Arts Council England
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Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. The arts funding system in England under went considerable reorganisation in 2003 when all of the Regional Arts Boards were subsumed into Arts Council England. The boundaries of the regional offices are now co-terminous with the standard English Regions.
It is a government-funded body dedicated to promoting the performing, visual and literary arts in England. Since 1994, Arts Council England has been responsible for distributing lottery funding. This investment has helped to transform the building stock of arts organisations and to create lots of additional high quality arts activity.
The Council attracted criticism from the Parliamentary select commitee responsible for its oversight for supporting a Lottery funded programme to subsidise UK film production that resulted in a series of films that failed to find distribution. There was also a series of costly capital projects such as the Royal Opera House and the Lowry Centre that required additional funding. In 2005 it was announced that the Arts Council England's budget was capped resulting in an effective £30m reduction in its budget.
The Chair of Arts Council England is Sir Christopher Frayling, Dean of the Royal College of Art in London.
External links
Arts Council England (http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/)