on leisure but lesstime, and many people are faced with competingdemands for what little spare time they have.England is also becoming an increasingly diversesociety, with a greater variety of lifestyles. Thechallenge for the arts is how to plan provision thatrecognises and caters for these social anddemographic changes.

Key research projects

In the last year, we have commissioned somesignificant pieces of research:

● A survey by MORI found evidence of widespread support for making the arts more accessible. Almost three quarters of the population support public funding for the arts and a similar proportion of adults interviewed thought that the arts ought to be made more accessible to ‘people

like them’. A high proportion also recognised the contribution that the arts make to the economy and to encouraging tourism

● ArtStat was published, a valuable reference volume containing a wealth of information on expenditure on and income from the arts, sources of funding, and attendance and participation in the arts

● ‘Arts’ – what’s in a word?: ethnic minorities and the arts reported on the results of focus group discussions with Black, Asian and Chinese people. The report explores people’s understanding of and engagement with the arts, and gives examples of a rich range of culturally diverse arts activity

Planning ahead

Future plans include a large scale survey of attendanceand participation across England and further work oncultural diversity in preparation for the Diversity 2002initiative (see page 9 for further details).


Mavin Khoo dances for Akademi, at their 21st anniversaryperformance, on the level 5 balcony of the Royal Festival Hall inLondon. Akademi, with ADiTi, KADAM and SAMPAD, make up theSouth Asian Dance Consortium. Each partner concentrates onparticular aspects of dance development, and they sharemethods and networks with each other. The Arts Council's dancedepartment initiated the creation of the consortium.

revealing figures


78% of people believe the artsplay a valuable role in the life ofthis country.

In 1999/2000, more than 37% hadrecently been to a performance in a theatre.

Since it began in 1998, more than1.3 million people have attended eventsor participated in activities funded by theNew Audiences Programme.

One thousand artists-in-residence areworking across the country in a hugerange of locations – hospitals, radiostations, prisons, schools, factories andmore – as part of the ‘Year of the Artist’.

Thanks to lottery funding from the ArtsCouncil, there are already 80 new and550 refurbished arts venues in England.

Over 162,000 people have been to theNew Art Gallery Walsall since it opened inFebruary 2000. This far exceededpredicted visitor numbers, and has alreadyproved a major lottery-funded success.

Audiences for performances,exhibitions and education sessionspresented by organisations regularlyfunded by the Arts Council and RegionalArts Boards totalled 25 million in1998/99.

73% of people think there shouldbe public funding of the arts and49% would like more opportunityto participate in the arts.

Eden BenchmarksPeople strolling along any length of the 60km River Eden inCumbria can stop off and rest in the artworks placed along theway. Known as Eden Benchmarks, these are carved stonesculptures, each commissioned from a different sculptor. Thevariety of shapes and designs encourages the public to take thetime to enjoy both art and nature.

will be the middle-aged; perhaps today’s 35-44 yearolds will carry with them their tastes as they growolder, perhaps not. What does seem likely is thatproportionately more people will be in retirement(many of them early retirees), with increaseddisposable time on their hands. They will be richerand healthier than any previous generation, but -without wishing to sound unduly romantic - they willbe seeking fulfilment and a sense of identity. ‘ThirdAge’ retraining in the arts is a serious option - andits effect, as well as making good use of the manyand varied skills of retired people in a socially usefulway, would be to enlarge the constituency for thearts, both in terms of audience and of participants.

Over the next 10 years the world of work, whichframes leisure, will continue to shift and changeshape. Manufacturing industry will decline further,placing even more emphasis on the service sector.The creative elements of services, which generatethe most profit, will become pre-eminent. Theconcept of a job for life has already vanished - by2010, even a ‘career’ will seem rather different.People will have to be more adaptable, morecreative in their use of their time and skills. In fact,they will have to become more like artists. In thesecircumstances, the importance of the arts in helpingpeople to maintain a sense of themselves isstrengthened.

At the same time, the threat from globalisation - theweakening of national identity in favour of a

universal corporate culture - is that it will producea homogeneous texture of bland conformity. Yetoften it is local reaction to globalising forces thatproduces the greatest creative leaps: the Britishinvented Pop Art, for example, in a positive responseto American consumerism. Britain, with its pivotalrole in the North Atlantic nexus, bound to Europe bygeo-political and commercial ties, and sharing acommon language with America, could play animportant role in the emerging picture, providing itdoes not fall back on a negative, ‘heritage’ vision of itself.

One of the consequences of globalisation is thatinformation is becoming a more important economicfactor than material goods. Artists processinformation, and manufacture meaning. In aneconomy where information is the raw material, butknowledge the key product, they will have anincreasingly important role to play as the generatorsand communicators of ideas. If, by the phrase‘cultural industry’, we understand, not that cultureis being turned into a commodity, but that industryis having to become more culturally creative, it maybe possible to square the circle between theexternal economic and instrumental demands placedon the arts by politicians, and the internalimperative of the arts to follow their creativeimpulses. The arts will, as I said, survive.Surprisingly, they may best survive in the neweconomy of 2010 by existing for their own sake.

‘If you can predict a discovery, it can’t be thatimportant. Major advances should be totallyunpredictable’ - Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel prizewinner.As in science so in art: crystal ball gazing may seem asingularly fruitless and questionable activity, but ittempts even the most cynical because the futurefascinates and worries us all.

When I was commissioned by the Arts Council ofEngland to write an essay on what our culturallandscape might look like in 2010, the only thing Icould be sure of was that the arts would still exist insome shape or form. The arts have survived - asAuden says of poetry, ‘in the valley of its making’ -through decades of neglect, interference,underfunding and overshadowing: more than survived,they have grown clever and resourceful, able toweather the storms of commercial indifference andpolitical criticism.

Now, the arts are under the spotlight as never before.Increased public funding will come on stream in thenext two to three years, and there is a growingrealisation of the social and economic importance ofthe arts. We are becoming less frightened of talkingabout ‘culture’ as something that embraces morethan the high arts, and which shapes the way we liveand express ourselves. People in government areincreasingly fascinated by the seemingly contradictoryconcept of a ‘cultural industry’.

That phrase sums up the way the creativityencouraged by cultural activity in its broadest sense

has come to be seen to be vital to our commercialviability (already London’s design industry is thought tobe more valuable than the financial sector). But aculture of consumption literally carries a price tag interms of the way we determine what is truly valuableabout the arts. Sir Richard Eyre, for one, hasbemoaned the demise of a ‘theatre-goingconstituency’ replaced by a new generation raised onsound bites, video culture and the remote control.

But, like the politicians, we must be businesslike inthinking about the future. Demographic, economic andtechnological change will affect the arts, likeeverything else, but they will affect them indistinctive ways. Computers, telecommunications andthe changes in the media are affecting the way manyartists work and the way audiences view andparticipate. We can be certain that having more olderand fewer younger people will produce social change:an ageing population will have a significant effect onthe character and quantity of artistic output, as wellas the way it is consumed. ‘Yoof culture’, the icon ofthe late 20th Century, may well be struggling by theend of the first decade of the 21st.

Research into what this means is vital - a key role forstrategic bodies in the field and one whereGovernment must be advised. Certainly the reducednumber of young people in society will have asignificant effect - not least on inner city renewal,which has been built on creative, media andentertainment industries that target under 35s as bothproducers and consumers. The largest group in society

the arts in 2010

Robert Hewison has published widely on 19th and 20th century Britisharts and culture, and writes on theatre and the politics of the artsfor The Sunday Times. He curated this year’s Ruskin centenary showat Tate Britain and was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford.

new times


Robert Hewison

Central government grant1999/2000 1998/99

£000 £000incomeGrant-in-aid from the government 228,250 189,950Other income eg bank interest 1,212 1,221

229,462 191,171expenditureDirect arts expenditure 149,094 129,917 Grants to Regional Arts Boards 65,140 58,376 Operating costs 5,567 7,412

219,801 195,705

Lottery*1999/2000 1998/99

£000 £000incomeShare of proceeds from the National Lottery 188,021 210,954 Investment returns and other income 27,175 30,794

215,196 241,748 expenditureGrant commitments 182,288 57,925 Operating costs 24,605 21,038

206,893 78,963

financial summary


Gerry RobinsonChairman May 1998-present

Chairman of Granada Group plc.

Derrick AndersonJune 1998–present

Chief Executive of WolverhamptonMetropolitan Borough Council.

David Brierley CBENovember 1997–present

Advisory Director for the RoyalShakespeare Company.

Deborah Bull CBEJune 1998–present

Principal Dancer at the Royal Ballet.

Professor Christopher Frayling*January 1988–June 2000

Rector of the Royal College of Art,Chairman of the Design Council and

Crafts Study Centre.

Antony Gormley OBE June 1998–present

Sculptor, Turner Prize winner. Creator of the Angel of the North.

*Retired June 2000

Anish KapoorJune 1998–present Sculptor, Venice Biennale andTurner Prize winner.

Joanna MacGregor June 1998–present Concert pianist, Professor ofMusic at Gresham College.

Professor Andrew Motion*April 1996–June 2000 Poet Laureate, Professor ofCreative Writing at the Universityof East Anglia, biographer.

Prudence Skene CBE*May 1992–June 2000Former Executive Director of theRambert Dance Company, formerExecutive Producer of the EnglishShakespeare Company.

Hilary Strong June 1998–presentExecutive Director of GreenwichTheatre, previously Director of theEdinburgh Festival Fringe.

Emmanuel Cooper September 2000–presentPotter, with work in many nationaland international collections. Editorof the leading magazine of studiopottery, Ceramic Review. VisitingProfessor at the Royal College of Art.

Brian McMaster CBE June 2000–presentDirector of the EdinburghInternational Festival since 1991,Chair of the National Opera Studio.Previously Artistic Director ofVancouver Opera and ManagingDirector of Welsh National Opera.

Dr Janet Ritterman June 2000–presentDirector of the Royal College ofMusic, Visiting Professor in MusicEducation at the University ofPlymouth. Chair of ABRSM Publishing,the publishing arm of the AssociatedBoard of the Royal Schools of Music.

William Sieghart June 2000–presentFounding Chairman of ForwardPublishing, founder of the ForwardPoetry Prize and National Poetry Day.A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts,involved in its management and programming.

The New Art Gallery Walsall opened in 2000, through a £15.75mlottery grant. The building is stunning, sitting in the heart of thetown and at the end of a canal basin. The gallery highlights theGarman Ryan collection, and captivates new audiences with theChildren's Discovery Gallery.

Council members 1999-present

Members in 1999 Members joining in 2000

* In 1999/2000, lottery operating costs include £2.4m of IT development costs.In addition to the above grant commitments, the Council made soft commitments in the year totalling £174,121,000(1998/99: £192,648,000 including an adjustment between hard and soft commitments). Soft commitments represent grantoffers made, the conditions of which have not been formally accepted by the potential recipient at year end.

These figures have not been audited; they are extracted from the Arts Council’s audited accounts forcentral government grant (grant-in-aid) and lottery. A copy of the audited accounts may be obtained fromthe Arts Council at the address on the back cover.

The Arts Council of England14 Great Peter StreetLondon SW1P 3NQ

T 020 7333 0100F 020 7973 6590Minicom 020 7973 6564

email:[email protected]

Charity registration number: 1036733

October 2000

ISBN 0-7287-0808-6

Front cover: Kathryn Tickell

© The Arts Council of England

Designed and produced by templar downie original thinking, London.

Photography by Fiona Freund, Dave King, Andrew Downie, Steve Shepherd, Martin Argles,Christopher Beech, Voodoo G, Rob Moore, Bill Rafferty, Alex Telfer, Nick White, Norman Hound.

The Arts Council of England is committedto being open and accessible. We welcome all comments on our work.Please send these to Wendy Andrews,Executive Director of Communications.

This publication is also available on ourwebsite:www.artscouncil.org.uk/review2000/

If you require a copy of this, or any Arts Council publication, in large print,audio-tape or any other format, pleasecontact the Information Department:

T 020 7973 6453 F 020 7973 6411

working for the arts 2 - arts council england · in this millennial year, the arts council has...

Documents