COUNCI L 'Sir Kenneth Clark, K .C.B., LL.D., F.B.A. (Chairman) •Wyn Griffith, O.B.E., D.Litt. (Vice-Chairman ) The Countess of Albemarle •Benn W. Levy, M.B.E. 'Professor William Coldstream, C.B.E. •Professor Anthony Lewi s *lose Compton, C.B.E. Sir John McEwen, Bart ., D.L., J.P. Lt7ol. 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 Ogilvi e Robert Kemp Sir Wynn Wheldon, K .B.E., D.S.O., LL.D. • Member of Executive Committe e SCOTTISH COMMITTE E Sir George T. McGlashan, C .B.E., J.P. (Chairman ) D. K. Bazandall J. A. Henderson William MacTaggari, R .S.A. Ernest Boden Robert Kemp Hugh Marshall Colin Chandler J. H . Bruce Lockhart Mrs. Rona Mavor Ian Finlay Sir John McEwen, Bart ., D.L., J.P. John M . Playfair Sir Cecil Graves, K.C.M.G., M.C. Miss Violet C. Young WELSH COMMITTE E Wyn Griffith, O .B .E., D.Litt. (Chairman ) The Marquess of Anglesey David Dilwyn John, T .D., D.Sc., Ceri Richards S. Kenneth Davies, C .B.E. F.M.A. Sir Wynn Wheldon, K .B.E., D.S.O., Aneirin Talran Davies Professor Gwyn Jones LL.D. Mrs. Irene Edwards Saunders Lewis Emlyn Williams Professor 1. L. Foster Thomas Parry, D.Litt. D. E. Parry Williams, D .Mus. C. E. Gittins Mrs . D. R. Prosser The Very Rev . C. Witton-Davies County Alderman Llewellyn Miss Frances Rees, O .B.E. Heycock, J .P. ART PANE L Professor William Coldstream, C .B.E. (Chairman) The Hon . Michael Astor E. C. Gregory Sir John Rolhenstein, C.B.E., Professor Anthony Blunt, C .V.O., J. Leslie Martin, Ph .D., F.R .I.B.A. Ph.D. F.B.A . W. T. Monnington, R .A. Robert J . Sainsbury, A .C.A. Professor A. Clutlon Brock Henry Moore, C.H., D.Lit., Mrs. Somerville S. D. Cleveland, O.B.E., F.M .A. A.R.1.B.A, John Summerson, C.B.E., F.S.A., Brinsley Ford John Piper A.R.I.B.A _ Professor Lawrence Gowing, Professor Ellis K. Waterhouse, C.B.E. M.B .E. Basil Gray Cared Weight, A .R .A., R.H.A. DRAMA PANEL Benn W . Levy, M .B.E. (Chairman ) Miss Peggy Ashcroft, C .B.E. Professor Bonamy Dobree, O .B.E. Miss Flora Robson, C.B.E. Sir Basil Bartlett, Bt . Richard Findlater Derek Salberg Michael Benthalt Professor J. Isaacs Glen Byam Shaw, C .B.E. Wynyard Browne Sir Barry Jackson, LL .D., D.Litt. Stephen Thoma s John Clements General Sir William Platt, G.B.E., Peter Ustinov Sir Henry Cohen, M .D., LL.D., K.C.B., D.S.O. John Whiting F. R. C. P. Michael Redgrave, C .B.E., Hugh Willatt Robert A . Digby F. R. S. A. MUSIC PANEL Professor Anthony Lewis (Chairman) Herbert Bardgett, O .B.E. William Gloc k Sir William McKie, M .V.O., Eric Blom, C.B.E. Walter Goeh r D.Mus. Sir Ernest Bullock, C.V.O., Herbert Howells, C.B.E. D.Mus., Gareth Morris, F.R.A.M. Mus.D., F.R.C.M. F. R . C . M . Professor Humphrey Procter-Greg g Clive Carey, C.B.E., F.R.C.M. R. J. F. Howgill, C .B.E. Humphrey Searl e Henry Davi s Dr. Donald J . Hughes Miss Seymour Whinyates, O.B.E. Miss Astra Desmond, C.B.E. Miss Kathleen Long POETRY PANEL Joseph Compton, C .B.E . (Chairman ) Professor Bonamy Dobree, Christopher Fry Laurie Lee, M.B.E. O.B.E. Roy Fuller W. R. Rodgers G. S. Fraser John Hayward, C.B.E. Miss Janet Adam Smith R -Q_c- c- Co P Y T H E A R T S C O U N C I L O F G R E A T B R I T A I N ARTS COUNCI L OF GREAT BRITAI N REFERENCE ONLY DO NOT REMOV E -FROM THE LIBRARY TENT H ANNUAL REPORT 1954-95 5 4 S T . J A M E S' S S Q U A R E, L O N D O N, S . W . 1 DESIGNED BY MISS G . DRUMMOND MCKERRO W AND PRINTED IN ENGLAND AT THE BAYNARD PRESS CONTENTS Page 1. HOUSING THE ARTS 5 2. NOTES OF THE YEAR 1 7 3. ART 34 4. MUSIC 39 5. OPERA AND BALLET 43 6. DRAMA 47 7. POETRY . 50 8. SCOTLAND 52 9. WALES 57 APPENDICES : A Note on the Accounts 63 Appendix A The Arts Council of Great Britain : Audited Accounts 64 Appendix B The Council's Committee in Scotland : Audited Accounts 78 Appendix C The Council's Committee in Wales : Audited Accounts . 84 Appendix D Arts Council Exhibitions held in Great Britain during the period April 1954-March 1955 90 Appendix E Selected instances of action taken in connection with the Arts by Local Authorities under the Local Government Act, 1948 .92 Appendix F A Note on Some Rebuilding Schemes for the Arts in Germany 98 1 HOUSING THE ART S T is 25 years since a new theatre was put up in London . During that time two small theatres were built in England-and at least 12 0 have closed. London, nowadays the acknowledged musical metropoli s of Europe, has by the initiative of the L .C.C. acquired one new concert hall, but has lost its famous old Queen's Hall, and two of it s admirable small halls, the Aeolian and the Grotrian . Outside London, the Free Trade Hall in Manchester and the Colston Hall in Bristol hav e been restored after their war-time damage, but none of our other prosperous cities has yet been able to equip itself with a new post-wa r auditorium for music . At Covent Garden there has been created a permanent national home for opera and ballet ; yet the building in which this momentous venture is being developed is obsolete and inconvenient . (£10,000 a year is spent on storing and carting the sets which cannot b e accommodated in the theatre.) In Germany or Italy Sadler's Well s would be a municipal showpiece : here it is located in a district remote from the main stream of London's life and, for that reason, many of it s attractive productions are visited only by a fraction of those citizens wh o would find their way to a theatre more advantageously sited . The Old Vic Theatre, which has a long tradition, and is the nearest approach w e have to the National Theatre that other nations possess, is also meanly sited, obsolete and inconvenient. For this state of things there are many reasons. The years of combat and recovery account for much of our back - log in rehousing the arts, and now that such building priorities as houses , schools, offices and factories are being so rapidly diminished the tim e need not be far distant when, following the example of Vienna an d Hamburg and Berlin, we could begin building homes for the arts . But war, and the economic consequences of war, do not alone account fo r Britain's present dearth of theatres, concert halls and opera houses ; nor is that condition to be ascribed to any failure in our people to appreciat e music and drama and ballet . There are other causes . The audience for the arts has been multiplied a hundred times and 1 more during the very period in which the standstill has occurred in the provision of theatres and concert halls. The principal agencies of thi s 5 widespread diffusion have been, of course, the cinema and broadcasting * and, despite the inanities which both these media abundantly disseminate , they have unquestionably enlarged the public appreciation of music and drama. For the thousands who listen to a concert in the Royal Festival Hall, or see a play in a theatre, there are millions who enjoy a comparabl e experience by switching on Beethoven at their firesides ; and even though nine films out of ten may be artistically and morally expendable, th e tenth may be the only Henry V or Richard III which most of our popula- tion will ever see : see, moreover, in a medium which, even if it canno t communicate the mystique of a `living' performance, has certain technical advantages over the picture-frame of the playhouse . On the one hand, then, fewer theatres, concert halls and opera houses in use ; on the other, thousands of cinemas, millions of radio and TV sets, and mammoth sale s of gramophone records. Such a balance sheet gives no support to th e gloomy apprehension that the arts, and public appreciation of the arts, are on the decline in Britain . The contemporary media of disseminatin g music and drama may, indeed, in this way or that, be less desirable than the traditional ways of presentation ; yet they do manage, on the air and on the screen, to bring their versions of the arts to an audienc e immeasurably larger in the 'fifties than it was in the 'twenties and 'thirties . This fact that so many more people are now brought into some contact with the arts than ever went to theatres or concerts in the old days is no t cited to justify our present shortage of buildings for `live' performance, but it is a fundamental element in the situation we are now confronting .