under the auspices of CEMA perform
Peter and The Wolf at an aircraft factory in the Midlands during World War II during World War II In January 1940, during the
Second World War, the
Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) was appointed to help promote and maintain
British culture. Chaired by
Lord De La Warr,
President of the Board of Education, the council was government-funded and after the war was renamed the Arts Council of Great Britain.
Reginald Jacques was appointed musical director, with
Sir Henry Walford Davies and
George Dyson also involved.
John Denison took over after the war. A
royal charter was granted on 9 August 1946 followed by another in 1967. The latter provided for functions in
Scotland and
Wales to be conducted by two committees known as the Scottish and Welsh Arts Councils After Keynes' death in April 1946 government funding was reduced but the Arts Council received wide recognition for its contribution to the
Festival of Britain thanks to the new chairman
Kenneth Clark. Artworks commissioned by the council for the festival were retained to form the basis of the
Arts Council Collection. The Arts Council commissioned 12 sculptors and 60 painters, who made large paintings, or more, to be displayed at the festival. Ultimately the works were to be given to new hospitals, libraries, schools, and health centres that emerged after the war. There were five cash prizes awarded:
Robert Adams's
Apocalyptic Figure, Elinor Bellingham-Smith's
The Island, Lucian Freud's
Interior near Paddington, William Gear's
Autumn Landscape, and
Robert MacBryde's
Figure and Still Life. Under the
Harold Wilson government of 1964–70 the Arts Council enjoyed a
Golden Age thanks to the close relationship between chairman
Arnold Goodman and the arts minister
Jennie Lee. This period saw the council establish a network of arts organisations across the country as regular client organisations and a programme of touring exhibitions and performances. To support the council’s responsibilities in relation to the visual arts, it opened the
Hayward Gallery on
London's
South Bank in 1968 as a home for its major exhibitions and the base for the
Arts Council Collection. Since 1987, the gallery has been independently managed by the
South Bank Centre. In 2003 sculpture in the collection was moved to a base in
Yorkshire. During the 1970s and 1980s the Arts Council came under attack for being elitist and politically biased, in particular from the prominent
Conservative Party minister
Norman Tebbit. The government grant to the council was capped effecting a real-terms reduction in funding, though it was argued that any shortfall would be made up by increased sponsorship from the private sector. The secretary-general from 1975 to 1983,
Roy Shaw, the last secretary-general to be knighted, faced the difficult task of reconciling the needs of arts organisations with the restricted funding.
William Rees-Mogg was a political appointment as chairman and proposed slimming down the council's responsibilities. This led to a series of clashes with prominent figures from the arts such as
Peter Hall, who resigned from the council in protest. In 1987 the restructure inspired by Rees-Mogg cut by half the number of organisations receiving Arts Council funding. During the same period the Arts Council began encouraging a greater level of corporate sponsorship for the arts. On 1 April 1994 it was replaced by the Arts Council of England, the
Scottish Arts Council, and the
Arts Council of Wales, each with their own new Royal Charter; the Arts Council of Northern Ireland already existed as a distinct body. At the same time, the
National Lottery was established and the Arts Council of England became one of the distribution bodies. For the first year after the change in organisation, the Arts Council of England acted to follow through on the final plans of the Arts Council of Great Britain. ==Chairpersons of the Arts Council==