• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Arts Council OF (KEAT BRITAI N Thirty-seventh annua l report and accounts 1981/82 ARTS OF COUNCIL, GREAT Ski [At LIBRAR Y Thirty-seventh Annual Report and Accounts 198 2 ISSN 0066-813 3 Published by the Arts Council of Great Britai n 105 Piccadilly, London W1V OA U Designed by Duncan Firt h Printed by Watmoughs Limited, Idle, Bradford ; and London Cover design by John Barrett The Arts Council of Great Britain, as a publicl y "I he objects for which the Arts Council of Great Britai n accountable body, publishes an Annual Report to is established are : n provide Parliament and the general public with a 1 To develop and improve the knowledge, overview of the year's work and to record all grants understanding and practice of the arts; and guarantees offered in support of the arts . 2 To increase the accessibility of the arts to the publi c A description of the highlights of the Council's wor k throughout Great Britain; and discussion of its policies appear in the newspape r and Arts m Action which is published in conjunction wit h this Report and can be obtained, free of charge, fro m 3 To co-operate with government departments, loca l the Arts Council Shop, 8 Long Acre, London WC2 an d authorities and other bodies to achieve thes e arts outlets throughout the country . objects. Contents 4 COUNCI L 5 CHAIRMAN'S INTRODUCTIO N 6 SECRETARY-GENERAL'S PREFAC E 9 SCOTLAN D 10 WALE S 11 MEMBERSHIP OF COUNCIL AND STAF F 12 ADVISORY PANELS AND COMMITTEE S 16 STAF F 17 ANNUAL ACCOUNTS Funds, Exhibitions, Schemes and Awards Council The Council is appointed by the Minister for the Arts and its Chairman and 19 other unpaid members serv e as individuals, not representatives of particula r interests or organisations. The Vice-Chairman i s appointed by the Council from among its member s and with the Minister's approval . The Chairman serves for a period of five years and members are appointe d initially for four years . Sir William Rees-Mogg Chairma n Marghanita Laski Vice-Chairman William Cleave r The Lady Digby Gerald Ellio t Buchi Emecheta Sir Hywel Evans, KC B Albert E . Fros t Ronald Henson, M D Professor Derry Jeffares John Las t John Manduell, CBE Colin Nears Robert Rowe, CB E Donald Sinden, CB E David Sylveste r Finance and Policy Committee Sir William Rees-Mogg Chairman Albert E . Frost Vice-Chairman Gerald Ellio t Sir Hywel Evans, KC B Marghanita Lask i John Las t John Manduell, CB E Colin Near s David Sylveste r at June 198 2 4 Chairman's Introductio n r y~ . Every five years a ne w systems of communication . The creation of ne w Chairman of the Art s channels on television, the progress to direc t Council has to perfor m broadcasting by satellite, the prospect of cable the somewhat television with its very large number of channels, and inappropriate task o f the development of video records, whether o n writing an introduction to cassette or disc, will provide an opportunity for a the Annual Report, whic h range of electronic communication of the arts whic h covers the period fo r has not existed before. which his predecessor was wholly responsible. My predecessor, Mr Kenneth Robinson, performed thi s There are obviously dangers of distortion in thi s task with the usual skill with which lie, onducted the expansion of electronic communication of the arts. At business of the Council to which he was so generou s its best it can provide a genuinely creative artisti c with his time and energies . I should first like to state experience; at its worst it can trivialise its subject how grateful I am for his work . Ile had in many ways matter. For the personal performance of the arts i t a difficult period of office during which there was a does provide the prospect of a very great enlargement major change in the economic climate for the arts . He of the audience It will also change education in th e handled it with a characteristic mixture of shrewdness , arts, just as the gramophone record transformed devotion to the arts and good nature . education in music. It is already becoming apparen t that these influences are providing new opportunities I inherited a situation in which the first shock of th e for some of the major clients of the Arts Council an d change from rising to stable arts funding has bee n must therefore be of considerable importance to th e met. It has I think to be accepted that arts funding i s work of the Arts Council itself. not likely to rise substantially in real terrns in the period immediately ahead of us . The task of the Art s Council and, more broadly, the community of the art s will therefore be to make better use of limited resources and to try to continue effective expansio n of the quality and availability of the arts in Britain b y making the best possible use of such resources as ca n be made available . Each new Chairman brings to his role the backgroun d of his own experience and is bound to be influenced by that . My professional experience has been very largely in the field of communications . There are tw o aspects of the communication of the arts which are a t present particularly interesting . The first is what one could call the domesti c communications of the Arts Council . Because the Art s Council is very largely a funding body and not a n executive body, its work is inevitably less well know n than that of the national institutions it helps to fund. It is however uportant that the public should be tol d as much as possible about the Arts Council's work because a genuine base in popular support will help to protect and enlarge funding in the future. In thi s sense public goodwill towards the Arts Council i s important to all the directly creative bodies that th e Arts Council supports . Public goodwill can only b e obtained by great openness about what we are doing . Much more important however is the revolutionar y change which is now taking place in electronic Secretary-General's Prefac e Are the arts reall y businessmen and technologists-and all other huma n necessary? beings. ,tiloreovef, to be obsessed with economic II Wav Weem odd to begin problems to the exclusion of the arts, is to forget that ."ith such a question ; as life is more than livelihood, and economic security a uid as if a bishop were t o condition, but not in itself a sufficient cause of th e hr~gin a pastoral letter by good life . ,rskrn}g whether (mod rcalh, exists_ Insecurity in the arts But the necessity of funding the arts is under question , Ironically, there r, little ec()nomu Security for the art s with many people regarding them a, a pleasant today The recent reductir,ns in real terms in th e ()rnament to life, but hardly essential, especially in government s grant-in-aid to the Arts Council . have times of economic hardship . Thirty-seven years ago, forced us to make unpleasant cuts to (. iients i n when the Arts Council was born, Lord Keynes, 1981 82, and to our own directi), provided activities i n speaking with all the authority of a distinguished 1982'83 . (vtanv of our clients, in( biding the Iargi.-st. live economist, forecast that the economic problem would in a state of constant anxiety about finance to a soon 'take the hack seat where it belongs' and leav e degree which has an adverse effect on creative work . the front seat to the arts, religion and questions abou t the quality of human life. As the (chairman says in his introduction, there is littl e prospect of this anxiety being removed in the nex t Alas, in the year with which this report deals, th e vear or two, though the Council will continua to pu t economic problem is still firmly ensconced in the fron t the needs of the arts for( ibly to government . The seat, and this influences government policy toward s tantalizing fact is that the amount needed t o the arts-arid education, especially education in th e transform the whole arts scene this year was L1 0 arts, A few years ago the then Labour prime ministe r million. This is the amount by which the government's stressed the need for a more utilitarian approach t o grant to the Arts Council fell short of what the Counci l education, to meet the needs of the economy . Very estimated to be the realistic minimum needs of th e recently, the Conservative minister with responsibilit y arts . This is an infinitesimal sum in terms of nationa l for higher and further education, urged educators t o spending and about a tenth of 1 o, of, say, expenditure steer young people away from the arts, whir h he nn education . dismissed as 'softer options' . Instead, they should be guided, he said, 'towards the sort of subjects neede d to underpin economic recovery' . The value of public fundin g Even though public funding falls somewhat short o f The number of young people who wish to study th e the needs of the arts, it is vital to the continue d arts may he embarrassingly high, but it would b e existence of almost every professional arts wrong to deflect them all completely from the arts and organisation in the country, large and small, By one o f seek to train scientists and technologists without life's happier ironies, subsidy is also giving indirect ai d giving them some education in the arts .

Load more

  110

Copy Link