In the past months there has been a significant debate on regional funding gathering pace in the sector. We know that it is essential for arts and culture in the whole country to be supported and that we play a role to ensure the entire ecology flourishes. And today, we publish This England, which restates the principles on which Arts Council England invests in England’s arts and culture, with underlying principles, guiding metrics and updated analyses.
This England: How Arts Council England uses its investment to shape a national cultural ecology explains our current strategy and puts it clearly into context, particularly regarding recent debate on the geographical spread of our investment and the ongoing cuts to public funding for arts and culture. Its publication coincides with today’s No Boundaries events in York and Bristol; a symposium on the role of arts and culture in an ever changing world, which will continue to engage the sector in this debate.
Four years into our ten-year strategy, the figures in this report show that our investment decisions are having an effect, as well as outlining what we have yet to accomplish to achieve our mission to make great art and culture available to everyone in England.