The Arts and the people / Roy Shaw

By:

Shaw, Roy

Publication details: London : Jonathan Cape, 1987Description: 147 pISBN:

022402356X

Summary: The crisis in the arts in Britain has made the headlines more in the past few years than ever before. 'One of the happiest constitutional inventions of the century' was how one arts minister described the Arts Council. That same man, Norman St John-Stevas, promptly cut the Council's government grant. The Arts and the People is full of such paradoxes, wryly observed by a man uniquely qualified to challenge and explore the whole field of arts funding. Roy Shaw tackles head on the question 'What use are the arts?' and shows their importance to the quality of life of individuals and society as a whole. He gives the first high-level insider's view of the Arts Council's workings, seeing it as flawed but indispensable. The battles with a Conservative government apparently determined to politicise the Council both during Shaw's term of office - and subsequently - are recalled vividly but without rancour. He vigorously defends the tradition of public subsidy and attacks the Thatcher government's lukewarm attitude to it. He also questions its belief that money for the growth of the arts must come from business sponsorship and provides the first detailed critique of its application. Sponsorship, Shaw concludes, has been encouraged by this government in particular, to make good the government's own inadequate funding of the arts. A chapter on politics and the arts challenges both Labour and Tory attitudes and for good measure criticises the two Alliance parties for not producing a joint policy. The argument that democracy and excellence in the arts are incompatible is reviewed, and the author concludes that there are aspects of our present intellectual climate which are indeed hostile to excellence. He strongly believes that the aim of any arts policy must be to make the· arts much more widely accessible and argues for greater attention to audience development and links with the world of education. This is a book rich in ideas and experience. It throws down challenges and offers no easy answers. No one could read The Arts and the People and feel happy about the way the arts are funded in Britain. Roy Shaw has demonstrated that government policy threatens the quality of our cultural life. As he concludes, 'The wolf is not at the door. He's in the kitchen.' (Font: Editor)

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Book	Centre d' Informació i Documentació del CERC Magatzem	General	M 0173	1	Exclòs de préstec		1900003999

Introduction -- 1. The Constant Crisis -- 2. What Use are the Arts? -- 3. The Case for Subsidy -- 4. The Twilight of the Arts Council? -- 5. Business Sponsorship to the Rescue -- 6. Democracy and Excellence -- 7. Polities and the Arts -- 8. Art for the People

There are no comments on this title.

to post a comment.

Click on an image to view it in the image viewer