The arts are unquestionably one of Britain's success stories, and for over 70 years the British Council has harnessed the power of the arts to support our cultural relations mission.
Working in 110 countries, we have offered a unique platform for the UK’s arts and cultural sector, supporting and promoting the very best of the UK's creativity. Our work has inspired audiences worldwide, encouraging them to look to the UK as a source of creativity and originality. Many of the UK’s most celebrated artists have worked with us and many - among them Margaret Drabble, Lucian Freud, Akram Khan and Antony Gormley and film-makers like David MacKenzie, Ken Loach and Mike Leigh - say our support when they were emerging artists was vital to establishing their international reputations.
In late 2007 and early 2008 we began to explore how we should shape our work in the arts to ensure that it met the expectations of the changing world of cultural relations. In doing so we caused alarm that we intended to dismantle our arts work and with it our support for the arts sector. In response to these concerns, we embarked on a major consultation exercise, listening to the views and expectations of around 600 artists and arts organisations across the UK. The sector told us how important our work was to them and that supporting international links and promoting the best of contemporary Britain should remain a core part of our cultural relations mission. They told us how important our expertise is, both at home and abroad, that we should celebrate it and publicly commit to increased activity. They also said they want greater clarity about how we choose our arts activity and who we work with.
I’m delighted that, in publishing the attached consultation analysis and resulting action plan, I can do so. We will increase our total annual arts spend to £30 million by the end of 2009. The arts make a unique contribution to the quality and scope of our cultural relations work and we will ensure that they continue to be an integral part of the British Council. The action plan outlines some of the practical steps we will undertake to achieve this. We will maintain our arts functions in the UK and invest in our international network of professional expertise. In addition, we are working with Graham Devlin, an external arts consultant, to refine how we select and develop content for our arts and creative economy work globally and to make our processes more transparent. I hope that this will be seen as good news for the UK’s artists and arts organisations.
In terms of immediate activity, we want to build on our successful partnership with the Tate which is taking their Turner exhibition to Russia, and extend the tour to China; we are developing this year’s highly successful Arab Focus at the London Book Fair and supporting Beirut’s role as UNESCO World Book Capital. We have selected Steve McQueen as the UK’s representative at the Venice Biennale of Art 2009. And we are developing our global creative economy programme building on our widely acclaimed International Young Creative Entrepreneur Awards and a new International Cultural Leadership Programme. We will continue to bring producers from around the world to the world’s greatest arts festival by supporting the biennial Edinburgh Showcase, which results in average touring fees of £1 million per year for UK companies, as well as increasing the number we bring to the diverse range of music festivals around the UK.
Finally, we will work with the UK’s Arts Councils, Culture Ministries and national arts institutions to set out a challenging agenda of what the UK can achieve from its international cultural policy and how we set about achieving this. Our action plan makes clear that we need to work together better to increase impact in priority countries and regions to ensure that the best of the UK is accessible to as many people as possible. Our contemporary arts and creative practice offer a unique opportunity to engage with people around the world, to explain and celebrate contemporary Britain. We look forward to working with others to achieve this.
Martin Davidson
Chief Executive British Council
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