Arts Council England
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is an Executive Agency of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The arts funding system in England underwent considerable reorganisation in 2003 when all of the Regional Arts Boards were subsumed into Arts Council England. The boundaries of the regional offices are now co-terminous with the standard English Regions.
It is a government-funded body dedicated to promoting the performing, visual and literary arts in England. Since 1994, Arts Council England has been responsible for distributing lottery funding. This investment has helped to transform the building stock of arts organisations and to create lots of additional high quality arts activity.
History
The Arts Council of England was created in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided to form the Arts Council of England, the Scottish Arts Council and the Arts Council of Wales. At the same time the National Lottery was established and the Arts Council of England became one of the distribution bodies. This increased responsibility saw the Arts Council of England grow back in size to the point where it was larger than before the 1987 restructure.
In 2001 Chairman Gerry Robinson announced a further restructuring in which the Arts Council of England would be merged with the existing Regional Arts Boards to form a single organisation: Arts Council England.
Governance and administration
Arts Council England has a national council of 14 members including the Chairman. The national council meets 5–6 times a year and is made up of representatives of the arts community with 9 of the members also representing the regional councils and one seat reserved for a representative of the Black and Asian community. The 9 regional councils also have boards of 14 members made up of representatives of their regional arts community and local government. The 9 regional councils are:
- East
- East Midlands
- London
- North East
- North West
- South East
- South West
- West Midlands
- Yorkshire
The appointment of the Arts Council England Chief Executive is made by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, a position held by Peter Hewitt since 1998. Each regional council had an Executive Director and each artform has a specialist advisor. The Arts Council England divides its funding into the following headings:
- Combined Art (Festivals)
- Dance
- Education
- Literature
- Music
- Research
- Theatre
- Touring
- Visual Arts
