The Arts Council of England (ACE), has announced that the arts in England is set to receive an additional £75 million a year in funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport by 2005/06. This equates to a 16 per cent increase over the two years 2004/5 and 2005/6. 'This is another major step forward for the arts, building on the tremendous achievement of the previous Spending Review,' commented Gerry Robinson, Chairman of the Arts Council of England. According to a press release, the arts will receive increases of £40 million in 2003/4 (already confirmed in the 2000 Spending Review) and a further £75 million by 2005/6, this takes the grant-in-aid budget for the arts in that year to £412 million. Robinson has noted that the funding decision signals the end of over 20 years of neglect within the arts sector, with the government, through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, finally recognising the value of the arts within England. 'The additional funding will support a further expansion of the Creative Partnerships program, which enables young people and their teachers to work directly with artists,' he said, noting that it will also allow the ACE to address 'the core funding needs of arts organisations in all disciplines and to support the talent and creativity of individual artists.'