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* COUNCIL * *Sir Kenneth Clark, K.C.B., D.Litt., LL.D ., F .B.A. (Chairman) *Wyn Griffith, O .B.E., D.Litt. (Vice-Chairman ) *Sir William Coldstream, C.B.E. *Professor Anthony Lewis *Joseph Compton, C.B.E. Sir John McEwen, Bart ., D.L., J .P. Lt.-Col . Vere E . Cotton, C.B.E ., T.D ., J.P. *Sir George T . McGlashan, C .B.E., J .P. The Viscount Esher, G .B.E. John Newsom, C.B.E. The Lady Fermoy, O.B.E . Lady Ogilvie Robert Kemp Sir Wynn Wheldon, K .B.E., D.S .O., LL.D . *Benn W. Levy, M.B.E. * Member ofExecutive Committee SCOTTISH COMMITTE E Sir George T. McGlashan, C.B.E., J.P. (Chairman) D. K. Baxandall E. S. Harrison William MacTaggart, R.S.A. Ernest Boden J. A. Henderson Hugh Marshall Colin Chandler Robert Kemp John M . Playfair Ian Finlay Sir John McEwen, Bart., D .L., J .P. Miss Violet C . Young Sir Cecil Graves, K .C.M.G., M.C. WELSH COMMITTE E Wyn Griffith, O.B.E., D.Litt. (Chairman) The Marquess of Anglesey J. Henry Jones, Ph.D . Dr. William Thomas, C .B. S. Kenneth Davies, C .B.E. Saunders Lewis Sir Wynn Wheldon, K.B.E., D.S.O., Aneirin Talfan Davies Thomas Parry, D.Litt. LL.D . Professor I. L. Foster D. H . I . Powell D. E. Parry Williams, D .Mus. David Dilwyn John, T .D ., D.Sc., Mrs . D. R. Prosser Emlyn Williams F.M .A. Ceri Richards The Very Rev. C. Witton-Davies Professor Gwyn Jones * STAFF * HEADQUARTER S 4 St. James's Square, London, S. W.I. Whitehall 973 7 Secretary-General : Sir William Emrys Williams, C.B .E. Deputy-Secretary & Finance Officer: M . J. McRober t Art Director Music Director Drama Directo r Philip James, C.B.E. John Denison, M .B.E . J. L. Hodgkinson, O .B.E . Assistant Secretary: Eric W . White Accountant D. P. Lund, F .C .A. SCOTLAN D Director : Dr. George Firth, O .B.E., 11 Rothesay Terrace, Edinburgh, 3 . (Edinburgh 346356 .) Deputy Director : Donald Mather WALE S Director : Miss Myra Owen, O .B.E ., 29 Park Place, Cardiff, South Wales . (Cardiff 23488 .) P~-2CKjvC- Co p y ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAIN REFERENCE ONLY DO NOT REMOVE FROM THE USM 1Ik( .IN MARY, ST. JOHN AND ST . MARY %1•%GDALEN I oni the Arts Council him The Stained Gla, .± u1 Fuirfurdl : .0 Tram the Crucifixion T H E A R T S C O U N C I L OF G R E A T B R I T A I N ELEVENT H ANNUAL REPOR T 1955- 195 6 4 S T . J A ME S' S SQUARE, LONDON, S . W . 1 COVER DESIGN BY ANTHONY GROS S COLOUR DIAGRAM SPECIALL Y DESIGNED BY MISS G . DRUMMOND MCKERRO W Acknowledgements are made to John Merton for permissio n to reproduce his painting of Dr . Thomas Jones, C .H ., t o Ramsey and Muspratt for the photograph of Lord Keynes , and to Cyril Moorhead for the transparency from The Stained Glass at Fairford. PRINTED IN ENGLAND AT THE BAYNARD PRESS CONTENTS Page 1 . THE FIRST TEN YEARS 5 2. NOTES OF THE YEAR 33 3. ART . 34 4. DRAMA 40 5 . MUSIC 47 6. OPERA AND BALLET 53 7. POETRY 56 8 . FESTIVALS : ARTS CENTRES AND ARTS CLUBS 60 9. SCOTLAND 62 10. WALES . 80 11 . NOTES ON THE ACCOUNTS 89 APPENDICES : Appendix A The Arts Council of Great Britain : Audited Accounts 90 Appendix B The Council's Committee in Scotland : Audited Accounts 104 Appendix C The Council's Committee in Wales : Audited Accounts 11 0 Appendix D List of members of the Council and of the Scottish and Wels h Committees from the Date of Incorporation by Royal Charter (August 9th, 1946) . 11 6 Appendix E Arts Council Exhibitions held in Great Britain . 11 8 Appendix F Events Supported by the Scottish Committee (1955/56) 120 1 THE FIRST TEN YEARS 1. THE CREATION OF CEM A Lord de la Warr's initiative - response of the Pilgrim Trust - the arts in th e 'thirties - `Art For The People' - CEMA as an emergency service -fro m amateur to professional : CEMA's achievement summarised - Arts Counci l incorporated by Royal Charter 1 . A War-time Opportunity The Arts Council is ten years old . The Royal Charter by which it wa s incorporated is dated August 9th, 1946 ; and it is therefore appropriate that this year's Annual Report should provide a survey of the activities an d policies which the Council has pursued during its first decade . If the narra- tive is to have perspective, however, it must begin earlier than that, for th e Arts Council of 1946 was the post-war model of a body improvised in th e winter of 1939 to prevent the black-out of the arts . The story starts, then , with the creation of CEMA (pronounced Seema), the inevitable and con- venient abbreviation for `the Committee for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts' ;* and the origin of it has been characteristically recorded b y the late Dr. Thomas Jones, C .H., who was Secretary of the Pilgrim Trus t at the time. `It began on the telephone . Lord de la Warr, then President of the Board of Education, rang up the Secretary of the Pilgrim Trust to sound him about an "idea" and a possible grant ; nothing very much, £5,00 0 perhaps. A familiar experience. The "idea" sounded promising on a firs t hearing, and it was arranged that the President of the Board should meet , without prejudice, the Chairman of the Trust, Lord Macmillan, the n Minister of Information . They met in the latter's room at the Universit y of London at noon, on December 14th, 1939 . I was present . Lord de la Warr was enthusiastic. He had Venetian visions of a post- war Lord Mayor's Show on the Thames in which the Board of Educatio n led the arts in triumph from Whitehall to Greenwich in magnificent barge s and gorgeous gondolas ; orchestras, madrigal singers, Shakespeare fro m the Old Vic, ballet from Sadler's Wells, shining canvases from the Roya l Academy, folk dancers from village greens-in fact Merrie England . *Its title was changed from 'Committee' to `Council' in April 1940. Lord Macmillan's grave judicial calm collapsed suddenly and completely . At the moment he was responsible for the national morale, and in th e President's dream he saw employment for actors, singers and painters , and refreshment for the multitude of war workers for the duration . Supply and Demand kissed. Would £25,000 be any use? The Secretary blushed and fell off his stool .' The Pilgrim Trust forthwith endorsed the idea, and CEMA was set up with Lord Macmillan as Chairman. The other founder members were Dr. Thomas Jones, Sir Walford Davies (the ardent and ingenious exponen t of popular education in music), Sir Kenneth Clark (then Director of the National Gallery) and W. E. Williams (originator of `Art For the People' and Chief Editor of Penguin Books). The first three are dead. The other two are respectively Chairman and Secretary-General of the Arts Council . These five were later joined by Miss Thelma Cazalet, M .P. (now Mrs. Cazalet Keir), the nominee of the Board of Education, and L . du Garde Peach, a pioneer of the amateur theatre . The Secretary of the Committee was Miss Mary Glasgow, seconded from the Ministry of Education, wh o was later to become the first Secretary-General of the Arts Council . 2 . The Climate of the 'Thirties The inspiration and, indeed, the catalyst of the Committee was Dr. Thomas Jones himself. Among the articles of faith which he assiduously proclaimed and practised was a belief in the civilising powers of adul t education, and especially of the more informal procedures of adult educa- tion. As Secretary of the Pilgrim Trust, and in several other capacities a s well, he nourished many of the numerous ventures which were set on foo t in the 'thirties to cultivate the appreciation and practice of the arts - a vocation in which he was aptly described (by Violet Markham) as `Th e Nestor of the age' . It was a period prolific in such activities. The B .B.C. was diligently building up its vast extra-mural audience from the million s who had never seen Shakespeare in the theatre or heard Beethoven i n the concert hall. The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust was adopting wis e and discriminating policies in support of amateur music and drama . The list of bodies engaged during the 'thirties in fostering a popular interest i n the arts is a very long one : a representative selection must include the British Drama League, the Rural Music Schools, the National Federatio n of Music Societies, the National Council of Social Service, the Women' s Institutes, the Townswomen's Guilds, the English Folk Dance and Son g Society. There are others in the list which have vanished or become absorbed, such as the League of Audiences and the Arts League of Service, both of which played a memorable part in creating, during the 'thirties, tha t climate of opinion and interest in which CEMA and the Arts Council wer e subsequently able to flourish . Finally, there developed in those years a deep and significant change in certain of the established movements o f adult education . The Workers' Educational Association and the Universit y Extra Mural Departments had been preoccupied for 30 years or more wit h the social sciences, and had assumed that working-class adult students ha d little time or concern for the arts .