Arts Council England has announced its new direction and aims for the next three years in its new publication Great Art for Everyone: 2008-2011. Between 2008 and 2011 the Arts Council will invest in excess of £1.6 billion of public money in an attempt to achieve the following:
· excellence - high quality arts and high-quality arts experience
· reach - more people attending and taking part in the arts
· engagement - more people feel that there are opportunities to enjoy and get actively involved in, arts activities that are personally relevant to them
· diversity - arts that reflect the diversity of contemporary England
· innovation - artists have the freedom and are challenged to innovate
These priorities come from various discussions including the Arts Debate, a piece of research into what people think of the arts and arts funding, the February 2008 Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) Creative Britain document outlining plan to grow the creative economy and the McMaster’s review, Supporting Excellence in the Arts’, which looked at how excellence can encourage audience engagement with the arts.
The above objectives will be applied to priorities which include children and young people, digital art, visual art and the Cultural Olympiad leading up to the London 2012 games.
In accordance with the plan Arts Council England is investing in nearly 900 arts organisations. As part of their 2008 reviews, more than 75 per cent of Arts Council regularly funded organisations received increases in their funding in line with inflation, or above. Arts Council England is also investing in 81 new regularly funded organisations.
For more information:
Great Art for Everyone
www.artscouncil.org.uk/plan
The Arts Debate
www.artscouncil.org.uk/artsdebate/index.php
The McMaster Review
www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/supportingexcellenceinthearts.pdf