This seminar on the changing face of UK arts policy will be presented by Munira Mirza, editor of Culture Vultures: is UK arts policy damaging the arts? She will look at the argument that the arts are currently experiencing a ‘golden age’ in the UK. The sector has received large boosts in funding, whilst politicians make claims about the importance of the arts and creativity to society and insist that arts organisations must become more relevant to a wider public, celebrate diversity and contribute to community cohesion. It needs to be acknowledged that, historically, each society has valued the arts for different reasons. Mirza argues that the arts sector is currently more preoccupied with identity than ever before and that arts policy takes an increasingly therapeutic approach to the individual.