This three day conference jointly hosted by the V&A and the University of Reading will assess arts policy around the world; concentrating specifically on the situation in theatre and performance culture. In the second year of Arts Council cuts, and on the eve of the Cultural Olympiad, this conference provides a timely opportunity to discuss these themes. The conference is related to the AHRC project, ‘Giving Voice to the Nation': the Arts Council of Great Britain and the development of theatre and Performance in Britain 1945-1995, a five-year investigation into the relationship between subsidy, policy and practice in the archives of the Arts Council of Great Britain.

The global economic down-turn has prompted a number of international responses. The UK government has reacted by introducing swingeing cuts, forcing the Arts Council England to announce a 29% reduction in its 2010 budget. In addition, the government is considering implementing American models of arts funding: including corporate sponsorship, private philanthropy and endowments as alternatives to the model of state subsidy that has existed since 1945. Examples of private patronage sustaining a theatre company have been rare since the time of Shakespeare, yet the success of the arts venue at the Menier Chocolate Factory and opera at Glyndebourne, neither of which receives Arts Council support, have been heralded as an example of good practice and a way forward. Already there are signs of a new climate emerging. The Times, for example, has recently taken to naming main show sponsors in its arts reviews. There are also a number of voices opposing the very idea of state subsidy of the arts: such as playwright Gregory Motton in his book Helping Themselves: The Left-Wing Middle Classes in Theatre & the Arts.

This conference will bring together graduate researchers, academic staff, curators, practitioners, with experts on policy and funding to debate the past, present and future of arts funding.