COUNTRY PROFILE UNITED KINGDOM Last profile update: April 2011 This profile was prepared and updated by Mr. Rod FISHER and Ms. Carla FIGUEIRA (London). It is based on official and non-official sources addressing current cultural policy issues. The opinions expressed in this profile are those of the author and are not official statements of the government or of the Compendium editors. Additional national cultural policy profiles are available on: http://www.culturalpolicies.net If the entire profile or relevant parts of it are reproduced in print or in electronic form including in a translated version, for whatever purpose, a specific request has to be addressed to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe who may authorise the reproduction in consultation with ERICarts. Such reproduction must be accompanied by the standard reference below, as well as by the name of the author of the profile. Standard Reference: Council of Europe/ERICarts: "Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe", 13th edition 2012. Available from World Wide Web: <http:// www.culturalpolicies.net>. UNITED KINGDOM1 1. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: CULTURAL POLICIES AND INSTRUMENTS ........................................................................................................... 2 2. GENERAL OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES OF CULTURAL POLICY ......... 5 2.1 Main features of the current cultural policy model ........................................................ 5 2.2 National definition of culture ......................................................................................... 8 2.3 Cultural policy objectives ............................................................................................... 8 3. COMPETENCE, DECISION MAKING AND ADMINISTRATION .................... 9 3.1 Organisational structure .................................................................................................. 9 3.2 Overall description of the system ................................................................................... 9 3.3 Inter-ministerial or intergovernmental co-operation .................................................... 13 3.4 International cultural co-operation ............................................................................... 14 4. CURRENT ISSUES IN CULTURAL POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND DEBATE ...................................................................................................................... 21 4.1 Main cultural policy issues and priorities ..................................................................... 21 4.2 Specific policy issues and recent debates ..................................................................... 27 4.3 Other relevant issues and debates ................................................................................. 47 5. MAIN LEGAL PROVISIONS IN THE CULTURAL FIELD............................... 50 5.1 General legislation ........................................................................................................ 50 5.2 Legislation on culture ................................................................................................... 56 5.3 Sector specific legislation ............................................................................................. 56 6. FINANCING OF CULTURE .................................................................................... 62 6.1 Short overview.............................................................................................................. 62 6.2 Public cultural expenditure ........................................................................................... 64 6.3 Trends and indicators for private cultural financing .................................................... 66 7. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS IN CULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURES .................... 68 7.1 Cultural infrastructure: tendencies and strategies ......................................................... 68 7.2 Basic data about selected public institutions in the cultural sector .............................. 68 7.3 Status and partnerships of public cultural institutions .................................................. 69 8. PROMOTING CREATIVITY AND PARTICIPATION ....................................... 71 8.1 Support to artists and other creative workers ............................................................... 71 8.2 Cultural participation and consumption ....................................................................... 73 8.3 Arts and cultural education ........................................................................................... 89 8.4 Amateur arts, cultural associations and civil initiatives ............................................... 96 9. SOURCES AND LINKS ............................................................................................ 99 9.1 Key documents on cultural policy ................................................................................ 99 9.2 Key organisations and portals ..................................................................................... 101 1 The UK entry was compiled by Helena Eagles and Rod Fisher (International Intelligence on Culture) in 2009 with some significant updating to take account of changes following the election of a new Government in May 2010 and other developments, as well as revisions to the Compendium Grid. Additional support was provided by Dr. Carla Figueira. j Last profiles update: April 2011 Council of Europe/ERICarts, "Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe. 13th edition", 2012 UK-1 United Kingdom 1. Historical perspective: cultural policies and instruments The United Kingdom is made up of four nations - England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ire- land, each with its own distinct culture and history. Three of these - England, Wales and Scot- land - together make up Great Britain. The population of England is significantly higher than the three other nations combined. Although there had been ad hoc legislation governing, for example, museums and libraries in the 19th and first 40 years of the 20th centuries, the present UK funding system has its origins in the 1940s; the international political climate at the time initiated a debate on whether there was a role for government in funding the arts as an expression of a free and democratic society. From this recognition sprang, in 1940, the first national body to support the arts, the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA). This Council spent both charitable and public funds on the arts, eventually under the chairmanship of the great economist, John Maynard Keynes. His vision of state support for the arts was largely responsible for ensuring that CEMA evolved in 1946 into the Arts Council of Great Britain, still considered to be the first arts agency in the world to distribute government funds at "arm's-length" from politicians. Keynes believed that the Arts Council would only have a temporary existence during the re- building of cultural life in the aftermath of the Second World War. Nevertheless, consciously or otherwise, what had taken place was a tacit recognition by government that it had a role to play in supporting the arts. The Council's grant from government in 1945/46 was GBP 235 000. After 10 years it had grown modestly to GBP 820 000 (1955/56). The Council was primarily reactive – allocating funds for arts organisation and artists and providing help and encouragement. Gradually it cut back on direct provision for certain activities yet continued its support for the touring of art exhibitions and an "Opera for All" touring programme aimed at smaller venues. Significantly the various "Charters" giving the Council its mandate to operate never defined the "arts", and although the number of supported arts organisations grew, the range of artforms was still fairly narrow after 20 years (poetry, photography and jazz, for example, were not supported for many years). Although legally part of the Arts Council of Great Britain, Scotland and Wales had their own Arts Councils. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland was established as an inde- pendent body in 1962. For much of the first 20 years of post war Britain, the government department responsible for the grant-in-aid to the Arts Council of Great Britain, the national museums and galleries and the British Library etc. was the Treasury. However, in 1965 responsibility was passed to the Department for Education & Science. At that time, the UK Government's first Minister for the Arts, Jenny Lee, issued a government White Paper setting out a Policy for the Arts , following which the Arts Council's grant significantly increased by 45% in 1966/67 and a further 26% in 1967/68, raising it to GBP 7.2 million. Advice to national government on museum policy came from a Standing Commission on Mu- seums and Galleries set up in 1931. It was given the responsibility of granting aid to national museums in 1963 and became the Museums and Galleries Commission with its own Charter in 1987. As we shall see it was to change its name twice more. The 1970s were characterised by expansion of expenditure and by considerable debate about what forms of arts and culture should be subsidised. The protagonists were advocates of the "traditional" approach to supporting excellence in the classical or contemporary arts on the one hand, and the growing number of practitioners from what might be labelled "alternative cul- ture" movements (built on the growth of community arts and arts centres and rooted in local communities)