Author: Findlater, R.

Publication Year: 1975

Media Type: Book

Summary:

Abstract:

It seems to me bizarre that, although the Arts Council of Great Britain is now nearly 30 years old, no comprehensive critical assessment of its work throughout the arts has, to my knowledge, yet been published: nothing beyond sections in specialists' books (e.g. in John Elsom's Theatre Outside London) and the customary press comments on each year's annual report, half-reverential, half-reproachful, seldom long enough to make more than a couple of complaints about the proliferation of cultural activities subsidised and encouraged by one of the most valuable (and misunderstood) British inventions of the century. All the more astonishing, then, to find in Encounter an article - somewhat misleadingly dubbed 'an inquiry into public patronage of the arts' - asserting that the Council's work can't be evaluated. Why not? Because its objectives are 'too ill defined to make evaluation possible.' And this is 'proved' by the annual reports. To read these is 'depressing,' says Karen King and Mark Blaug, because the Council has never produced in them 'a single coherent and operational statement of their aims.' Yet, in the course of their 'inquiry,' King and Blaug have apparently read little else; and there is no 'evidence' that they have seen any of the work which the Council actually does, as distinct from the words that are published under its name once a year. (p. 126-131)


A Reply by K. King and M. Blaug:

Shortly after the appearance of our iconoclastic essay on the Arts Council's declared aims and objectives (Encounter, September) Sir Hugh Willatt, Secretary-General of the Council, told a reporter:

     The article is an attempt to judge the Arts Council without assessing
     the results of the Arts Council's work. It is a criticism of our public
     statements and ignores what we've done. (The Guardian, 21 August 1973)

Sir Hugh is quite correct. We limited ourselves explicitly to the Council's public statements as a first step in an effort to evaluate the Council's accomplishments as public patrons of the arts. We will turn to what the Council has done in a forthcoming piece, and we hope eventually to be judged in the round and not simply on our preliminary skirmishes in the field.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: International