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* COUNCIL *
*Sir Kenneth Clark, K.C .B ., D.Litt., LL.D ., F .B.A . (Chairman)
*Wyn Griffith, O .B.E., D .Litt. (Vice-Chairman )
*Sir William Coldstream, C.B .E.
*Professor Anthony Lewis
Sir John McEwen, Bart ., D.L ., J .P .
*Joseph Compton, C.B .E.
J
Lt .-Col . Vere E . Cotton, C .B .E ., T .D ., .P . *Sir George T . McGlashan, C .B .E., J .P.
The Viscount Esher, G .B .E.
John Newsom, C.B .E.
The Lady Fermoy, O.B.E .
Lady Ogilvie
Robert Kemp
Sir Wynn Wheldon, K .B .E., D .S .O ., LL.D .
*Benn W. Levy, M.B .E.
* Member of Executive Committee
SCOTTISH COMMITTE E
Sir George T. McGlashan, C.B .E ., J.P . (Chairman)
D . K . Baxandall
E. S. Harrison
William MacTaggart, R.S .A .
Ernest Boden
J . A . Henderson
Hugh Marshall
John M . Playfair
Colin Chandler
Robert Kemp
Ian Finlay
Sir John McEwen, Bart., D .L., J .P. Miss Violet C . Young
Sir Cecil Graves, K .C.M.G ., M .C.
WELSH COMMITTE E
Wyn Griffith, O .B .E., D .Litt. (Chairman)
Dr. William Thomas, C .B .
The Marquess of Anglesey
J . Henry Jones, Ph.D .
S . Kenneth Davies, C .B .E.
Saunders Lewis
Sir Wynn Wheldon, K.B .E ., D .S .O . ,
Thomas Parry, D.Litt.
LL.D .
Aneirin Talfan Davies
D . H . I . Powell
D . E. Parry Williams, D .Mus.
Professor I. L. Foster
David Dilwyn John, T .D ., D .Sc., Mrs . D . R . Prosser
Emlyn Williams
Ceri Richards
The Very Rev. C . Witton-Davies
F.M .A.
Professor Gwyn Jones
* STAFF *
HEADQUARTER S
4 St. James's Square, London, S. W.I .
Whitehall 973 7
Secretary-General : Sir William Emrys Williams, C.B .E.
Deputy-Secretary & Finance Officer: M . J . McRober t
Art Director
Philip James, C.B .E.
Music Director
John Denison, M .B .E .
Drama Directo r
J. L. Hodgkinson, O .B .E .
Assistant Secretary: Eric W . White
Accountant
D . P. Lund, F .C .A.
SCOTLAN D
Director : Dr. George Firth, O .B .E., 11 Rothesay Terrace, Edinburgh, 3 . (Edinburgh 346356 . )
Deputy Director : Donald Mather
WALE S
Director : Miss Myra Owen, O .B.E ., 29 Park Place, Cardiff, South Wales . (Cardiff 23488 . )
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Co p y
ARTS COUNCIL
OF GREAT BRITAI N
REFERENCE ONLY
DO NOT REMOV E
FROM THE USM
1Ik( .IN MARY, ST. JOHN AND ST . MARY %1•%GDALEN I
.± u1 Fuirfurdl
oni the Arts Council him The Stained Gla,
: .0 Tram the Crucifixion
T H E A R T S C O U N C I L OF G R E A T B R I T A I N
ELEVENT H
ANNUAL REPOR T
1955- 195 6
4 S T . J A ME S' S SQUARE, LONDON, S . W . 1
COVER DESIGN BY ANTHONY GROS S
COLOUR DIAGRAM SPECIALL Y
DESIGNED BY MISS G . DRUMMOND MCKERRO W
Acknowledgements are made to John Merton for permissio n
to reproduce his painting of Dr . Thomas Jones, C .H ., t o
Ramsey and Muspratt for the photograph of Lord Keynes ,
and to Cyril Moorhead for the transparency from The
Stained Glass at Fairford .
PRINTED IN ENGLAND AT THE BAYNARD PRESS
CONTENTS
Pag e
1 . THE FIRST TEN YEARS
5
2 . NOTES OF THE YEAR
33
3 . ART .
34
4 . DRAMA
40
5 . MUSIC
47
6 . OPERA AND BALLET
53
7 . POETRY
56
8 . FESTIVALS : ARTS CENTRES AND ARTS CLUBS
60
9 . SCOTLAND
62
10. WALES
.
11 . NOTES ON THE ACCOUNTS
80
89
APPENDICES :
Appendix A The Arts Council of Great Britain : Audited Accounts
90
Appendix B The Council's Committee in Scotland : Audited Accounts
104
Appendix C The Council's Committee in Wales : Audited Accounts
11 0
Appendix D List of members of the Council and of the Scottish and Wels h
Committees from the Date of Incorporation by Roya l
Charter (August 9th, 1946) .
11 6
Appendix E Arts Council Exhibitions held in Great Britain .
11 8
Appendix F Events Supported by the Scottish Committee (1955/56)
120
1
THE FIRST TEN YEAR S
1.
THE CREATION OF CEM A
Lord de la Warr's initiative - response of the Pilgrim Trust - the arts in th e
'thirties - `Art For The People' - CEMA as an emergency service -fro m
amateur to professional : CEMA's achievement summarised - Arts Counci l
incorporated by Royal Charter
1 . A War-time Opportunity
The Arts Council is ten years old . The Royal Charter by which it wa s
incorporated is dated August 9th, 1946 ; and it is therefore appropriate tha t
this year's Annual Report should provide a survey of the activities an d
policies which the Council has pursued during its first decade . If the narrative is to have perspective, however, it must begin earlier than that, for th e
Arts Council of 1946 was the post-war model of a body improvised in th e
winter of 1939 to prevent the black-out of the arts . The story starts, then ,
with the creation of CEMA (pronounced Seema), the inevitable and convenient abbreviation for `the Committee for the Encouragement of Musi c
and the Arts' ;* and the origin of it has been characteristically recorded b y
the late Dr. Thomas Jones, C .H ., who was Secretary of the Pilgrim Trus t
at the time.
`It began on the telephone . Lord de la Warr, then President of the
Board of Education, rang up the Secretary of the Pilgrim Trust to sound
him about an "idea" and a possible grant ; nothing very much, £5,00 0
perhaps . A familiar experience . The "idea" sounded promising on a firs t
hearing, and it was arranged that the President of the Board should meet ,
without prejudice, the Chairman of the Trust, Lord Macmillan, the n
Minister of Information . They met in the latter's room at the Universit y
of London at noon, on December 14th, 1939 . I was present .
Lord de la Warr was enthusiastic. He had Venetian visions of a postwar Lord Mayor's Show on the Thames in which the Board of Educatio n
led the arts in triumph from Whitehall to Greenwich in magnificent barge s
and gorgeous gondolas ; orchestras, madrigal singers, Shakespeare fro m
the Old Vic, ballet from Sadler's Wells, shining canvases from the Roya l
Academy, folk dancers from village greens-in fact Merrie England .
*Its title was changed from 'Committee' to `Council' in April 1940 .
Lord Macmilla n's grave judicial calm collapsed suddenly and completely .
At the moment he was responsible for the national morale, and in th e
President' s dream he saw employment for actors, singers and painters ,
and refreshment for the multitude of war workers for the duration .
Supply and Demand kissed. Would £25,000 be any use? The Secretar y
blushed and fell off his stool .'
The Pilgrim Trust forthwith endorsed the idea, and CEMA was set u p
with Lord Macmillan as Chairman . The other founder members were
Dr. Thomas Jones, Sir Walford Davies (the ardent and ingenious exponen t
of popular education in music), Sir Kenneth Clark (then Director of the
National Gallery) and W . E. Williams (originator of `Art For the People '
and Chief Editor of Penguin Books) . The first three are dead. The other
two are respectively Chairman and Secretary-General of the Arts Council .
These five were later joined by Miss Thelma Cazalet, M .P. (now Mrs.
Cazalet Keir), the nominee of the Board of Education, and L . du Gard e
Peach, a pioneer of the amateur theatre . The Secretary of the Committe e
was Miss Mary Glasgow, seconded from the Ministry of Education, wh o
was later to become the first Secretary-General of the Arts Council .
The Climate of the 'Thirties
The inspiration and, indeed, the catalyst of the Committee was Dr .
Thomas Jones himself . Among the articles of faith which he assiduousl y
proclaimed and practised was a belief in the civilising powers of adul t
education, and especially of the more informal procedures of adult education . As Secretary of the Pilgrim Trust, and in several other capacities a s
well, he nourished many of the numerous ventures which were set on foo t
in the 'thirties to cultivate the appreciation and practice of the arts a vocation in which he was aptly described (by Violet Markham) as `Th e
Nestor of the age' . It was a period prolific in such activities . The B .B.C.
was diligently building up its vast extra-mural audience from the million s
who had never seen Shakespeare in the theatre or heard Beethoven i n
the concert hall . The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust was adopting wis e
and discriminating policies in support of amateur music and drama . The
list of bodies engaged during the 'thirties in fostering a popular interest i n
the arts is a very long one : a representative selection must include the
British Drama League, the Rural Music Schools, the National Federatio n
of Music Societies, the National Council of Social Service, the Women' s
Institutes, the Townswomen's Guilds, the English Folk Dance and Son g
Society . There are others in the list which have vanished or become
2.
absorbed, such as the League of Audiences and the Arts League of Service,
both of which played a memorable part in creating, during the 'thirties, tha t
climate of opinion and interest in which CEMA and the Arts Council wer e
subsequently able to flourish . Finally, there developed in those years a
deep and significant change in certain of the established movements o f
adult education . The Workers' Educational Association and the Universit y
Extra Mural Departments had been preoccupied for 30 years or more wit h
the social sciences, and had assumed that working-class adult students ha d
little time or concern for the arts . That attitude, for which there ha d
indeed been ample justification, was rapidly modified in the 'thirties, an d
during those years music and drama and literature began to hold their ow n
in the curriculum with economics and social history . A similar manifestation was to be seen, again, in the Evening Institutes of the L .C.C . and othe r
Local Education Authorities . These were no longer exclusively centres o f
vocational training for commerce or industry but places where a clerk or
a telephonist could study or practise music and painting and play production .
This enlargement of public interest in the arts was matched in th e
'thirties by a corresponding initiative in the professional provision of th e
arts . Sadler's Wells Theatre was opened, to double the impact alread y
made by the Old Vic in popularising the classics of opera and drama ; Sir
Thomas Beecham established the London Philharmonic Orchestra on a
permanent basis in 1933 ; Mr . John Christie was demonstrating at Glyndebourne those principles of perfectionism to which he has maintained suc h
a persistent and admirable fidelity ; and, in spite of the cinema, more
repertory theatres were operating than ever before .
3 . `Art For The People '
It is important to remember this resurgence of interest in the arts in th e
'thirties ; important to remember, too, that Dr . Thomas Jones was deepl y
involved in it, for (it must be repeated) it was he who persuaded th e
Pilgrim Trust into responding so quickly and generously to Lord de l a
Warr's notion of a war-time expansion of this popular development . One
of the pioneer ventures of the 'thirties which had particularly attracted hi s
attention was `Art For The People' . This scheme had been conceived b y
W. E . Williams and carried out by the British Institute of Adult Education, *
of which he was then the Secretary . It was a simple plan . Most people ,
* Now the National Institute of Adult Education .
the argument ran, seldom see a good picture, for art galleries are scarce ,
and good art galleries very rare indeed . There are, on the other hand, a
great number of good pictures in private possession which might be coaxe d
out of the hands of their owners for a few months and circulated amon g
small towns and rural areas . So `Art For The People' was begun . In 1935
exhibitions were assembled and shown at Swindon, Barnsley and Silve r
End (an Essex village) . The entire operation cost about £300, of which onethird was provided by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and most of
the rest by private supporters . The pictures, all French and English of th e
last 50 years, were lent by private owners, or by the Contemporary Ar t
Society and the Courtauld Institute. The enterprise thrived ; it attracted
very large attendances and provoked wide discussion among them . It wa s
a venture which commended itself to Dr . Thomas Jones, and from 193 6
onwards he saw to it that `Art For The People' secured the modest subsidy
it needed . Only a month before his momentous conversation with Lor d
de la Warr, he had attended the first war-time exhibition of `Art For The
People,' opened in London by Sir Kenneth Clark at the City Literary
Institute, and had been particularly moved that, with air raids hourl y
expected, Londoners should flock to such an event . The scheme appealed
to him because it was novel, adventurous and beneficent ; because it combined voluntary effort with the collaboration of those Local Authoritie s
who agreed to find a hall for the exhibitions and contribute a few pound s
to expenses . When Lord de la Warr rang him up to propose a wartime
expansion of this sort of provision, he immediately saw the nature of th e
opportunity and that same night recorded in his diary : `have joined wit h
WEW, Lord Macmillan and Lord de la Warr in founding CEMA .'
4 . CEMA's Activities
CEMA began, then, as an emergency movement . Those who conceive d
it and sketched its first plan of operations shared several different motive s
with varying degrees of emphasis . Lord Macmillan saw it primarily as a
scheme which would fortify national morale in the grievous trials of war ,
especially among those communities which, evacuated from the cities ,
would find themselves without occupation for their enforced leisure . Dr .
Thomas Jones, the vigilant opportunist, discerned in it fresh opportunitie s
for spreading the arts . Other aspects of the scheme which were appraise d
during the early meetings of the Committee included the likelihood that i t
would do something to provide employment for artists whose usual outlets
and opportunities were being diminished by the effects of war .
CEMA's first method of carrying out its mission was to finance the
immediate expansion of those voluntary bodies already providing the arts .
CEMA was, to begin with, a patron of help-yourself activities in musi c
and drama, a sponsor of amateur exercises in playacting and music
making ; but it very soon began to enlarge its sphere of influence an d
impact in a variety of ways . Instead of being simply a grant-aiding bod y
assisting amateur societies it began direct provision on its own accoun t
and, guided by Dr . Reginald Jacques, moved into the professional field . It
was persuaded by Sir Walford Davies, most romantic of missionaries, t o
recruit `Music Travellers' : professional singers and instrumentalists who
went off on their own, like medieval friars, and gave concerts, assisted b y
local talent, wherever they could raise an audience . It developed, under
the direction of Sir George Dyson, a popular scheme of Factory Concerts ,
given by one or two players in the lunch-time and midnight breaks . It too k
over from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, in 1943, the scheme fo r
helping orchestras such as the Halle and the Liverpool Philharmonic t o
visit towns like Grimsby and Luton which had never been able to accommodate or afford first-class symphony orchestras, and enabled thes e
orchestras for the first time in their history to operate on a continuou s
and full-time basis, and to extend the scope of their activities . Another
variation was the provision of People's Concerts in areas where th e
workers were heavily engaged in war-work, as on Tyneside and in th e
Midlands ; concerts which gave Kathleen Ferrier her early opportunitie s
and which brought such artists as Menuhin into contact with a new an d
exhilarating audience . There were concerts, too, of all sizes and types, in
churches, hospitals, and even in internment camps . When air-raids began ,
Air Raid Shelters and Rest Centres were included in this complex network
of provision . Music was employed as a relaxation for harassed workers ,
as a method of first-aid for bomb-shocked shelterers or convalescen t
patients . The scale of provision mounted rapidly, and before CEMA wa s
a year old it was supplying 400 concerts a month .
A similar pattern developed in drama . For some time CEMA, under
the guidance of L . du Garde Peach, helped to develop amateur activities ,
either directly or through the recognised voluntary bodies . But it gradually
moved into the professional field. Professional companies were raised an d
despatched on circuits which included many areas where plays and player s
of quality had never been seen before . The Old Vic, driven from its Londo n
home, raised three companies to carry out extensive tours . Distinguished
men and women in every branch of theatre activity participated in this
novel diffusion of the theatre . Most of the performances were one-nigh t
stands, and many of them were given in town halls, Miners' Institutes and
Factory Hostels . At one time, in March, 1943, CEMA had no fewer than
16 of these mobile companies working under its auspices, as well as a
batch of ballet and opera companies drawn from the Sadler's Wells ,
Rambert and Jooss organisations .
In the field of visual art CEMA began by providing funds to expan d
`Art For The People .' A considerable number of exhibitions was assemble d
and circulated of paintings, prints and industrial design . In 1940 over
300,000 people visited exhibitions in 80 village and country towns-an d
the total cost of the operation, despite free admission, was only £5,000 mainly because, thanks to the generosity of private owners, no capital costs
were involved. A team of expositors and interpreters went out with man y
of the exhibitions and endeavoured to enlighten visitors about the traditional problems of art . Some private owners lent their entire collections
`for the duration,' many others contributed pictures to individual exhibitions . The Royal Academy, the Tate Gallery, and the Official War Artist s
lent extensively to touring exhibitions . CEMA itself began to build up a
pool of pictures for touring-and bought everything at a flat rate of £2 0
a picture . When this collection was shown in London at the National
Gallery, in October 1942, Mr . R. A . Butler, then Minister of Education ,
predicted that CEMA would survive the war and would become an instrument of collective patronage . It was in this year that CEMA initiated its
own programme of touring exhibitions, and one in particular-of Henry
Moore-Graham Sutherland-John Piper-underlined the significant fac t
that CEMA recognised its duties to contemporary developments in the
arts . CEMA took the lead, again, in publicising and diffusing post-wa r
plans in the field of architecture, town planning and industrial design . The
two exhibitions which Ralph Tubbs produced for `Art For The People '
were a resounding success : Living in Cities and The Englishman Builds .
The movement developed many new variants on its original purpose .
British restaurants, which existed by the hundred in those lean years ,
were decorated with murals designed by Moore, Duncan Grant, Sutherland, Piper and others and executed by scores of volunteer art students . In
British Restaurants, too, as in factory canteens and military camps, ar t
was brought home to new customers by a widespread loan service o f
paintings and prints . Hundreds of thousands of people saw these thing s
for the first time, in the last localities where such things were ever likel y
to be seen : even in air raid shelters and on barrage balloon sites .
10
5 . The Government Takes Ove r
CEMA began as a voluntary effort financed by a £25,000 grant from th e
Pilgrim Trust ; but within four months of its creation the Government ,
through the Board of Education, had undertaken to match these privat e
funds pound for pound up to £50,000. This was a historic innovation, an
expression of that public responsibility for music and drama which s o
many pioneers (such as Granville Barker) had sought to develop among us .
By March of 1942 the success of CEMA's mission was so clear, and it s
implications so insistent, that the Pilgrim Trust was able to withdraw,
having given no less than £62,500 to the experiment-and leave the futur e
development and finance to the Board of Education . It was at this turningpoint, too, that Lord Macmillan and Dr . Thomas Jones retired, and John
Maynard Keynes (later Lord Keynes) became the Chairman of CEMA .
Around this time other changes occurred which suggested that the
flexible patterns of provision which CEMA had improvised were in process of transition to more permanent forms . Thus there were established
panels of specialists to guide CEMA in its future policies towards Music ,
Drama and Art ; a Scottish Committee was created in March of 1943, an d
a Welsh one the following year ; Regional Offices were opened in 1 0
English towns . These changes were conditioned largely by the course of
the war. Air raids had ceased (to be furiously but briefly renewed in th e
final stages of the battle), the population had settled into a relatively stabl e
routine of work and life again ; and it was thus possible for CEMA t o
reconstitute itself, to exchange the procedures of first aid and emergenc y
action for those of a more deliberate and planned existence . Its programme expanded year by year ; in 1944 CEMA itself provided 6,14 0
concerts, and financed by grants and guarantees 804 symphony concert s
by the leading orchestras .
When the war came to an end CEMA had not only earned its citatio n
for meritorious achievement in fulfilling its original terms of reference : it
had shown that there was a continuing r6le to be fulfilled in making th e
fine arts more accessible to a willing segment of the population . In the
House of Commons, on June 12th, 1945, the Chancellor of the Exchequer ,
Sir John Anderson, declared that CEMA had shown that there would be a
lasting need after the war for a body to encourage the knowledge, understanding and practice of the arts, and that the Government had decided t o
incorporate the Council, with this object, in the name of the Arts Counci l
of Great Britain . The Arts Council, unlike its progenitor, would be
responsible to, and financed by, the Treasury and not by the Ministry o f
Education . On the same day, Lord Keynes announced at a press conference that the reconstituted body would aim `to carry the arts through th e
countryside and to maintain metropolitan standards .' He died before the
Royal Charter incorporating the new body was promulgated a few month s
later ; but despite the heavy responsibilities he had borne during the war h e
had laboured ceaselessly to achieve, and had lived to see, the acceptance
by a British Government of the principle of trusteeship for music and
drama .
The effort to create such a body as the Arts Council would have bee n
arduous and protracted in peacetime. Even if the sponsors of the projec t
were able to agree among themselves about the aims and constitution o f
such an organisation, they would be only at the beginning of their task .
They would need to persuade or reconcile to their cause the scores o f
bodies concerned with the arts, many of them vigorous adherents of conflicting policies and practices, and some of them hardly on speaking term s
with each other ; they would have to run the gauntlet of press criticism ;
build up a body of support in Parliament ; endure ; perhaps, the lon g
scrutiny of a Royal Commission or similar enquiry . . . CEMA's achievements, however, substituted a demonstration for a discussion, and by 194 5
the concept of an Arts Council was deemed worthy, by Ministers an d
public opinion, of acceptance in the pattern of post-war reconstruction .
5 . The Lessons of CEMA
What, in fact, had CEMA so plainly demonstrated? First, that the siz e
and the ardour of the audience which its activities attracted far exceede d
all expectations . There was, of course, an element of inflation to b e
allowed for in reckoning the size and quality of the audience . To some
extent-i .e. in the air-raid shelters, rest centres, factories, and militar y
camps-it was a `captive' audience, many of whose members would neve r
have crossed the street to attend a concert in peace-time or their own time .
Then, again, entertainment of any kind was scarce in many areas in war time, and the CEMA multitudes no doubt included many who attended
simply to fill the vacuum left in their leisure by the scarcity of thei r
customary pleasures . Finally, the great dispersion of the arts whic h
occurred during part of the war meant that many little places were offere d
plays and concerts of a calibre far above their normal expectations . Visits
of distinguished actors and celebrated singers to places like Stonehaven o r
Maesteg were evidently the events of a lifetime but not necessarily events
12
which proved more than a natural curiosity to go and listen to celebrities .
But when all such allowance has been made for the mere amenity elemen t
in CEMA's work, and for its curiosity value, there remains the incontestable fact that CEMA immensely enlarged the popular audience for plays,
music and paintings and, in doing so, also enabled hundreds of artists o f
all kinds to keep in active employment and practice for several critical
years . Not only did it prevent the black-out of the arts, it positivel y
enlarged their sphere of interest and appeal .
The second conclusion which CEMA had established was the necessit y
to distinguish between the professional and the amateur practice of th e
arts. Both are supremely important, but for different reasons . Th e
amateur practice of music or play-production or painting confers a variet y
of benefits on its participants . Without seeking to arrange these benefits i n
any order or proportion one may say they include, for instance, the therapeutic and social consequences of choral singing or oilpainting ; the
development of appreciation ; the provision, especially in smaller communities, of concerts and plays which would be economically beyond thei r
reach on a professional basis . On such grounds as these the amateur
performance of the arts is a vital and significant element in the national
provision. But very rarely is it possible for the amateur to attain professional proficiency : not through lack of talent, but through lack of time .
The achievement and preservation of standards in the arts is, primarily,
then, the role of the professional, just as the task of diffusing the arts out side the cities is largely the business of the amateur . The professional
movement and the amateur movement are different in their needs as wel
l
as their natures ; and early in its experience CEMA discovered the manifol d
difficulties encountered by an administrative body which seeks to act simultaneously as the trustee for both movements . Hence its decision to withdraw virtually from the amateur field, which in fact is well organised for it s
specific tasks and which continues to enjoy a measure of support from the
Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, and other sustaining bodies . The only
contact which CEMA finally retained with the amateur practice of th e
arts, and which the Arts Council continues, is its provision of some £25,00 0
a year to enable amateur music societies to secure `professional stiffening'
for some of their major events . This action is, indeed, in itself a furthe r
affirmation of the belief that the primary obligation of such a body a s
CEMA or the Arts Council is to preserve the arts .on their most vital an d
vulnerable level, which is the level of standard.
The third major demonstration which CEMA afforded, and one whic h
13
deeply impressed Lord Keynes, was the relative paucity in the country o f
buildings worthy of and suitable for the reputable professional performance of music and drama . Much of the work which CEMA accomplishe d
in the war years was done in makeshift buildings ; but what is tolerable i n
an emergency is not a permanent solution to the requirements of peacetime .
Ten years after the war we are little better off, but far more conscious o f
the fact that music and drama deserve better auditoria than are provide d
in so many places . Even before the war was over CEMA was seeking t o
rouse public concern in this respect . It assisted, for example, in the establishment of the Bristol Old Vic . Local trustees had bought the histori c
Theatre Royal in order to preserve it, and CEMA followed up their actio n
by taking a lease of the theatre for 21 years and setting up a company t o
play there . Later on it conducted a similar rescue operation at Salisbur y
and went into management there in the local Playhouse . Before he died ,
Lord Keynes had also applied his initiative to the problem of taking int o
public trusteeship the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden . He managed,
indeed, to create at the Arts Council a token fund for acquiring suc h
properties-a fund which now no longer exists, for the demands on th e
Arts Council's resources long ago forced it to abandon the subsidy o f
bricks and mortar in favour of subsidies for actual production . But Lor d
Keynes was right . If music and drama are to be revealed at their best w e
must provide them in suitable settings, with buildings (old and new) i n
which the mystique of the arts can be properly communicated .
On a different level CEMA had begun to concern itself with the provisio n
of all-purpose premises where smaller communities could enjoy, in a n
appropriate setting, visiting musical ensembles, art exhibitions and even a
touring play company, and could also practise the arts which they fancied .
It promoted the concept of Arts Centres, several of which have bee n
brought into existence at Plymouth, Weymouth, Greenock, Bridgwater an d
King's Lynn, but here again the pressure upon its meagre funds prevente d
it from doing much more than assisting a handful of pilot projects .
II . NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE ARTS COUNCI L
Composition of the Arts Council - its relation to the Government and th e
Treasury - how its Grant is determined - Subsidies to Providing Bodies decline of Direct Provision - Regional Administration - Assistance to new ar t
1 . Composition of the Counci l
The Arts Council as constituted by the Royal Charter of 1946 consist s
of not more than 16 persons, selected by the Chancellor of the Exchequer ,
14
after consultation with the Minister of Education and the Secretary o f
State for Scotland, together with separate and autonomous committee s
for Scotland and Wales . Lord Keynes died before the Royal Charter wa s
issued, and was succeeded by Sir Ernest Pooley, Bt ., K .C.V .O., who le d
the Council with wisdom and courage from 1946 until his retirement in
1953 . The Council is not, in the limited sense, a representative body : its
members are not picked, as such, from Equity or the Royal Academy o r
the West End Theatre Managers Association or the Institute of Contemporary Art, although a member of such bodies is perfectly eligible, in hi s
own right, for the Chancellor's nomination to the Council . They are
chosen primarily as persons with a particular knowledge of, or concer n
for, one or more of the fine arts . Members retire on a system of rotation ,
and in the 10 years of its existence no fewer than 39 men and women hav e
sat on the Arts Council, and 69 have sat on its Scottish and Welsh Committees :* they come and go every few years so as to prevent any solidification of interest . Supporting and advising the Council there are Panel s
for Music, Drama, Art and Poetry and a special Sub-Committee for Oper a
and Ballet . These Panels, too, change their membership every three years ;
in any given year they add up to about 70 people, and since 1946 as man y
as 211 have participated in this specialist policy-advising activity . No one
taking part in this network of policy-making is paid for his labours .
The Arts Council is not a Government Department, and bears littl e
resemblance to those Ministries of Fine Arts which exist in many othe r
countries . No Minister directs its policies or decides how, and to whom ,
its grants shall be made . There is no single instance on record of a
Chancellor of the Exchequer requiring or directing, or even advising, th e
Arts Council to do this or not to do that ; and when from time to tim e
some action of the Arts Council's is criticised in the House of Common s
successive Chancellors have invariably declared that they will not interfer e
with the Arts Council's discretion . This liberty of action carries with i t
the obligation upon the Arts Council to discharge its duties with a sens e
of responsibility and a regard for public policy ; and the final sanction to
which its behaviour is subject is, evidently, the power of the Chancello r
to select its members . A Treasury official sits with the Council, as a n
assessor ; he is there to guide, assist or caution the Council on any matters
of public finance . The Scottish Office and the Ministry of Education eac h
has an observer on the Council . There are other methods by which th e
Council's actions are brought under appropriate surveillance . It is subject
*For names see Appendix D.
15
to scrutiny by the Committee of Public Accounts and the Selec t
Committee on Estimates and, during its short life, has been investigated b y
both these Parliamentary bodies . And, finally, as a recipient of publi c
funds, it is audited annually by the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General . The Council is served by a small specialist staff : a Secretary General, a Deputy Secretary and Finance Officer, and Directors for Art ,
Music and Drama . Its senior executives number seven in all, and its
total staff (including the packers and drivers of the Art Department) doe s
not exceed the modest total of 97 .
2 . The Council's Funds
The grant which Parliament annually votes to the Arts Council i s
determined by several procedural checks . The Council each year presents
the Chancellor with an itemised account of the subsidies which it believes
necessary for maintaining the many organisations it supports . These
figures are further examined in the Treasury and, finally, by a process mor e
usually subject to subtraction than addition, the Arts Council is voted a
grant for a year . It was originally hoped that the Council would be give n
a quinquennial grant, so as to enable its planning to be conducted on a
long-term basis. The country's fortunes have obstructed that aspiration ,
and consequently the Council has been compelled to practise hand-to mouth policies in support of its associated bodies .
There is one important clarification to be made about the Council' s
Treasury grant . It is not a block grant, but is based upon precis e
appraisals of the needs of all the bodies the Arts Council sustains . Some
of the dissidents who would like to see the so-called doctrine of `fair shares '
applied in the Council's allocations to London and the Provinces appear
to assume that if the Arts Council decided no longer to subsidise, say ,
Covent Garden, its present grant (£270,000) to that theatre would be
automatically available for distribution elsewhere . Not at all . The sum o f
£270,000 in the estimates is earmarked for the specific object named ; if
the Council withdrew its grant from Covent Garden it would not receiv e
that sum from the Treasury.
In contemplating the subsidies which it makes to these bodies the
Council goes into very minute detail indeed . Every one of its associate d
organisations, large or small, submits its budgets, balance-sheets an d
trading returns to the Council, and is called upon to justify its figures an d
forecasts . According to their need or nature the bodies with which th e
Council is associated receive grants or guarantees for their year's work .
16
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An officer of the Arts Council is appointed as an assessor on each of thes e
governing bodies and attends meetings to ensure that these grants an d
guarantees are applied as they were intended to be . All the bodies whic h
are thus subsidised are non-profit-distributing . The Arts Council i s
incorporated as a charity, and is thus prohibited from using its funds for
profit-seeking purposes . In its first year, 1945-46, the Exchequer grant t o
the Council was £235,0,00, and this has risen to £820,000 in 1955-56 .
The bulk of the Council's annual grant from Parliament is applied, then ,
to sustaining (often in partnership with Local Authorities) a certai n
number of artistic enterprises*-opera and ballet companies, orchestras ,
repertory theatres, Arts Festivals and a considerable number of smalle r
societies (such as those incorporated in the National Federation of Musi c
Societies or the Rural Music Schools Association), Arts Centres and Art s
Clubs . Something of the order of 78 . 5 per cent . of the Council's income i s
thus applied in grants to providing bodies ; and the whole of this sum is
virtually devoted to the support of professional and not amateur activity .
3. Independent Managemen t
The most fundamental change of policy which has occurred sinc e
CEMA developed into the Arts Council concerns the actual provision o f
the arts . CEMA was heavily engaged, most of its time, in the direct pro vision of the arts, in promoting theatre tours and concert tours . In
England this direct provision has diminished year by year since 1946, an d
will ultimately cease altogether . It is better that music and drama should b e
promoted by separate individual organisations than that they should b e
centrally and officially provided ; and nowadays, except in the visual arts ,
there is no scarcity of individual and experienced providers . CEM A
directly managed several theatres in its lifetime . Most of these have now
been taken over by independent managements, as at Bristol and Salisbury ;
and it is hoped that the Arts Council's only remaining directly-provide d
drama company-the Midland Theatre Company-will, within two years ,
become the responsibility of the independent trust which will control th e
new civic theatre. now being built at Coventry .
4. Provision of Art Exhibitions
The only field in which the Council remains a major provider is that o f
the visual arts . Although there are many art galleries in the country indeed, perhaps, because there are so many art galleries in the country-n o
* See Appendix A Schedule 5, Appendix B Schedule 3, and Appendix C Schedule 3
for the full list .
17
Lord Keynes]
special and separate body has been created to inherit and develop th e
concept of peripatetic art exhibitions implicit in the `Art For The People '
scheme . The Arts Council, therefore, continues to operate this direc t
service by mounting every year a series of exhibitions, including majo r
international exhibitions, which secure extensive circulation in the provinces . It is an interesting phenomenon that `Art For The People', which
was one of the roots from which CEMA began, should survive as almos t
the only type of direct provision in the Arts Council's present activity, at
least in England and Wales .
5 . Administrative Changes
The Arts Council's decision to leave the provision of music, oper a
and drama to self-governing non-profit companies led it to reconsider ,
and finally modify, its administrative structure . When it began in 1946
it took over the Regional Offices which had been expressly set up b y
CEMA to handle the considerable direct provision of the war years . Those
offices and their staff had been abundantly engaged in handling the man y
theatre-touring companies, of which there were sometimes as many as 14 ;
in organising thousands of concerts of all sizes and conditions ; in
encouraging the development of arts clubs, looking after music societies ,
route-ing the art exhibitions and similar operational tasks .
By 1952 it was evident that with the decline of so much of this direc t
provision, the maintenance of nine Regional Offices (as well as offices i n
Scotland and Wales) was more than the traffic could justify . Three wer e
accordingly closed in that year, and a fourth a year later . By 1955, th e
decline in direct provision having further continued, the Council decide d
to close the remaining five English Regional Offices and make othe r
arrangements for maintaining its essential contacts with the Provinces .
Three mobile officers, specialists in music and familiar with the regions ,
now take care of the Council's relationships with its associated orchestra s
and other music-providing bodies all over the country . Three others, on e
posted in Manchester, are solely concerned with the visual arts and maintain a liaison with art galleries and art societies in the Provinces . The Art s
Council, moreover, has made a special grant to the South-West Art s
Association of Arts Clubs for it to engage a professional organiser . These
modifications, which involve a saving of £20,000 a year on administration ,
have been adopted because they conform to the Council's present function s
and policies.
These changes do not represent, as some critics have declared, an y
18
doctrine of `centralisation .' The Arts Council has been governed from the
start by its committees in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff . The Regional
staff, who worked so devotedly in their posts, were never designers o r
arbiters of Arts Council policy, and the closure of the Regional Office s
implies no change in the direction of Council policy . The Arts Council
will not diminish its aid to its associated bodies in the Provinces-it will
increase that aid ; anditwill continue to maintain the essential contacts wit h
art activities in the Provinces . The money saved by this reconstruction wil l
be wholly applied in further subsidies to bodies working outside London .
It is appreciated that the smaller groups and societies in the Council' s
orbit will feel the withdrawal of the Council's staff from the regions . On
the other hand, it must be emphasised that in recent years the Council ha s
been making very substantial grants to bodies such as the Nationa l
Federation of Music Societies which it regards as the most appropriate
form of self-government for music societies . Another constituency which
formerly depended a good deal on the assistance of our Regional Officer s
was the Arts Club movement in some counties. But, here again, there are
other agencies more apt than the Arts Council to assist and encourag e
these predominantly amateur and educational activities . Under the 1944
Education Act many Local Education Authorities have built up thei r
Further Education staffs, which include specialists in music and dram a
and art whose express function is to assist adult groups in these activities .
Many Local Education Authorities have at least a dozen such specialists ,
and there are in England and Wales alone about 300 men and wome n
whose Further Education duties include assistance to the kind of activity
in which arts clubs are concerned . In addition, such bodies as th e
Workers' Education Association and the University Extra Mural Departments have on their staff scores of organisers who can assist adult group s
studying or practising the arts . The Arts Council warmly endorses the
aims and activities of music clubs and arts clubs ; but it is bound to recognise the fact that by 1956 these activities should be increasingly guided an d
assisted by the statutory and voluntary bodies of adult education . Meanwhile, the new administrative pattern will ensure the essential contact s
between the Council and all the bodies with which it is in association-th e
provincial repertory theatres, the symphony orchestras, the art gallerie s
and museums, the touring companies and the arts festivals . The Arts
Council recognises its obligations as trustee to these bodies, and by it s
continued and increasing support of them will ensure the Provinces a n
abundant share of the available arts .
19
6 . Assistance to Artists
There is another function which the Arts Council is seeking to develop :
that of encouraging the production of new work in music, drama, poetr y
and painting. Just as scholarship and science depend for their enlargemen t
upon experiment and research so do the arts need replenishment by con temporary innovation . The experimental field of the arts is a dangerou s
one, and those who enter it are liable to criticism and reproach . Yet any
body seeking to be an instrument of public patronage must assume th e
risks of assisting the experimental and the contemporary . The Arts
Council devotes about £10,000 a year to such endeavours : partly by
subsidies to such bodies as the Institute of Contemporary Arts and th e
Society for the Promotion of New Music ; partly by building up its own
collection of the work of contemporary painters and sculptors ; more
recently, by its scheme of awards and guarantees to new playwrights and
to managements willing to risk putting on these new works ; by it s
Poetry Prizes and, finally, its sponsorship of the Poetry Book Society .
State patronage of contemporary arts inevitably involves discriminatio n
between contemporary artists . Who, in fact, is responsible for the choic e
of these artists, composers, playwrights and their works at the Art s
Council? The purchase of paintings and works of sculpture is carried ou t
by a small Purchasing Sub-Committee of the Art Panel, the composition o f
which changes from year to year . The Theatre awards are made by the
Drama Panel, a body of 20 men and women which also changes its composition annually, and which seeks further advice from outside its ow n
numbers . To adjudicate the Poetry Prizes independent juries were set up .
The special scheme for promoting new music is carried out by an independent non-profit-distributing society . So, too, is the work of the Poetr y
Book Society. This varied pattern of encouragement and experiment i s
admittedly tentative, for it is not easy to discover the best methods o f
identifying work of authentic promise . In every lively and inventive
generation there is a domain of art on which judgment must be suspended .
Judgment can only be suspended, however, if the work in question ha s
been actually seen or heard ; and one part of the duty of the public patron ,
as it was the pleasure of the private patron, is to give innovation an d
experiment the chance to be seen and heard .
The foregoing summary of how the Arts Council is administered an d
financed, and what its principal activities are, must now be put into perspec tive by some account of the way in which its current policies have emerged .
20
III .
BASIC POLICY OF THE ARTS COUNCI L
Raising standards in the arts - the National Institutions - Regional centre s
of music and drama - the problem of diffusion - encouragement of loca l
responsibility - the Local Government Act of 1948 - the concept of Civi c
Arts Trusts - Housing the Arts
1 . The Pursuit of Quality
What are the main policies which the Arts Council has been developing
during its first 10 years? The primary responsibility imposed by its Roya l
Charter is to preserve and improve standards of performance in th e
various arts . The Arts Council interprets this injunction, in relation to it s
income, as implying the support of a limited number of institutions wher e
exemplary standards may be developed . The biggest effort so far to
establish such institutions is the one to create, at the Royal Opera House ,
Covent Garden, a national theatre for opera and ballet, and in this effort
the Arts Council has been deeply involved from the start . In the latter
part of the nineteenth century Sir Augustus Harris built up the star-studde d
seasons of international opera there, and after his death, right up to 1939 ,
Covent Garden was occupied by private syndicates which continued t o
mount short international seasons . There was no permanence in thes e
arrangements, and no endeavour to build up systematically and continuously a British institution which might be to opera what the national
collections are to the visual arts . In 1945 such an endeavour was at last
set on foot ; there were many participants in the plan . First and foremost
was the firm of Boosey & Hawkes which shouldered the responsibility o f
taking a lease of the place and paying its considerable running expenses .
A committee was set up, which shortly became the Covent Garden Oper a
Trust, under Lord Keynes, by then Chairman of the Arts Council, and thi s
body set out to establish Covent Garden as a permanent and continuou s
home for opera and ballet. A suitable ballet company was happily available : the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company, created by Dame Ninette d e
Valois in 1930, and this Company was "borrowed" (in what became a
permanent loan) from its Islington home and launched on a new an d
scintillating chapter of history . Since the Sadler's Wells Ballet opened a t
Covent Garden on February 20th, 1946, it has achieved fame and reputation at home and abroad and has abundantly justified the aspiration o f
Keynes and his associates to create a national institution of ballet a t
Covent Garden.
The achievement of a similar aim for opera was more difficult-mainl y
because there was no equivalent of the Sadler's Wells Ballet to build upon .
21
But since the first resident opera company appeared in Carmen on
January 14th, 1947, the consolidation of the endeavour has proceeded wit h
mounting success . The policy of establishing at Covent Garden a nativ e
resident company instead of the polyglot visitants who appeared there in
brief seasons before the war is a long-term one . It has already justified
itself in many respects-as, for example, by building up an orchestra which
was described by Kleiber as the best opera-house orchestra in the world .
British singers of merit are being increasingly recruited and developed ;
British composers, designers and producers are finding new opportunitie s
for their work ; an immense and devoted audience has been established.
For the first time in our history there is established in the metropolis a
national institution of ballet and opera such as exists in most othe r
civilised capitals . This growth has been consistently aided by the Art s
Council . Its first grant to Covent Garden, in 1946, was £25,000 . Its
present grant is £270,000 . The reasons for the growth of these figures and, indeed, a valuable analysis of operatic economics-are set out in
Covent Garden's recently published booklet on its first 10 years .* The
theatre itself is still not in public ownership but is held on lease by th e
Ministry of Works . The bill for bricks and mortar alone is over £50,00 0
per annum.
Two other metropolitan theatres are regarded by the Arts Council a s
being national institutions achieving exemplary standards . They are
Sadler's Wells and the Old Vic, two historic houses which are currentl y
enjoying a very high degree of public support and esteem . They both
have housing handicaps to contend with, of site and size, and there are
those among their adherents who would like to see both Sadler's Well s
and the Old Vic moved across some day into the cultural enclave on th e
South Bank . The climate and ambience of Sadler's Wells differs ver y
much from that at Covent Garden : there is more homeliness about it ;
some would say more of the gaiety and effervescence associated wit h
Volksoper . But whatever the nature and quality of these differences ,
Sadler's Wells is developing with great artistic style a repertory of classica l
and contemporary opera which is securing ardent support from large an d
affectionate audiences .
The Old Vic, again, is attracting large attendances, and is pursuing an
adventurous and positive policy in its Shakespearian productions . It i s
providing for many young actors opportunities which would rarely com e
their way elsewhere, it is producing the entire Shakespearian canon withi n
* A Review 1946-1956.
22
five years, and is including in that ambitious and exacting repertor y
several productions which are enlivening, sometimes very controversially ,
the traditions of Shakespearian production .
Covent Garden, Sadler's Wells and the Old Vic, then, as three nationa l
institutions endeavouring to provide exemplary performances in th e
metropolis are a primary responsibility of the Arts Council . From time
to time the Arts Council is criticised for showing a bias in favour o f
London and, especially, for spending so large a portion of its budge t
upon these three establishments . To this criticism the first answer is tha t
a capital city is also the metropolis of the nation's art : the home, fo r
example, of its National Gallery and its British Museum . It is both
proper and inevitable that its National Opera House should be locate d
there as well . Secondly, it was not the Arts Council which decided t o
establish these three institutions . The Arts Council did not decide to giv e
half its money to London ; it decided to act as patron to certain institution s
already established, and of these the most meritorious and representativ e
were situated in London . If any provincial city had assumed the responsibility for creating and maintaining, say, Sadler's Wells, the Arts Counci l
would gladly have become its patron . It is highly improbable, in fact, tha t
any large city in the Provinces could provide a continuous home for opera
and ballet ; they have insufficient catchment areas (or visitors) to suppl y
the large audience and income an operation of such magnitude requires .
No provincial city at present seems able to sustain more than four week s
a year of the major tours.
There are other exemplary institutions, some of them in London bu t
most of them in the Provinces which, without being national or traditiona l
monuments of the arts in the sense that the Old Vic is, or Sadler's Wells ,
are nevertheless engaged in maintaining the highest standards of performance. Some of them, like the Stratford Memorial Theatre, are happily i n
no need of subsidy. Glyndebourne, that brilliant demonstration of privat e
patronage and bastion of impeccable standards, has received one gran t
of £25,000 from the Arts Council .* The Scottish Committee of the Art s
Council took part in the inauguration of the Edinburgh Festival an d
continues to vote a substantial annual subsidy to this most distinguishe d
and successful institution.
In a further but different circle of quality there are a group of symphon y
• During the Festival Year of 1951 when, on a supplementary Treasury Grant o f
£400,000 the Arts Council was able to assist more than its usual quota of associate d
companies .
23
orchestras and repertory theatres outside London which the Arts Counci l
assists in pursuance of its Charter obligations : the Halle Orchestra, th e
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphon y
Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Scottish Nationa l
Orchestra . In its scale of assistance to drama it recognises the pre-eminen t
claims, on the basis of standard, of such repertory theatres as the Bristo l
Old Vic, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Nottingham Playhouse ,
the Midland Theatre Company, the Salisbury Playhouse and the Pert h
Repertory Theatre . So much for the Council's contribution to th e
maintenance of standards in the arts : except to add that, in the field of the
visual arts, it seeks itself to provide year by year exhibitions of the highes t
quality in London and the larger provincial cities .
2 . Making the Arts Accessible
The Arts Council believes, then, that the first claim upon its attentio n
and assistance is that of maintaining in London and the larger citie s
effective power-houses of opera, music and drama ; for unless thes e
quality-institutions can be maintained the arts are bound to decline int o
mediocrity. The maintenance of standards, in static centres, must com e
first . Yet the Council is also aware of its obligations to make the art s
increasingly accessible to populations outside these few centres . Its achievement of this object has been considerable . For example, it finances the
tours of the popular Carl Rosa, the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet, th e
Ballet Rambert and the seasons of the Welsh National Opera Company ,
apart from assisting the expensive and complicated operation of sendin g
out for several weeks Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells productions whic h
are not designed for the purposes of touring . A substantial part of its
subsidies to the symphony orchestras is intended to encourage them t o
visit smaller towns which are not economic propositions ; and it makes
grants to several smaller orchestras, such as the Boyd Neel which, with
this assistance, can afford to develop its own specialised repertory an d
to play in the less populous centres . On another front, the Arts Counci l
finances several local festivals of the arts which provide an annual assembl y
of music and art in places which could not normally enjoy such offerings .
Its diffusion of the visual arts is similarly determined by the principle o f
maintaining standards . On this basis it arranges exhibitions of majo r
importance in London and selected provincial cities ; its biggest ventur e
of this kind in 1956 was the exhibition of Van Gogh shown in Liverpool ,
Manchester and Newcastle-and not in London .
24
3 . The Diffusion of Drama
The diffusion of drama has presented the Arts Council with some
exacting conundrums . For many years the Council persevered with th e
expensive business of sending out touring companies for several weeks a
year, particularly to the "theatreless" towns of Wales and the North-East .
These one-night stands were usually presented in improvised premise s
unsympathetic to the atmosphere which drama seeks to promote in a n
audience, and unable to hold more than 300 or 400 people . Even whe n
attendances were as high as 90 per cent . of capacity, the result of thes °
endeavours was a loss of around £300 a week on each touring company .
Astronomical funds would be required to conduct such operations on an y
substantial scale, even if enough actors could be mobilised to endure th e
rigours of these guerrilla exercises in diffusion . Such mobile missions cannot be more than a token-service . To that extent the Council continues t o
subsidise Caryl Jenner's Mobile Theatre and the West of England Theatre ,
and is experimenting with short local tours undertaken by static repertor y
theatres ; but beyond these limits it cannot undertake the touring of drama .
It is developing, instead, a far more economical and effective scheme o f
providing bus-subsidies to repertory theatres to enable them to bring i n
coach-parties from adjacent villages to see drama as it should be seen, i n
a real theatre . By this device the Northampton Repertory Theatre, fo r
example, used a subsidy of £400 in one year to bring 8,500 people to th e
theatre and £1,600 to the box office . This is better economics, and better
theatre, than nomadic ventures can offer . Theatres on wheels are an
expensive makeshift ; but audiences on wheels get better value and mak e
better business . On this point it is appropriate to note that the obligation
laid upon the Arts Council by the Royal Charter is `to increase the
accessibility of the fine arts to the public .' This injunction does no t
only or necessarily mean that the Arts Council should, at whatever cos t
of dilution, diffuse an increasing quantity of the arts : it means that the
Arts Council should be diligent in developing better facilities for th e
public to see the arts at their best-and one such facility is the provision
of coach-parties to concerts and plays . Industrial concerts and theatre
journeys have both proved highly rewarding .
A matter highly relevant to this problem of how far the Arts Council
should carry diffusion is the transformation being wrought by radio . In
sound and vision alike broadcasting is an unparalleled instrument fo r
bringing high-quality performances of music and drama into localities
25
where such pleasures can rarely if ever be conveyed by any other means .
The biggest audience for the arts to-day is in the home, and what is offere d
them includes the very pick of the country's (and the Continent's) achievement in music and drama . It would be no paradox indeed to say that th e
man or woman with a relish for Shakespeare is more liable to have tha t
appetite satisfied by a B .B.C. production in `the sightless theatre' of the
air than in a production by one of those eccentric men of the theatre wh o
put novelty of presentation before the delivery of Shakespeare's lines .
With astonishing rapidity broadcasting is assuming the r6le of Universa l
Diffusor ; and to that extent making it more vital than ever to preserve
strongholds of standard in a limited number of places . If diffusion is t o
be multiplied a thousand-fold by television and sound-radio there mus t
be maintained an abundance of plays and actors, music and instrumentalists, operas and singers for radio to bring to its vast and accessibl e
fireside audience . This provision of the stuff and talent is the natural
function of the living theatre, concert hall and opera house . Even the
cynic who refuses to believe that mass-media possess a power for goo d
is bound, from a different angle, to desire the preservation of stronghold s
of music and drama, for if the worst comes to the worst they would b e
his oases of comfort in a Sahara of mechanised mediocrity .
Other Limits to Diffusion
Even if the Arts Council had more money to spend it would need to
ponder several other questions before deciding upon extended diffusion .
There are many towns which have consistently failed to reveal an interes t
in `live' plays or concerts, and which have allowed their local repertory
theatre to collapse . Is public money to be used in the long and expensive
business of coaxing the cultural appetites of such places? Are seats to b e
subsidised whether they are full or empty? The Arts Council lacks the
means to pursue diffusion on a massive scale and, since there exist method s
more apt for diffusion than those it can command or afford, it seem s
wiser that the Arts Council should now concentrate its limited resource s
primarily, but not exclusively, on the maintenance and enhancement o f
standards . Standards can best be raised in permanent centres : music an d
drama must have fixed abodes where resident companies can develop thei r
skill and esprit and sense of purpose . There is no reason to conclude tha t
the Arts Council will diminish its present scale of diffusion, but, face d
with the problem of choice, and a limited budget, the Arts Council mus t
seek to consolidate rather than enlarge its own particular responsibilities t o
26
the arts in Britain . It can do so, moreover, in the solid confidence tha t
municipal patronage is taking a large and increasing share of the cost o f
providing the arts to those communities which express an articulate desire
to enjoy them . If Local Authorities will continue at the present rate t o
carry some of the load of diffusion there will still be an inevitable dearth
of the `living' arts, but there will be no famine . But unless high standard s
can be maintained in selected strongholds diffusion will be a fruitless an d
improvident effort .
5 . Local Responsibility
The next fundamental principle of Arts Council policy to be considere d
is its r61e in encouraging local responsibility for the arts. A major opportunity to pursue this course was provided in the Local Government Act
of 1948 . Hitherto, the powers of Local Authorities to assist the art s
(except through art galleries) had been limited and circumscribed . Th e
Art of 1948 opened up revolutionary prospects for it envisaged a growt h
in municipal patronage of the arts and, to that end, authorised an expenditure upon them equivalent to a 6d. rate in England and Wales and on e
of Qd. in Scotland . The extent to which Local Authorities have alread y
applied their powers under the 1948 Act varies considerably . Canterbury
has committed itself as highly as a 4d . rate in establishing a Civic Theatre .
Others, such as Bristol, Birmingham, Chesterfield, Coventry, Hornchurch ,
Salisbury, Dudley, Nuneaton, Guildford, Winchester and Chippenha m
have taken over part of the financial responsibility of maintaining repertor y
theatres, including some which were established in the first place by th e
Arts Council. Many Local Authorities are making substantial grants to
orchestras-Birmingham, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Leeds, Manchester ,
the L .C .C. ; and some, like Edinburgh, York, Cheltenham and Bath hav e
put civic money into Arts Festivals . Certain Local Authorities have show n
an excess of zeal by providing concerts and plays under their own manage ment, an endeavour which could seem to be-even if not designed as suc h
-a movement towards 1'Art Officiel and, on that ground, as dangerou s
as similar provision by a central quasi-governmental body such as the Art s
-Council . But the usual and best pattern of Local Authority participatio n
is by its support of a locally constituted Trust to run a repertory theatre o r
an orchestra ; and the support customarily includes not only an annual contribution to the Trust's funds but representation on the governing body .
The Arts Council encourages and assists these operations, and has indee d
brought many of them into existence and provided them with specialist
27
services as well as with annual grants . There is no sign, so far, that thes e
partnerships in collective patronage are misusing their powers . A municipality which subsidises a symphony orchestra or a repertory theatre ask s
no more than a seat or two on the independent board of management .
Every single body receiving a grant from the Arts Council, whether it be th e
Royal Opera House or a modest music society in a small village, is wholl y
self-governing in all its affairs. The City Councils of Birmingham o r
Bristol do not prescribe what plays shall be performed in the theatres they
subsidise. The L.C.C. imposes no artistic sanctions upon the Open Air
Sculpture Exhibitions it organises in Battersea Park, or upon the concerts i t
presents in the Royal Festival Hall . The four `Counties of Cities' whic h
contribute so handsomely to the Scottish National Orchestra exert n o
influence on the artistic policy of that body . The same principle is apparen t
at many levels, in the attitude of the scores of Local Authorities which
assist, in cash or in kind, the provision of concerts, plays and art exhibition s
in their territories. Whatever its limitations and liabilities may be, collective patronage in this country is provided with infinitely more safeguard s
and sanctions than the private patron was ever disposed to accept . It imposes no pattern upon the artistic activities of grant-aided orchestras, opera
houses and theatres and, indeed, insists that they operate through their ow n
autonomous governing bodies . In this country, at least, it has already bee n
abundantly demonstrated that Government patronage and Local Government patronage can be exercised without any abrogation of the principle o f
self-government in the arts .
6. Civic Arts Trusts
The extent to which Local Authorities have shown themselves willing ,
in the last 10 years, to use their powers under the 1948 Act augurs well .
But it should lead to the development of a more positive application o f
local responsibility. Local Authorities may be willing to render modes t
assistance to a repertory company or a choral society but seldom do the y
address themselves to the whole pattern of local provision . No Local
Authority has yet set up a Fine Arts Committee to survey and supply the
civic need for drama, opera and music . The present lack of any municipal
apparatus for these purposes is no reproach to Local Authorities . The
opportunities offered them under the 1948 Act are still unfamiliar an d
liable, moreover, to impose fresh charges on the rates . Municipalities are
entitled to assert that until local public opinion becomes more articulate
28
and persistent in these matters they have no mandate to plan a bette r
provision of the fine arts or subsidise that provision from the rates .
No city in Britain has yet addressed itself to the task of securing a
balanced and regular provision of all the arts . No municipal committee s
or voluntary associations exist to represent civic trusteeship for the art s
as a whole, although such bodies are abundant and active in other part s
of our social structure . The next step to be taken in the development o f
local responsibility for the arts might be the creation of civic Arts Trusts .
How might such Arts Trusts be constituted? There are familiar pattern s
which could be adapted or borrowed for the purpose . The ideal initiative
is that which a lord mayor or mayor can provide by summoning a town' s
meeting to consider the problem in broad outline . The subsequen t
developments depend entirely on the quality of staff work which th e
promoters are able to display, but their objective will be to ensure that a n
Arts Trust is formally established on a basis of representation or interes t
which includes the city fathers, local industries and trade unions, as wel l
as the spokesmen and adherents of the different arts . A well-organised ,
determined body of influential citizens need not exceed 50 in number t o
become the agency of a new conception of sponsorship .*
7 . Housing the Art s
The final item in the Arts Council's current policy is its concern for th e
provision of buildings for music, opera and drama . Last year's annual
report described in detail the issues involved in this problem of housin g
the arts, and since then, at the Chancellor's invitation, the Council ha s
instituted an enquiry into the bricks-and-mortar needs of the arts in thi s
country . What will emerge from this survey, it is hoped, will be a list o f
proposals for building, adapting or reconditioning, over a period of years ,
a realistic number of theatres, concert-halls and art galleries in thos e
places where they may be expected to consolidate the present publi c
interest in the arts . There is an abundance of plans and proposals of thi s
kind, many of them sponsored or supported by Local Authorities . The
Arts Council will publish its recommendations in due course . At thi s
stage it is of particular interest to recall that Lord Keynes, first Chairma n
of the Arts Council, was deeply concerned with this problem . In a tal k
which he broadcast on July 8th, 1945, he said :* The case for the creation of Civic Arts Trusts was more fully developed in the Art s
Council's Ninth Annual Report .
29
`We shall have to solve what will be our biggest problem, the shortag e
-in most parts of Britain the complete absence-of adequate and suitabl e
buildings . There never were many theatres in this country or any concert halls or galleries worth counting . Of the few we once had, first the cinem a
took a heavy toll and then the blitz ; and anyway the really suitable buildin g
for a largish audience which the modern engineer can construct had neve r
been there. The greater number even of large towns, let alone th e
smaller centres, are absolutely bare of the necessary bricks and mortar .
And our national situation to-day is very unfavourable for a quic k
solution . Houses for householders have to come first .
And so they should . Yet I plead for a certain moderation from our
controller and a few crumbs of mortar . The rebuilding of the communit y
and of our common life must proceed in due proportion between on e
thing and another . We must not limit our provision too exclusively t o
shelter and comfort to cover us when we are asleep and allow us n o
convenient place of congregation and enjoyment when we are awake .
I hope that a reasonable allotment of resources will be set aside each yea r
for the repair and erection of the buildings we shall need . I hear that i n
Russia theatres and concert halls are given a very high priority i n
building .'*
The Arts Council's policies, then, can be simply summarised . Its
trusteeship for the arts in Great Britain lays upon it the obligation t o
assist and encourage
(a) the improvement of professional standards of performance ;
(b) selective diffusion ;
(c) local responsibility ;
(d) the provision of buildings.
IV .
PROSPECT FOR THE ART S
Public Patronage of the Arts - the scale of present subsidy - needs of th e
next ten year s
The present audience in this country for music, opera and theatre is fa r
larger than it ever was before . The portion of that audience which support s
the companies associated with the. Arts Council pays about two-thirds o f
the cost of those companies-and opera companies, ballet companies an d
orchestras cost a lot to maintain . The pay-roll of the Covent Garde n
orchestra, for instance, exceeds £105,000 a year, and will go up . A permanent symphony orchestra spends anything from £55,000 to £75,000 i n
wages alone, and sizeable sums in such inevitable expenses as the constan t
* And, he might have added, if he had lived a little longer, so they are in Vienna, Berlin ,
Rotterdam, Hamburg, Munich . . .
30
transport of personnel and instruments . Such expensive arts as these have
never paid their way, and have depended for their existence in the past upo n
the bounty of private patrons . In almost every country the private patro n
is rarer and poorer than he was even 30 years ago, and most nations hav e
accepted the obligation to replace private by collective or public patronag e
through rates and taxes . This country has by no means been foremost i n
recognising the obligation, and in Britain the arts are not sustained fro m
public funds on anything like the scale which is accepted in France, Italy ,
Germany, Austria, the Soviet Union, Belgium, Holland or Scandinavia .
The Arts Council and Local Authorities between them are contributin g
about £1,400,000 a year . This is not bad going in 10 years, but it is no t
good enough, even when all allowance has been made for the nation' s
present economic difficulties .
We devote nearly 500 times that amount in this country to our publi c
education system, a system which aims at fitting children for leisure a s
well as employment . A substantial portion of the £485,000,000 no w
expended on schooling in this country is applied to giving our childre n
an introduction to music, painting, literature and dancing . It would b e
no exaggeration to say that, in our primary schools, most of the expenditure goes on aesthetic training in the broadest sense ; and it would b e
reasonable to say that, at the very least, something like £50,000,000 of th e
overall expenditure on schooling is consumed in developing among
children some knowledge and feeling for the arts . On that account alone, i t
may well be contended, we should allocate more money than we do t o
ensure them an adequate provision in later life of those arts for which the y
are given some appetite in school . We continue to nurture their taste fo r
reading by supplying, through the public library system, a service which a t
present costs £13,300,000 a year . Only a minority of our citizens use th e
public libraries, and many of those habitual users read books for entertainment rather than enlightenment . Nevertheless the country has accepted the
principle that the cost of their reading should be borne on the rates .
The maintenance of art galleries and museums takes nearly anothe r
£3,000,000 of public money, apart from the endowments and privat e
subscriptions which some of them still possess . These expenditures, which
the Arts Council would be the last to criticise, all reveal a startling disparity with the £1,000,000 expended annually by the Arts Council an d
Local Authorities on the public patronage of opera, ballet, music, dram a
and touring art exhibitions . The scale is all wrong . In proportion to an
expenditure on the public education system, public libraries, art gallerie s
31
and museums of over £500,000,000 a year, a proper matching figure of ,
say, half of 1 per cent . on the provision of the arts would transform
the whole situation . Two and a half million a year would adequatel y
finance not only the range of enterprises which the Arts Council and th e
Local Authorities assist-and which, because of wage increases, will cos t
much more next year than this-but would also provide the money for th e
long-term rehousing of the arts . The current scale of collective patronage i s
by no means discouraging regarded as the achievement of a single decade .
But it should be multiplied by at least 2J if, in the next 10 years, somethin g
substantial and permanent is to be built on the basis of the past 10 years .
The nature of that basis is impressive . We have an abundance of actors,
musicians, producers, painters, dancers . Our national talent is prolific
and promising . More than that, there has been built up in Britain a larg e
and devoted audience for the enjoyment of the serious pleasures of musi c
and opera and drama . This audience is willing at present to pay abou t
two-thirds of the cost of it all, and they ought to be willing to pay more .
The Covent Garden audience was paying collectively £1,040 per performance in 1947 ; in 1956 it is paying £1,700 . This rate of increase is considerable . But audiences, too, like Governments and Local Authorities ,
have still to adjust themselves to a more realistic scale of patronage i n
current economic circumstances . Their readiness to make this adjustment ,
however, will depend, above all, on whether their judgment persuade s
them that the fine arts are being offered them at a high level of performance .
They will be more willing to pay more for the best than for the second best ; and, therefore, in the end, the most effective incentive to persuad e
audiences to augment their present box-office support will be to provid e
them increasingly with the best . It is to this end that the collective patron age of government and civic funds should now address itself . If public
patronage will underwrite high standards of performance, in the institutions now in being, then all the present evidence suggests that th e
audiences created since 1946 could be doubled in 10 years . On the basi s
of the interim dividend of the last decade it would be good public polic y
to invest more in the fine arts forthwith .
32
2
NOTES OF THE YEA R
The Countess of Albemarle, D .B.E ., retired on December 31st, 1955, Membership
of th e
having served as a member of the Council for five years .
The appointment of Sir George McGlashan, C .B .E ., as a member of the Council
Council, expired on December 31st, 1955, but, as a member of th e
Executive Committee, he was eligible for reappointment, and was, in fact ,
reappointed to the Council by the Chancellor for a further period of two
years . Sir George was also, with the consent of the Secretary of State fo r
Scotland, reappointed by the Council to be Chairman of the Scottis h
Committee for a period of two years from January 1st, 1956 ; and was also
reappointed by the Council to the Executive Committee for a furthe r
period of one year from January 1st, 1956 .
Dr . Wyn Griffith, O .B .E ., was appointed for a further year fro m
January 1st, 1956, as Vice-Chairman of the Council and a member of th e
Executive Committee .
The following were reappointed for a further year from January 1st ,
1956, as members of the Executive Committee and as Chairmen of th e
Panels given in brackets after their names :Sir William Coldstream, C.B.E. (Art)
Joseph Compton, C.B .E. (Poetry)
Benn Levy, M .B.E. (Drama)
Professor Anthony Lewis (Music) .
A comprehensive list of all those who have served on the Council sinc e
the date of incorporation will be found set out at Appendix D .
On June 20th, 1956, the University of Oxford conferred the honorary Honours
degree of Doctor of Literature on the Council's Chairman, Sir Kennet h
Clark, K.C.B., LL.D.
In the Queen's Birthday List for 1956, the honour of Knighthood wa s
conferred on Professor William Coldstream, C.B .E. ; Mr . Cyril Wood ,
who served as Director for both CEMA and the Arts Council in th e
South-Western Region for a period of over 14 years, received the awar d
of the O.B.E.
Several members of the Council's Panels were also honoured . Sir
Henry Cohen, M .D ., LL.D., F.R.C.P., was created a Baron, Professo r
c
33
Reception at
4 St . James's
Square
Anthony Blunt received the K .C.V.O., Miss Peggy Ashcroft became a
Dame Commander of the British Empire and Mr . John Clement s
received a C.B .E.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother graciously consente d
to be present at a Reception given by the Chairman and members of
the Council at 4 St . James's Square in November, 1955 . The Receptio n
was attended by a distinguished gathering from all parts of the country o f
those interested in the work of the Council, including a number o f
members of the diplomatic corps .
3
AR T
Exhibitions
As it has always been the Council's intention that its exhibitions should
be complementary to those initiated and arranged by provincial galleries
for themselves, we are glad to report two important exhibitions which wer e
organised by the Council in co-operation with two galleries . First, the van
Gogh exhibition, shown in three northern towns during the winter of '5 5
and '56, where the inception and preliminary steps with the owner wer e
taken by Mr . Hugh Scrutton, Director of the Walker Art Gallery, Liver pool, who invited the Council to join him in this venture . The selection,
cataloguing, and general administration of the tour was gladly undertake n
and the exhibition was shown after Liverpool at the City Art Gallery ,
Manchester, and the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne . Public
appreciation, allowing for the differences in population, was well up to th e
first van Gogh exhibition of 1947, and the exhibition was seen by 126,00 0
visitors .
This exhibition, unlike the first, was made, with the exception of three
or four pictures, from the collection of the artist's nephew, Mr . V . W. van
Gogh, and it is thanks to his public spiritedness that a van Gogh exhibitio n
should so soon again be made available to the English public . It
consisted of 83 paintings and 53 drawings, the latter providing the finest
single collection of the artist's drawings that could be seen anywhere .
The second exhibition of this kind was that of the German painter ,
Christian Rohlfs, and here the idea originated with Mr . H . Hess, of the
34
ART EXHIBITIONS 1946-5 6
Facts and Figures
Total number of exhibitions in Englan d
Original paintings, drawings and sculpture
272
Prints and applied arts
103
Reproductions
38
41 3
Exhibitions organised in Scotland
Exhibitions organised in Wales
87
12
512
The number of different buildings in which these
exhibitions have been shown is :
829
The number of cities, towns and villages in which thes e
buildings are situated is :
523
Total number of showings of these exhibitions :
4,425
Owing to the incompleteness of records of attendances kept at many
of the places where exhibitions are shown, it is not possible to give a
figure for attendances during 1946/56 . It can be stated, however, that
during the one year 1955/56 attendances at exhibitions exceeded 750,000 .
35
City of York Art Gallery, who also arranged for the loans with the artist' s
widow and made the selection . The exhibition was first shown at the Art s
Council Gallery, London, and then at York, after which it was made
available for two more showings .
As in the past years, the Council has also helped galleries and othe r
institutions over their exhibitions by providing some of the transport . In
the last year, several hundred pictures were moved for other bodies wher e
it was found possible to combine this with the Council's own arrangements.
Lastly, the Council co-operated with the Tate Gallery in their showin g
of Modern Art in the United States by undertaking the provision of the
catalogue . By a very generous subsidy from the Museum of Modern Art,
New York, who organised the exhibition, and from whose collection th e
exhibits had been provided, it was possible to sell the catalogue at wel l
below the cost price .
In the summer of 1955 the Council held its second sculpture exhibitio n
at St. James's Square, where a number of exhibits are shown out of door s
in the garden . This was a comprehensive collection of sculpture an d
drawings by the Swiss sculptor, Giacometti, selected by the artist and
Mr. D . Sylvester . It proved to be one of the most distinguished of th e
Council's smaller exhibitions, and it is to be regretted that owing to th e
fragility of many of the exhibits it was not possible for it to be seen else where in England .
For the Edinburgh Festival, 1955, the Council co-operated for a thir d
time in arranging a major exhibition of the work of a French postimpressionist master. This year Mr . Douglas Cooper brought together an
impressive collection of 68 paintings and six pieces of sculpture by Gauguin,
which with examples of his engraved work gave an excellent survey o f
the artist's development, which was enhanced by Mr . Cooper's admirable
catalogue . As in other years the exhibition was shown afterwards at th e
Tate Gallery, where it was seen by 62,000 visitors . It is noteworthy tha t
lenders, both public and private, from 10 different countries partook in thi s
exhibition, which may justly, as the Festival itself, be called international .
Two notable exhibitions of English art were also among those organised
during the year . A small and well-chosen exhibition of the paintings o f
Etty was another of the series devoted to the work of historic Englis h
masters . This was also the first to be shown at St . James's Square in the
increased gallery space now available. There was also an exhibition of th e
paintings and drawings of Spencer Frederick Gore, to which the artist' s
family generously contributed, and which added to the survey of the
36
ART EXHIBITION COSTS AND RECEIPTS 195515 6
£50,000
Organising expenses
£7,69;
Artists Hiring Fees
£453
\
-£40,000
Transport
£17,828
Booking fees
£10,242
(,30.000
Insuranc e
£6,020
Admissions
£ 12,470
Publicih
£4,91 8
£10,000
Catalogues
£11,927
Catalogue Sale s
114,164
0
COSTS
RECEIPTS
37
Camden Town Group which was begun with the previous Ginner an d
Gilman exhibitions .
Private
Once again a number of exhibitions were provided in their entirety b y
Collections private collectors . With the consent of the Trustees of the Chatswort h
Settlement and the Duke of Devonshire, paintings from Chatswort h
House were shown in a number of northern towns . An anonymous owner
lent a remarkable group of 67 drawings and 50 etchings by G. B. and G . D.
Tiepolo, which were seen at St . James's Square, Leeds and Liverpool ; and
Mr. Peter Pears and Mr . Benjamin Britten lent a selection from thei r
collection of contemporary British paintings which was shown in ou r
Cambridge gallery and four other towns .
This continuing generosity on the part of private owners is warml y
appreciated . Without it and without the constant loans which are mad e
to many other exhibitions, which are built up from a variety of sources ,
the demand for visiting exhibitions could not possibly be met . As it is, the
number of exhibitions is well below what it was in the immediate post-war
years. This is perhaps inevitable, when one considers the figures given i n
the opening paragraph of this section of the report . With rising costs and
a growing critical sense in public appreciation, "fewer and better" shoul d
be the aim . But the fact must be faced that, for even a small number of
exhibitions of really high quality, a large measure of co-operation fro m
public and national collections is required . This raises the question
of reciprocity, the undesirability of moving very valuable works of ar t
which are sensitive to the risks of transport and climatic changes, and th e
natural unwillingness of gallery authorities to part with pictures whic h
attract tourists . It is not always easy to strike a balance between th e
demands of critics or public, who cry for this or that exhibition, and th e
resistance of curators who have a strong sense of responsibility toward s
posterity .
In the field of graphic and applied arts an exhibition of Contemporar y
Graphic and
Applied Arts Stained Glass aroused exceptional interest . The material not only include d
work by the late Evie Hone and John Piper (whose windows for Oundl e
have recently been installed), but by the remarkably vital group of student s
from the Royal College of Art whose work for the windows at Coventr y
Cathedral was temporarily displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museu m
in an exhibition towards which the Council gave a substantial guarantee .
There is no doubt that new life has been given to this time-honoured an d
lovely art.
For the third year the Oriental Ceramic Society arranged an exhibitio n
38
Japanese Porcelain-proving once again what an exceptional wealth o f
fine material is contained in the collections of their members .
Thanks to the co-operation of the Library of Congress a provincial tou r
of the exhibition Victorian America was arranged, following its showing i n
London. This consisted of lithographs by Currier and Ives and wa s
much appreciated for its lively and colourful depiction of the Victoria n
scene in the United States in all its aspects.
Since 1947, when the Council first began to acquire its own collection
of contemporary British paintings and drawings and sculpture, almost
entirely by living artists, £24,363 5s . 4d. have been spent on 140 paintings,
119 watercolours and drawings, 28 pieces of sculpture and 320 examples
of graphic art (the last category includes works by foreign artists) .
The purchases for the year amounted to 25 paintings, seven water colours and drawings, three pieces of sculpture and two prints, at a total
cost of £2,599 19s . 3d . The paintings included a seated figure of a woman
by Sickert and a street scene by Spencer Gore, both of which notabl y
strengthened the small group of English paintings of the present centur y
which are intended to give a historic basis to the works of living artists .
Other acquisitions were by Sir Matthew Smith, Ayrton, Baynes, Freud ,
Rosoman and Vaughan . Among artists of the younger generation whos e
works were purchased are Fry, Hamilton-Fraser, Willing, Sutton, Andrews ,
Coker, Inlander, Middleditch, Auerbach, Daniels, Greaves and Frost .
Additions to the collection of modern British drawings included Datura
Blossoms, by Graham Sutherland, an early study by Henry Moore, date d
1927, and an Indian scene by Ardizzone . The pieces of sculpture bough t
were by Lynn Chadwick, winner of the first prize for sculpture at thi s
year's Biennale at Venice, L . T. Thornton and Ralph Brown, and a n
excellent example of animal sculpture, the Goat, by Georg Ehrlich, was
generously presented by an anonymous donor. A drawing by William
Roberts and a gouache by W. T . Monnington were also presented by th e
executors of the late Sir Edward Marsh .
The experiment of touring films on art was first tried out in the winter of
1950 51 . The repertory the : consisted of only 12 fil.~s, butt hey were are
/
immediate success and the tour has now become an established part o f
the Council's work . During the six seasons 65 films have been shown i n
all . Audiences have varied between 15,000 and 20,000 per season an d
have now reached a total of 106,500, while the number of places in which
the films were shown has increased from 92 in 1950/51 to 109 in 1955)/56 .
The repertory in recent years has comprised 24 to 29 films . Eight to te n
39
Arts Counci l
Collection
Art Film s
are dropped from the repertory each season, to make room for ne w
acquisitions, but most of these are then taken over by the British Fil m
Institute in return for a small royalty, so are still available for independen t
showings outside the tour . Among the outstanding films shown by th e
Council were Pre-Columbian Mexican Art (presented by UNESCO i n
1955), The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, Les Desastres de la Guerre ,
From Renoir to Picasso, Henry Moore and Animated Genesis, while amon g
the perennial favourites are six films on Italian and Flemish painting b y
Luciano Emmer and Enrico Gras . The Council's own colour film, The
Stained Glass at Fairford, directed by Basil Wright and with a commentar y
by John Betjeman, has now been finished and was shown at the Venice an d
Edinburgh Film Festivals of 1956 . It will be obtainable in both 16 mm .
and 35 mm., and a second 35-mm . copy has generously been presented t o
the Council by Mrs . G. Wright .
It is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain films of sufficiently hig h
quality and with the proportion of colour work now demanded, but it i s
hoped that the recent reorganisation of the F6d6ration Internationale d u
Film d'Art will do much to improve standards and availability . There ca n
be no doubt that the art film now appeals to a wider audience, and it i s
encouraging to notice that such films as Emmer's Picasso and Haesaerts's
SiJcle d'Or and From Renoir to Picasso, among others, have been shown
commercially with great success.
4
DRAM A
During the Arts Council's first 10 years there has been a steady increase
in the number of provincial repertory theatres . It is estimated that there
are now 100 such theatres, of which perhaps 40 are non-profit distributing ,
and of these 23 now receive grants from the Arts Council ranging from £25 0
to £5,000 . The Arts Council's connection with a number of Londo n
managements, which was a feature of the earlier years, has now cease d
altogether, except for the Old Vic Trust and the recently formed Englis h
40
Stage Company, and the Arts Council has also, with the one exception o f
the Midland Theatre Company, withdrawn from direct management o f
any theatre or company . Independent local managements have taken
over responsibility at such places as Bristol and Salisbury and receiv e
grants-in-aid from the Council ; in Swansea and the West Riding of York shire, however, the costly pioneering efforts of the Arts Council found n o
local support and had to be abandoned .
One further major change in policy has affected those parts of the
country where no permanent playhouses exist . At the end of the war the
Arts Council took over from CEMA a number of those touring companie s
which had established for themselves a regular circuit and excellen t
audiences among the many small towns and villages, industrial hostel s
and welfare halls which the war had isolated from all normal centres o f
entertainment. In the post-war years the demand for these peripateti c
players fell off considerably, and the Arts Council was not sorry to se e
this temporary makeshift theatre in makeshift halls being graduall y
replaced in some parts of the country by full-time repertory theatres .
Apart from short occasional tours each year to Wales and the north-eas t
counties, the Arts Council has now completely withdrawn from the
management of such tours, though it still offers grant aid on a diminishin g
scale to two independent managements which continue to provide a
mobile theatre service . The ultimate patrons of these courageous youn g
companies should clearly be the local authorities concerned ; a small
grant from each Authority would add up to a considerable total for th e
company, and since they will never be called upon for major grants t o
permanent theatres, these urban and rural councils could happily con tribute generously towards the cost of these tours in their own areas .
Meanwhile, the Arts Council must give priority to the much greate r
financial problems of the provincial repertory companies .
Two repertory theatre festivals were held in London in 1948 at th e
St. James's Theatre and in 1949 at the Embassy Theatre, when altogethe r
eight provincial repertory companies presented plays for a fortnight eac h
and gave the London public a chance to see the best repertory talent i n
the country. The companies, audiences and critics all found the experienc e
interesting and rewarding, and although the operation was expensive t o
the Council, it was nevertheless felt to have been well worth while . A thir d
such festival is perhaps overdue, but the financial difficulties of th e
repertory companies in their own homes and the restricted funds • of th e
Council have necessarily put such gay ideas low down on the priority list .
41
The last four years of this period have seen the development of the Art s
Council's scheme for the promotion of New Drama and, although no
spectacular results have been achieved, none were expected in so short a
time, for the value of this encouragement can only be assessed if the longes t
view is taken . But there has been a most encouraging increase in the production of plays by new dramatists in the provincial repertory theatres ,
and their audiences seem gradually to have overcome the reluctance t o
see works by unknown writers ; some theatres, in fact, can show almost
equally good box office receipts for new plays as for the well-tried
favourites . New writers for the theatre have never had a better opportunit y
than now, or a more eagerly interested public .
Birmingham
Repertory
Theatre
Bristol Old
Vic
Bristol Old
Vic Theatre
School
Bristol
Theatre Royal
Designs
II
The Birmingham Repertory Theatre has maintained its high traditio n
and high standards, and has at the same time been financially a little mor e
successful than last year . The difficulty of meeting the rising costs o f
production in a repertory theatre of modest capacity is particularly acut e
in this theatre, and anxiety will not be removed until all the production s
play to near capacity. The Arts Council has increased its grant consider ably in the last two years and this, together with the generous grant from
the Corporation, should ensure no dimming of the great reputation which
this famous theatre has established for itself both at home and abroad .
At Bristol the Old Vic Company has successfully established its polic y
of three-weekly repertory presenting new plays and classical revivals, an d
the reputation of the company now rivals that of its namesake in th e
Waterloo Road . In the last season the company attracted particular
attention by its presentations of King Lear, Angus Wilson's The Mulberry
Bush and Peter Ustinov's The Empty Chair.
The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School has been established in new an d
well-equipped premises on the outskirts of the town and the cost o f
purchase and conversion of the two large houses for the purpose wa s
shared equally by grants from the Old Vic Theatre Trust, the Bristol
Old Vic and the Dulverton Trust . The Bristol school can now rank a s
among the best-equipped theatre schools in the country and the deman d
for places should soon make it self-supporting .
The Arts Council has presented on permanent loan to the Dram a
Department of Bristol University its collection of 31 theatrical designs o f
productions at the Theatre Royal, Bristol, relating to the period whe n
the Theatre was directly managed by the Council .
42
Derby Playhouse had a year of remarkable good fortune and extreme
misfortune . Messrs . Rolls-Royce, at Derby, offered the theatre a gift of
£2,500 on condition that the Local Authority made a grant ; the Corporation agreed to do so provided the Arts Council also contributed ; and the
Council was naturally happy to offer a small grant to release these fa r
more generous funds . Beyond this, Messrs . Rolls-Royce offered to matc h
any additional money that could be collected from other sources up t o
a further £2,000 . . At the moment of success, the Playhouse caught fir e
and was almost burnt out on March 28th, 1956 . The appeal for funds ha s
now been extended successfully and together with the insurance cove r
the management has been able to make plans for the immediate recon struction of the theatre, which it is hoped will reopen in the winter of 1956 .
The English Stage Company, which opened at the Royal Court Theatre,
Sloane Square, in April, 1956, after a year of careful planning and negotiation, attempts to fill the need in London of a theatre presenting contem porary plays in true repertory . The company is under the direction o f
Mr. George Devine, and its policy is to encourage new dramatists to write
for the company and to stage their plays as simply and directly as possible .
For many years the theatrical profession, dramatic critics and even th e
public has bewailed the apparent dearth of new dramatists and contem porary plays ; the English Stage Company's venture has been applaude d
wholeheartedly by the profession and the press, and is slowly but surel y
establishing its own eager audience for tomorrow's playwrights.
The Guildford Theatre, nominally a weekly repertory company, has
lately been particularly enterprising in its policy of presenting a number
of new plays, and by careful planning has managed to give 15 production s
-almost a third of the season's total-a fortnight's rehearsal : they hav e
also interchanged certain productions with the Salisbury and Colcheste r
theatres, and all this has resulted in a definite improvement in artisti c
standard and reputation .
The Midland Theatre Company, formed 10 years ago, remains the Arts
Council's only directly managed theatre company, and for the last six
years has given its productions on a three-weekly circuit in Coventry ,
Nuneaton and Dudley, and Loughborough . Its production in 1955, by
Mr. Frank Hauser, of The Queen and the Rebels, by Ugo Betti, in which
Miss Irene Worth as a guest artist gave a distinguished performance, wa s
the first stage production in England of any Betti play . This was later
produced at the Haymarket Theatre, again directed by Mr . Hauser, and
with Miss Irene Worth in the leading role. In Coventry itself, work has
%
43
Derby
Playhouse
English Stage
Company
Guildford
Theatre Club
Midland
Theatre
Company
Nottingham
Theatre Trust
The Old Vic
Oxford
Playhouse
now begun on the site of the new civic theatre ; the building is expected
to take about two years to complete, and when it opens in 1958 will be
the first new theatre to be built in England for over 20 years .
The Nottingham Theatre Trust continues to present at the Playhouse a
programme high in quality and originality, and has the additional satisfaction of attracting a predominantly young and lively audience . In
addition to their normal programme last season, the company undertoo k
a most successful tour of As You Like It in the North-East at the invitation of the Arts Council and an interchange of productions with th e
Sheffield Playhouse ; the Trust also arranged, through the International
Theatre Institute, for its Director of Productions, Mr . John Harrison, and
Mr. Kosta Spaic, the producer from the National Theatre, Zagreb,
Yugoslavia, to carry out an exchange visit to each other's theatres for si x
weeks. Mr . Spaic produced Lorca's Blood Wedding, and the first production in England of a Yugoslav play, Blizzard, by Pero Budak, a t
Nottingham, and Mr . Harrison produced A Winter's Tale in Zagreb . The
exchange proved stimulating and successful artistically, but costly to th e
Nottingham Theatre Trust which does not enjoy a subsidy on anythin g
like the same scale as the National Theatre in Zagreb .
The Old Vic has continued with its five-year plan of presenting th e
entire first folio of Shakespeare, adding to its repertoire in the third yea r
Julius Caesar, A Winter's Tale, Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor ,
Othello, Troilus and Cressida and Romeo and Juliet . In the summer o f
1955 the company visited Belfast, Dublin, Swansea, Liverpool and Edinburgh and a second company was formed to tour Australia with The
Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, and The Taming of the Shrew .
One of the theatre's major problems in handling such a large repertoir e
has been a lack of convenient workshop and storage space . During the
year an opportunity arose for the governors to purchase a site in Webber
Street next to the theatre, and this has been done, though it will be a yea r
or two before the building is completed and equipped .
The Oxford Repertory Players were forced to cease production on
April 14th, 1956, after 18 years' work . During 1955/56 the compan y
received, in addition to generous financial support from the Loca l
Authority, £1,500 from the Arts Council, but all of these reserve s
had been used up by the end of the financial year . The Oxford City
Council decided not to make any contribution for 1956/57, but the Art s
Council offered a further £1,500 provided a like sum was available o r
could be raised from other sources . A considerable body of university
44
undergraduates not only promised to support the theatre but offere d
monetary contributions to keep it going, and the necessary capital for a
new season seemed assured . The succession of heavy losses after Christma s
completely changed the picture and the company decided to wind u p
its affairs . A new management, however, has now taken over the lease
of the theatre and is likely to start a repertory season in the autumn of 1956 .
The Salisbury Playhouse has presented an ambitious programme durin g
the year with several new plays and rare revivals . From time to time
during the past few years the Trust has presented a second company a t
Carlisle and later in Hulme, Manchester . The management has once
more formed a second company, which is playing repertory in the Ne w
Theatre, Hull .
Plays presented with the audience seated all around the acting area are
a novelty in England, although this method of staging has proved popula r
on the Continent and in America . A new company, Studio Theatr e
Limited, was formed in 1955 to present plays "in the round" and th e
company played an eight-week season at Scarborough at the invitatio n
of the Corporation Libraries Committee with four new plays ; an
exhibition showing the history and development of this form of theatr e
was arranged in the library at the same time and the Arts Council mad e
a small contribution towards the cost of this . After a poor response in the
opening weeks, the public became more and more attracted by the idea ,
and the company completed its season with sufficient encouragement t o
make plans for a return visit in 1956 . Meanwhile, it is eagerly searchin g
for premises which it can adopt as a permanent home for its productions ,
and it has shown that there is an interested audience for these by the
success of occasional Sunday night performances in London this las t
winter and spring .
Theatre Workshop, the company which has been playing at the Theatr e
Royal, Stratford East, for some years, was forced into liquidation in May ,
1955, but re-constituted itself immediately under the name of Pionee r
Theatres Limited, with the same policy of presenting rare classics an d
unusual new plays on a monthly repertory basis . The company's fortune s
have always been precarious and in 1955 the Arts Council made a grant
of £500 on condition that grants from Local Authorities and other loca l
sources should at least double that sum . In the summer of 1955 th e
company were invited to take part in the International Drama Festiva l
in Paris, where they were warmly acclaimed, and later in the year the y
toured in Scandinavia .
45
Salisbury
Arts Theatre
Trust
Theatre in
The Round
Theatre
Workshop
Theatre
Interchanges
Touring
Policy
Arts Council
Tours
New Drama
The exchange of a production by the Nottingham Playhouse and th e
Sheffield Playhouse, referred to in the last annual report, had to be postponed but took place in May, 1956 . Guildford Theatre Club and Salisbur y
Playhouse exchanged a production in October, 1955, and have sinc e
repeated this success in 1956 . Exchanges have also been carried ou t
between Guildford and Colchester, and between Salisbury and Northampton . In each case a limited guarantee was offered by the Arts Council t o
cover the extra costs incurred by each Company, and though it is too earl y
to comment on the long-term results of this policy, it is already clear tha t
there is a genuine desire among the hard-pressed repertory theatres for
more of these sharing engagements .
The Arts Council, in reviewing its policy of providing for play tours t o
small theatreless towns, considered that a disproportionately high percentage of the total drama allocation was spent on these tours, an d
resolved upon a slight scaling down of such grants over the next two o r
three years in order that the funds so released might be applied to th e
urgent needs of the permanent repertory theatres . The Council's own
tours in Wales and the North-East, and those of the Mobile Theatr e
Company and the West of England Theatre Company, will, however,
continue to receive financial support, though their range of operations ma y
have to be slightly reduced . Increased support from Local Authorities i n
the areas served by these tours would remove immediately, and at negligibl e
cost, any anxiety about the future of these small, admirable companies .
Only one tour was sent to the theatreless areas of the North-East ;
a production from the Nottingham Playhouse, by Mr . John Harrison, o f
As You Like It . The tour was for two weeks during February, 1956, whic h
coincided with particularly harsh winter conditions . This was a strain on
the artists and staff, as well as the public, for many people from outlyin g
districts could not make their way through the snow and ice . The pla y
was seen by 3,924 people, representing 77 per cent capacity of the hall s
visited, at a subsidy of 4s . 8d. per head . The Nottingham Theatre Trus t
subsequently toured this production for the Nottinghamshire Educatio n
Authorities, independently of the Arts Council .
The Arts Council has continued its scheme for the promotion an d
encouragement of new plays and dramatists, and during the year unde r
review a greater number and higher quality of plays were submitted b y
managements for guarantees against loss ; 39 plays were read and 1 5
were recommended by the Drama Panel . A number of managements
showed interest in the scheme of commissioning new plays from author s
46
of their choice ; 10 authors were recommended and five have been commissioned . Thirteen authors were sponsored as candidates for the bursar y
offered by the Council each year for a promising young writer, an d
Mr . John Hall was awarded the bursary for 1955/56 .
Mr . Val May, the Director of Productions at the Ipswich Theatre, wa s Travel Grant s
awarded the Council's travel grant for 1955 which enabled him to mak e
a short visit to Germany and Austria to study theatre conditions there .
In a year which has been full of despondency about the closing down o f Cheltenham
so many provincial theatres, it is encouraging to record that the Corpora- Opera House
tion of Cheltenham, rather than allow the Opera House to be purchase d and
Lincoln
and converted to other uses, bought it themselves for approximatel y Theatre Roya l
£23,000, and are continuing to operate the building as a theatre . In th e
city of Lincoln the same fate overhung the Theatre Royal, but a determine d
group of citizens launched a public appeal, conducted a vigorous publicit y
campaign and literally took the theatre by storm on what appeared to b e
its last night before destruction . It is now a vigorous and happy repertor y
theatre.
S
MUSI C
In a year which must be described as `difficult' in the trading sense, th e
symphony orchestras can report that audiences have not only bee n
maintained, but have shown, broadly speaking, a slight increase on th e
preceding year . Costs, however, continue to rise steadily, while admissio n
prices have not kept pace . Grants from the Arts Council and Loca l
Authorities have, in general, been maintained, but managements of th e
orchestras, in company with theatres and cinemas, have no alternativ e
but to raise their charges for admission in the forthcoming season . This
step, which was fully discussed in last year's report, has long been overdue .
The proposed increases will not look spectacular, and great ingenuity an d
flexibility in `pricing' the hall will be required to obtain an effectiv e
increase in the box office yield . The lowest price ranges will have to b e
raised and some slight increase maybe expected in the middle price categories .
Although the outcome of the recent negotiations between the B .B.C.
47
Symphony
Orchestra s
and the Musicians Union does not directly affect the orchestras workin g
in association with the Arts Council, it will have an indirect and importan t
bearing on their work for the B .B .C ., both in television and sound services.
The new B .B.C. rates for both permanently employed and casually
employed musicians have had the effect of increasing the `differential '
in the rates paid by the B .B.C. and by other organisations . The Musician s
Union have, indeed, already submitted further substantial claims in th e
basic rates of pay and allowances for players in the other permanen t
symphony orchestras .
The season's programmes have depended, as usual, for staple fare, upo n
the standard repertory of masterpieces, but each orchestra made specia l
arrangements to commemorate two important anniversaries-the bicentenary of Mozart's birth and the 90th birthday of Jan Sibelius . Notabl e
new or unusual contemporary works performed outside London included :
the first performance of Vaughan Williams's Eighth Symphony by th e
Halle in Manchester, who also included during the season the Secon d
Symphony of the Yugoslav composer Stjepan Sulek ; the Fourth Symphony
of Karl Amadeus Hartmann and the Carmina Burana of Carl Orff by the
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra ; Sir Arthur Bliss's Meditations on a
theme of John Blow by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra ,
for whom the work was specially commissioned ; while at Bournemouth
the first performance in England of the Piano Concerto of Mario Peragall o
was given by Gyorgy Sandor with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra .
The comparative number of concerts given in the last two years by th e
six permanent Symphony Orchestras associated with the Arts Council ar e
these :1954/55 1955/5 6
City of Birmingham
216
218 *
Bournemouth Symphony
80
154 '
Halle
247
238 $
Liverpool Philharmonic
210
182
London Philharmonic . .
235
193
Scottish National
189
178§
*This figure includes eight concerts in Holland .
tIncludes 46 performances with the Welsh National Opera Company .
$This figure includes one concert in Paris .
§Includes 7 performances with the Glasgow Grand Opera Society .
The London Symphony Orchestra received a grant in respect of its ow n
annual series of concerts and the Arts Council continue to support th e
Royal Philharmonic and Brighton Philharmonic Societies for their annua l
series of concerts.
48
During the year under review, the Boyd Neel Orchestra appointed Mr .
Thurston Dart as its artistic director, following Mr . Boyd Neel's departure
to Canada to take up an appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Musi c
and Head of the Toronto Conservatorium of Music . It is now the polic y
of the orchestra to perform music of the 17th and 18th centuries unde r
Mr . Dart's direction at the keyboard, and the players have been equippe d
with Corelli bows made to the pattern of models of that period . Mr. Dart' s
scholarship in preparing revised or new editions of this repertory hav e
been warmly acclaimed by the press and public. The orchestra has als o
placed a number of commissions with British composers for new work s
using strings and keyboard, some of which are to be performed in th e
forthcoming season .
The Jacques Orchestra has given several notable concerts, mainly of
Bach and Mozart, with distinguished soloists, at the Royal Festival Hall .
Comparative totals of concerts are as under :1954/55 1955/5 6
78
57*
Boyd Neel
47
32
Jacques . .
Chamber an d
String
Orchestras
*This figure includes 11 concerts in Switzerland .
Experimental tours by chamber and string orchestras continued to b e
given in both the Lake District and Midlands . The Lemare Orchestra ,
under their own conductor, Iris Lemare, and with Leon Goossens, visite d
seven towns in the North West ; five South Midland towns each received
visits from a section of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducte d
by Charles Groves, and the Alexandra Orchestra under their youn g
conductor Denys Darlow. The Lakes tour will be continued and arrangements have been made for the Jacques Orchestra to appear there in
October 1956 . Over a period of three years in the South Midland towns ,
public support for these concerts has not increased appreciably an d
further concerts on this circuit will not be presented . under, the Arts
Council's direct management .
As was anticipated last year, the number of Clubs and Societies receivin g
assistance directly from the Arts Council was reduced from 151 to 112 ,
of which 15 are Societies engaged in the presentation of amateur opera .
The Arts Council has decided, with regret, that it is no longer practica l
to own and maintain pianos in various provincial centres for the use o f
Music Clubs . For some time, the condition of the instruments, most o f
which were acquired during, or soon after the war, had been a matter o f
49
D
Other Clubs
and Societies
Pianos
anxiety to those responsible . The wear and tear involved in frequent
moves tells increasingly upon these veterans, and replacements have bee n
increasingly hard to obtain in good condition at reasonable prices .
Such supervision as the Regional offices used to provide, is no longe r
possible, and it would be unfair to the Clubs and the artists to offer Art s
Council pianos whose playing condition was always in doubt . The
wisdom of this decision became only too apparent when some of the Club s
who wished to buy them, came to have them examined by their ow n
experts .
To make good the withdrawal of these facilities, the Arts Council is
prepared to offer generous loans on long-term repayment towards th e
purchase of pianos by Clubs in approved cases .
National
The summary of the National Federation's activities in relation to th e
Federation of grants offered by the Arts Council for 1955/56 is as follows :Musi c
Societies
Type of Society
Number
Number of
Concerts
Amoun t
Offere d
I Englan d
340
£8,61 5
`A' Societies . .
105
362
£5,31 0
`B' Societies
162
554
£2,98 0
Music Clubs . .
112
In addition, 36 Music Clubs were offered a total of £590 i n
the form of Special Grants under a scheme, described i n
last year's report, to stimulate engagements for Strin g
Quartets .
Type of Society
II
Number
Number of
Concerts
Amount
Offere d
4
12
8
15
£13 0
£32 5
Wales
`A' Societies . .
`B' Societies
III Scotlan d
£83 0
9
22
`A' Societies . .
£47 0
15
28
`B' Societies
£56 0
Music Clubs . .
13
38
In addition, 12 Music Clubs were offered a total of £200 i n
the form of Special Grants for String Quartet engagements .
The final results of the season 1954/55 show that of the guarantee s
offered to societies in England, `A' Societies claimed as much as 93 pe r
cent, `B' Societies 87 per cent and Music Clubs 84 per cent ; the fact that
50
these percentages are higher than usual is partly attributable to con cessions which have been allowed to performing societies in respect o f
the cost of music . Twenty performing societies and 17 Music Club s
made no claim . In Scotland, `A' Societies claimed 87 per cent, `B '
Societies 76 per cent and Music Clubs 88 per cent . Three performing
societies and two Music Clubs made no claim . In Wales, `A' Societies
claimed 100 per cent and `B' Societies 77 per cent . Two societies made n o
claim . There are no Music Clubs in Wales affiliated to the Federation .
The new scheme of special grants to Music Clubs for engagements t o
String Quartets came. into operation last year in England and Scotland .
Thirty-five Music Clubs in England were offered a total of £580, an d
12 Scottish Clubs were offered a further £200 . In England, as many a s
23 Clubs which had not previously been able to afford String Quarte t
engagements were enabled to present this type of concert, and a doze n
more found it possible to engage more quartets than before . The scheme
is being continued for a further year on the same lines .
During 1955/56 three Music Clubs have taken advantage of the Pian o
Loan scheme to purchase their own pianos .
The Joint Committee is, in future, to be known as the Joint Allocatio n
Committee, in order to give a more accurate description of its functions .
The Committee has been enlarged during the year, to permit of wider
N.F.M.S. representation . In the light of the formation of separate Committees for Scotland and Wales, the members representing these countrie s
on the central Committee will, in future, be co-opted members for genera l
purposes only and will take no part in the allocation of guarantees t o
English societies ; the Committee will comprise three Arts Council representatives as before, and six N.F .M.S. representatives from England . The
term of office of members has been laid down as five years in the firs t
instance ; Professor James Denny has agreed to retain the Chairmanshi p
of the re-formed Committee, also for a period of five years .
The Federation's Regional Committees have continued their goo d
work, and, in particular, the two features of their administration whic h
were mentioned in last year's report have gained further i . .portance. Th e
repertory of choral works performed by affiliated societies has bee n
extended still further, from 180 to 200 different works, by composers o f
whom 44 are British . There was little change in the order of popularit y
among the first 20 works, though Mozart was rather better represente d
than usual by reason of the bicentenary of his birth . Twenty-seven of
Bach's compositions appeared in societies' programmes, 12 of Handel' s
51
Suggia Gift
Mozart
Bicentenary
(including 95 performances of `Messiah') and 10 of Vaughan Williams's .
For the first time an analysis has been made of affiliated societies '
orchestral repertory ; the 80 orchestral societies concerned included som e
300 different works in their programmes, of which no fewer than 82 wer e
concertos . Sixty-three different symphonies were played, including all o f
Beethoven's, nine of Haydn's and seven each of Mozart's and Schubert's .
One-hundred-and-twelve different composers were represented, 44 of the m
British . The Federation has invited a small panel of experts, under th e
chairmanship of its President, Dr . Reginald Jacques, to prepare a pamphlet
on the pronunciation of Latin in choral performances .
The closing of the Regional offices has necessitated new arrangement s
for liaison between clubs and societies, their Regional Committees ,
Federation headquarters, and the Arts Council . Mr . Brian Dunn, formerly
an Assistant Regional Director in the Bristol office, has joined the Art s
Council's Music Department and will be solely occupied with these duties .
He will travel extensively, visiting all Regions of the Federation, and mee t
as many clubs and societies as possible . His appointment has been
welcomed by the Regional committees, and it is hoped that his experienc e
and knowledge of their work all over the country will assist them i n
discharging their important responsibilities of advising the Federation o n
local activities everywhere .
A trust has been established to fulfil a last wish expressed by the lat e
Madame Suggia when she was in this country shortly before her death .
This Gift or Trust-some £10,000-comprises her estate in England wher e
she spent part of her life and for which she had a deep affection . This
money was committed to the charge of the beneficiary of the English estate
so that it might be used for the advancement of the 'cello . The Arts
Council have been appointed trustees to administer the fund with Mr .
M. A . Nelson, and the bankers, Messrs . Coutts & Co . The Trust funds
will be administered for the benefit of students of the 'cello of an y
nationality, and, in particular, young players aiming to become sol o
artists . A small standing committee, with specialised knowledge and
experience, has been set up to advise the trustees . Those serving on thi s
Committee include : Sir John Barbirolli, Ambrose Gauntlett, Geral d
Moore, Ivor Newton, Bernard Shore, Lionel Tertis and Philip Wayne .
The first applications have already been received and auditions hav e
been held . Awards will be announced from time to time in the press .
The Arts Council joined with the London County Council in sponsorin g
a scheme of six choral and orchestral concerts in the Royal Festival Hal l
52
during days which immediately preceded and followed the actual anniversary date, January 27th, 1956 . A representative selection of Mozart' s
symphonies and other orchestral works was included, as well as the great
choral works : Mass in C Minor, K .427 ; Requiem Mass, K.626 ; and
Mass in C, K .317.
Although falling outside the year under review, mention should be mad e
of a further series of four chamber concerts at the Wigmore Hall durin g
May 1946, in which the London County Council again joined with the
Arts Council in presenting programmes of music for small ensembles ,
especially works written for piano trio and string trio . The normal strin g
quartet repertory and piano/violin sonatas were not included, as man y
performances of these works were being given in other concerts .
6
OPERA AND BALLE T
The close of the year under review almost coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Sadler's Wells Ballet . The occasion was marked by the
creation of Frederick Ashton's Birthday Offering, in which the solo talent
of the dancers was deployed in brilliant succession, and this, in itself, wa s
some indication of the measure of the company's achievement .
Despite the intractable problems of finance which continue to threate n
the stability of all opera and ballet organisations, it is satisfactory to repor t
that audiences have increased in numbers at Covent Garden, Sadler' s
Wells and Carl Rosa performances during the year . At the former, opera
takings showed an average increase of £100 per performance as agains t
budget, while ballet continued to play to virtually capacity audiences .
At Sadler's Wells, where statistics had been disappointing in 1954/55, the
year has shown a marked improvement . For opera, in a repertor y
admittedly more popular in appeal, an average of 74 per cent capacity ha s
been achieved, while the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet in its new tourin g
role has played to full and enthusiastic houses all over the country .
. The Carl Rosa increased its box office revenue by some £5,000 ove r
the previous year, although the number of weeks played was 35 as agains t
36 in 1954/55.
Rising costs are almost entirely attributable to the wage increases whic h
have been made to employees in the chorus, corps de ballet, stage staffs,
53
Sadler's Well s
Ballet
Audiences fo r
Opera and
Balle t
etc . Admission charges both at Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells hav e
been increased and may have to be increased again in certain categories .
Even at the present level, the prices still compare very favourably with
those charged abroad .
New COVENT GARDEN OPERA
Productions The Bartered Bride . Ma y 4th,
195 5
Producer : Peter Potter
Scenery and costumes :
Jan Brazda
Conductor : Rafael Kubelik
Othello . October 17th, 195 5
Producer : Peter Potter
Scenery and costumes :
Wakhevitch
Conductor : Rafael Kubelik
Tannhduser . November 21st,195 5
Producer : Sumner Austin
Scenery and costumes :
Ralph Kolta i
Conductor : Rudolf Kempe
The Magic Flute : January 19th,
1956
Producer : Christopher Wes t
Scenery : John Pipe r
Costumes :
John Piper and Alix Ston e
Conductor : Rafael Kubelik
SADLER' S WELLS BALLET
The Lady and the Fool . June 9th,
Noctambules . March 1st, 195 6
1955
Music : Verdi, arr. by Mackerras
Choreography : John Cranko
Scenery and costumes :
Richard Beer
Music : Humphrey Searl e
Choreography :
Kenneth Macmillan
Scenery and costumes :
Nicholas Georgiadis
La Peri. February 15th, 1956
EntrJe Japonaise .
Music : Paul Dukas
Choreography : Frederick Ashto n
Scenery : Ivon Hitchen s
Costumes : Andre Levasseur
March 22nd,
195 6
Music : Arthur Sullivan, arranged
by Robert Irvin g
Choreography : Frederick Ashton
Costumes : Christian Dior
SADLER ' S WELLS OPERA
Rigoletto . September 21st, 1955
Producer and Designer :
Powell Lloyd
Costumes : Alix Stone
Conductor : Leo Quayle
54
1 Pagliacci .
January 24th, 1956
Producer and Designer :
Powell Lloy d
Conductor : Alexander Gibso n
SADLER ' S WELLS THEATRE BALLET
Les Patineurs. April 23rd, 1955
Saudades .
Music: Meyerbeer, arranged by
Lambert
Choreography : Frederick Ashton
Decor : William Chappell
October 13th, 195 5
(Liverpool )
Music : Denis ApIvo r
Choreography : Alfred Rodrigues
Designer : Norman Adams
House of Birds . May 26th, 1955
Coppelia .
Music : Mompou, arranged by
John Lanchbery
Choreography :
. Kenneth MacMillan
Decor : Nicholas Georgiadis
January 16th,
(Stratford-on-Avon)
Music : Delibes
Choreography :
Ivanov and Cecchetti
Designer : Robert Medle y
195 6
CARL ROSA OPER A
October 27th, 1955
(Alhambra Theatre, Bradford)
Costumes and scenery designed by Hamish Wilson
Conductor : Arthur Hammond .
Manon Lescaut .
A new production by Peter Potter of Britten's Let's Make an Opera
was introduced into the repertory at the company's autumn season at the
Scala Theatre . After a short provincial tour, the work was given again fo r
a Christmas season at the Royal Court Theatre . The Turn of the Screw
continued to attract great interest and was presented during May 195 6
at the Paris International Theatre Festival . New productions at the
Aldeburgh Festival were Venus and Adonis by John Blow and Holst's
Savitri which will be seen in London during the autumn at the Scala
Theatre, together with a new opera by Lennox Berkeley on the Ol d
Testament story of Ruth .
Last year's report gave details of the company's new productions at
their Sadler's Wells summer season . Two further additions have been
made to the repertory during the autumn and spring : Prokoviev's Peter
and the Wolf, with choreography by Frank Staff and design by Nadi a
Benois ; and Coppelia (Act III) in Ivanov's choreography with designs b y
Dobovyinsky. The company accepted invitations to appear in France ,
Italy and Spain .
The company gave 90 performances during the year, including
appearances at the Devon Festival and the Manchester Intimate Music
Festival. Two short Offenbach works in the normal repertory, Jacques and
Jacqueline and The Bachelors' Bond have been revised and re-studied under
55
English
Opera Group
Ballet
Ramber t
Intimate
Opera
Opera for All
Amateur
Opera
the company's musical director Antony Hopkins . During the 195 6
Cheltenham Festival of Contemporary Music, an ambitious programm e
was presented at the Opera House, in which the company was supported
by a small orchestra . New productions included a version of Arne's The
Cooper (not seen on the stage for two centuries) prepared by Josep h
Horovitz, and two new short operas, Ten o'clock Call by Antony Hopkins
and If the Cap Fits by Geoffrey Bush.
The `Opera for All' Group completed its seventh season with a total o f
83 performances during a tour of 18 weeks between October 1955 an d
March 1956 . The operas chosen were Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and
Cos! fan Tutte, together with Donizetti's Don Pasquale . The Group' s
500th performance was given at Warminster on January 24th, 1956 .
Mr. Douglas Craig, who has directed and managed the Group since it s
inception, has been appointed Assistant General Manager of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera . He will not, therefore, be travelling with the Grou p
next season, although he will be responsible for the preparation and stage
production of next season's repertory . This will comprise The Marriage
of Figaro and Don Pasquale, for which there is a constant demand, and a
new double bill consisting of Puccini's Il Tabarro (The Cloak) and The
Departure by Eugene d'Albert . In this somewhat experimental programme ,
more ambitious scenic resources will be used, and it is hoped that audience s
will welcome a break from the Mozart and opera buffa repertory which ha s
been the mainstay of earlier seasons .
Sixteen amateur Societies received help during the year and a number o f
the less familiar operas were presented . These included Bizet's The Fair
Maid of Perth (Oxford University Opera Club) ; Verdi's Nabucco (Liverpoo l
Opera Company) ; Deidamla (Handel Opera Society) ; and Martha by
Flotow (Bristol Opera School) .
7
POETR Y
Since 1950, when the Arts Council agreed to pursue an active policy o f
encouraging poetry and set up the Poetry Panel to advise it on thes e
matters, the Council's activities have fallen into two well-defined fields : the
printed and the spoken word .
56
The establishment of the Poetry Book Society as a non-profit-distributing
company in 1954 made it possible to help underwrite an operation that
aims, not only at providing a useful service for individuals, schools, an d
various organisations both at home and abroad, but also, indirectly, a t
improving the conditions of the market where poets submit their collection s
of verse to publishers, and publishers choose some of them for publication .
This particular market has always been a restricted one ; but the existence
of a solid core of readers who are prepared to buy four books of ne w
poetry each year seems already to have done something to improve th e
prevailing climate . It is true that in its second year (1955) the Poetry Boo k
Society membership fell from 700 to 624 ; but that loss has already bee n
wiped out, and the final 1956 membership figure will certainly be above 750 .
It is especially encouraging that there has been a big increase in th e
number of schools joining . Speaking at a press conference held by the
Society after its Second Annual General Meeting (April 10th, 1956) ,
Mr. T . S. Eliot said :`I have never been very much in favour of introducing the work of livin g
authors into school curricula of the study of English literature, for tw o
reasons . First, I think that schoolboys and girls should be given a back ground of the classic authors of our language which are part of histor y
and can be taught as such. Second, I think that all growing boys and girl s
should have an area of literature which they're not taught anything about ,
on which they don't have to pass any examinations, in which they ca n
make their own discoveries, their own errors, and learn for themselves .
If every secondary school in the country joined the Poetry Book Societ y
and had a shelf in its library exhibiting the books of new poetry, this yea r
and last year and several years, and just left them there for the boys an d
girls in the upper forms to discover for themselves and find out what the y
liked, we would be doing a very great service, because it is in the year s
between 14 and 18, if ever, that people become readers of poetry an d
lovers of poetry, and also amongst those readers will be the poets of tha t
generation . I think every poet has been a reader of poetry before he ha s
been inflamed to become a writer of poetry, and it is a good thing als o
that boys and girls of that age should learn to think of poetry as a livin g
art, as something which is still being written and which will be written i n
their own generation . I have always held firmly that a nation which cease s
to produce poetry will, in the long run, cease to be able to enjoy and eve n
understand the great poetry of its own past .'
The selectors for 1955 were Nevill Coghill and Christopher Hassall ; and
the four books chosen during that year were Laurie Lee's My Many-Coate d
Man, Lawrence Durrett's The Tree of Idleness, Robin Skelton's Patmos,
and Sir Herbert Read's Moon's Farm . Recommendations were given t o
57
Poetry Boo k
Society
Poetry Prizes
The Poetry
Library of the
Arts Council
Poetry
Reading by
Sir John
Gielgud
Festivals
Norman MacCaig's Riding Lights, William Plomer's A Shot in the Park,
Dorothy Wellesley's Early Light, Elizabeth Jennings' A Way ofLooking, and
Poems by G . J. Warnock . For 1956 the selectors are Cyril Connolly,
G. S. Fraser and Terence Tiller, and so far they have chosen Edwin Muir' s
One Foot in Eden, New Poems 1956, and W. S. Merwin's Green with Beasts,
and given recommendations to E. J. Scovell's The River Steamer and
Kathleen Nott's Poems from the North .
The Council has awarded a prize of 100 guineas to R . S . Thomas fo r
Song at the Year's Turning (Rupert Hart-Davis) as being the best book o f
original English verse by a living poet published during the period July 1 st ,
1953, to June 30th, 1956 . Prizes of 100 guineas each for the two best firs t
books of original English verse by living poets published during the sam e
period have been awarded to J . P . Fletcher for Tally 300 (Hand and
Flower Press) and Wilfred Watson for Friday's Child (Faber and Faber) .
No entries were invited for this prize scheme ; and the awards were mad e
by the Council on the recommendation of the Poetry Panel, which was
advised by the following judges : Joseph Compton (Chairman), G . S.
Fraser, John Hayward, Miss Janet Adam Smith and Stephen Spender .
A second edition of the short-title Catalogue of the Poetry Library of
the Arts Council was issued during the year . In an introductory note t o
this new issue, John Hayward writes :'Since this Catalogue was first issued in 1953, the Poetry Library of the
Arts Council (now installed in more spacious and comfortable quarter s
at the National Book League) has been enlarged both in its scope and i n
its usefulness. Its scope has been extended not only by the accession o f
new or collected volumes of verse published during the first three year s
of its existence, but also by the addition of a representative selection o f
contemporary verse drama published during the past quarter of a century.
Its usefulness has been considerably increased by the duplication of it s
holdings so that, while one copy of every book still remains on the shelf
for reference, a second may now be taken out on short loan.'
The Council's Great Drawing-Room at 4 St. James's Square had no t
been used for public poetry readings since the Apollo Society's specia l
series of recitals during the Festival of Britain, 1951 ; and the Council wa s
accordingly much gratified when Sir John Gielgud accepted an invitatio n
to give a reading on August 1st, 1956 . Sir John based his programme o n
selections from The Ages of Man : Shakespeare's Image of Man and Nature ,
an anthology made by George Rylands . Incidental lute music from th e
Elizabethan and Jacobean periods was provided by Julian Bream .
Encouraged by the success of the 1954 Festival of Poetry at Hall's Croft ,
58
Stratford-upon-Avon, the Trustees and Guardians of Shakespeare' s
Birthplace presented a second festival under the direction of Christophe r
Hassall . Frances Cornford, whose Collected Poems had recently bee n
published, was the `Poet of the Year' and lectured on Views and
Recollections of a Sunday Poet . Nevill Coghill gave a lecture on Langlan d
and Chaucer and a reading from their works . In addition, there wer e
seven readings, all on consecutive Sunday evenings during the summer ,
illustrating various aspects of English Poetry . A considerable proportio n
of the readers was drawn from the actors and actresses at the Shakespeare
Memorial Theatre ; and there were overflow attendances at every per formance at Hall's Croft . The 1956 Festival is being directed by Joh n
Carroll.
Other festivals included the English Festival of Spoken Poetry (July
18th to 21st), the Cheltenham Festival of Contemporary Literatur e
(October 3rd to 7th), and the Little Festival of Poetry held at Cley-next the-Sea (July 7th to 10th) . The 1955 English Festival was the last of a
series which has, in the main, concentrated on solo verse speaking an d
choral speaking contests . For the future, the Directors are planning
something broader, with new features which will give the Festival mor e
weight, more scope, and a national status . The Cheltenham Festival mad e
a special point of inviting a number of young writers, including the poet s
Paul Casimir and W. S. Graham, to attend as guests, and also to take par t
in a programme called `Lines of Communication', a public discussio n
under the chairmanship of Sir Compton Mackenzie . In comparison with
these two enterprises, the Cley Festival, which was founded in 1952, i s
very modest in scale and aims at a necessarily small local audience . Its
programme usually covers four days and features a visiting poet, reading s
of poetry by members of Cley Poetry Circles and a Poetry Pilgrimage t o
some specially selected part of East Anglia. The poet for the 1955 Festiva l
was Clifford Dyment .
The Apollo Society has continued to sponsor recitals of poetry and music Poetry
in the Recital Room of the Royal Festival Hall . In the spring of 1956, the Readings an d
Arts Council presented Christopher Hassall and Maureen Robinson in a Poetry
Readers
programme of poetry under the direction of L. A. G . Strong which wa s
toured in England and Wales . The English part of the tour lasted three
weeks, in the course of which readings were given to audiences totallin g
1,722 in Bournemouth, Bristol, Swanage, Weymouth, Bridgwater,
Leicester, Dudley, Stafford, Kettering, Hull, West Hartlepool, Leeds,
Sheffield and Wakefield . In an attempt to widen the present field of
59
readers, the Council has continued its policy of promoting experimental
poetry readings at 4 St . James's Square . Three such readings were given
in the spring of 1956 to an invited audience, the readers having bee n
nominated by the Apollo Society, the B .B.C., the Central School of
Speech and Drama, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art ,
the Poetry Society, the Rose Bruford Training College, the Royal Academ y
of Dramatic Art and the Society of Barrow Poets . It is hoped that these
experimental readings, which seem likely to become a regular annual event ,
will not only lead to the discovery of new readers for public performance,
but also provide a useful experience for those readers who have rarely ha d
the chance of appearing in such circumstances before .
8
FESTIVALS : ARTS CENTRES AND ARTS CLUB S
Post-War
Festivals
The pattern of Arts Festivals varies only slightly from year to year . Of the
post-war Festivals helped by the Arts Council, Edinburgh is by far th e
largest in scale ; and the Scottish section of this Report carries a special
reference to it. The International Musical Eisteddfod in Llangollen ha s
consolidated its position as a unique gathering of singers, folk dancer s
and folk musicians from all quarters of the globe . This is referred to in
the Welsh section of the Report, which also mentions the Swansea Festiva l
of Music and the Arts . In England, the most striking Festival developmen t
in recent years has been at Cheltenham, where the Festival of Britis h
Contemporary Music, which was started just after the war, has now becom e
the centre-piece in a triptych of Festivals devoted to contemporary art
(painting and sculpture), music and literature . These have won con siderable local support ; and the part played by the Cheltenham Boroug h
Council in encouraging and underwriting this enterprise is particularl y
praiseworthy . It was unfortunate that the 1955 Bath Festival, the pro gramme of which was notably ambitious, and included a revival o f
Gretry's Zephire et Azore under the musical direction of Sir Thomas
Beecham, elicited unsatisfactory response from the public, which wa s
partly discouraged by the inclement weather from attending the open-ai r
pageant depicting the Battle of Trafalgar . The resulting financial loss wa s
60
sufficiently serious to jeopardise the future of this West-Country Festival .
Public response was also unsatisfactory in North Devon, where the thir d
Festival organised by the Taw and Torridge Festival Society was concerned .
The nature of the Festival programme and its wide dispersal over variou s
North Devon towns (i .e. Bideford, Barnstaple and Ilfracombe) made it
difficult to consider it as the sort of Festival likely to attract visitors fro m
outside. The Festival Society, which is also responsible for various inter Festival events, seems in some ways to undertake the sort of functions on e
would expect of a local arts trust . In contrast to Bath and North Devon ,
the East Anglian Festivals at Aldeburgh and King's Lynn were remarkabl y
successful and received encouraging public support .
Several pre-war Festivals now look to the Arts Council for help in
continuing their operations . These include the National Eisteddfod of
Wales, which is mentioned in the Welsh section of this Report . In
England the Haslemere Festival has been functioning annually for th e
last 30 years, presenting admirably planned programmes of old music .
The Hovingham Festival occurs at irregular intervals . Between 1887 an d
1906 there were 13 such Festivals in the Riding School at Hovingha m
Hall, and since the war a new series of three Festivals has been held, th e
chief event of the 1955 Festival being the first production in this country
of Monteverdi's 11 Ballo delle Ingrate . The Norfolk and Norwich Triennial
Festival was held in the summer of 1955 after a gap of four years, since it s
triennial rotation was dislocated by the Festival of Britain in 1951 . The
1955 programme was built up round a week's series of concerts by th e
Halle Orchestra . Of all festival organisations in this country, the oldes t
and most venerable is the Three Choirs Festival, the 228th Meeting of
which was held in Hereford Cathedral in 1955 . In the last few years,
rising costs have made it increasingly difficult for the Three Choir s
Festival to avoid a loss ; and a special arrangement has now been worke d
out whereby the formation of a Three Choirs Festival Association wil l
make it possible for the Arts Council to underwrite each Festival to a
limited extent and the Association itself to build up a reserve fund .
For several years, the Council has given financial assistance to those
arts centres and arts clubs whose activities include more than one of the
arts. They have been eligible for this help in so far as they promote a
certain number of professional events ; but the Council's subsidies are
assessed in the light of their complete programme and their genera l
financial position . The closing of the English Regional Offices has made
no difference to the Council's policy. Financial help is still forthcoming ;
61
Pre-War
Festivals
Arts Centres
and Clubs
SouthWestern Arts
Association
and advice on professional activities is available from the Art, Drama ,
Music and Poetry Departments at Headquarters . At the same time,
however, it is realised that the amateur activities of these centres and clubs
makes an important contribution to further education, and it is accordingl y
hoped that they will work in close co-operation with their Local Education
Authorities, since the appropriate Local Education Authority is in a
position to give them considerable help, both financial and otherwise, i n
so far as they promote cultural training and recreative activities .
There is an especially strong concentration of arts centres and arts club s
in the South-West, and when the Council's Regional Office at Bristol wa s
closed at the end of March, the South-Western Arts Association, whic h
had been set up some years ago to provide a useful machinery for helpin g
representatives of the centres and clubs to meet at regular intervals for th e
purpose of conferring together, announced that, in future, it wished t o
play a more active part in promoting arts centre and arts club activities i n
the South-West . The Association has revised its Constitution accordingly ;
and the Council has made it a special grant for administration purposes .
At the same time, the Council has recognised the Association as th e
appropriate channel for grant aid to its constituent members .
9
SCOTLAN D
1940-194 5
In reviewing the work of the Arts Council, and its predecessor CEMA, i n
Scotland it is important to remember that from the earliest days invaluabl e
help has been given by voluntary workers throughout the country . In
1940, when the Council first set out to provide concerts, plays and ar t
exhibitions in towns and villages all over Scotland, it had to rely everywhere on local organisers to see to all the arrangements on the spot . Many
of these public-spirited men and women were engaged in war work of on e
kind or another and gave their services willingly in their spare time ; they
kept in touch with the Council's officers through a Co-ordinatin g
62
Committee composed of representatives of the Scottish Community Drama
Association, the British Institute of Adult Education, the British Council ,
the Civil Defence and the National Council of Social Service . The
Chairman was the late Dr . A. F . Hyslop and the initial secretariat wa s
provided by the National Council of Social Service .
In 1943, the Council decided to set up its own Scottish Committee `to
give added authority to the existing Committee of Organisers and advis e
the Council on Scottish matters .' The late Dr . O. H. Mavor, better known
to theatre-goers as `James Bridie,' was invited to take the chair, and th e
new Scottish Committee of CEMA held its first meeting at 29 Quee n
Street, Edinburgh, on March 19th, 1943 . In addition to Dr . Mavor, the
original members of this Committee were Dr . Ernest Bullock, Dr. T. J.
Honeyman, Sir William McKechnie, Dr . J. R. Peddie and Sir Georg e
Pirie ; they were joined later in the year by Mr . Neil Shaw . The Council' s
Regional Officer for Scotland, Mrs . Stephen Fox, acted as Secretary to the
Committee .
Between January 1943 and June 1945, when CEMA became the Art s
Council of Great Britain, the Scottish Committee met 14 times . Some
results of its work during this period may be illustrated by selecting
examples in each of its three fields of activity :MUSIC-The big demand for concerts from Civil Defence workers ,
which led to the extension of the work of the Scottish Orchestra ; the
outstanding success of the concerts for dockers in the Clyde area ;
and the concert tours by solo singers and instrumentalists who san g
and played in factories, Women's Land Army Hostels, timber camp s
and naval bases .
ART-The touring exhibitions of old master reproductions mad e
available to CEMA by the British Institute of Adult Education' s
`Art for the People' scheme ; the two exhibitions Twenty-Six Scottish
Artists and The Glasgow School, both of which toured in England a s
well as being shown in Scotland ; and the two selections of War-tim e
Acquisitions by the Tate Gallery which were shown in Glasgow ,
Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Paisley .
DRAMA-The Pilgrim Players' tours ; the Perth Repertory
Company's tours of the Highlands and Islands, which became a n
established annual event ; the opening of the Citizens' Theatre ,
Glasgow, with James Bridie's The Holy Isle and, in March 1945, the
Citizens' tour of the South-West, the Borders and Central Scotland
with Ibsen's Hedda Gabler.
63
With the end of the war, CEMA became the Arts Council of Great
Britain . For the next 18 months the Scottish Committee continued t o
function in an advisory capacity under the chairmanship of Dr . Mavor.
The policy evolved under CEMA of support for existing organisations ,
together with an increased amount of direct provision, was pursued wit h
vigour. Further grants were made to the Scottish Orchestra, and th e
Glasgow String Orchestra was given guarantees against loss for tours o f
the Highlands and Islands . The Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow, opened it s
third season with J. B. Priestley's Johnson over Jordan ; the Dundee
Repertory Company toured Fife and Angus with Shaw's Arms and the
Man, and the Perth Repertory Company celebrated its tenth anniversary
with a production of Hamlet . The Ballet Rambert, too, proved extremel y
popular on its short visit to Scotland in 1946, playing to full houses i n
Glasgow, Inverness and Perth.
Art exhibitions during this period included a selection from the Royal
Scottish Academy's Summer Exhibition, paintings from the Burrel l
Collection, a selection from the Society of Scottish Artists Exhibition, an d
a selection from the Scottish Modern Artists' Association . These and
other exhibitions were shown in 42 places ranging from Stranraer t o
Lerwick.
II
1946-195 1
On August 9th, 1946, His Late Majesty King George VI granted a Roya l
Charter to the Arts Council of Great Britain . One result of this actio n
was the setting up by the Council of a newly formed and autonomou s
Scottish Committee with powers to pursue its own policy within the term s
of the Charter . This Committee met for the first time on January 14th ,
1947, under the chairmanship of Dr . James Welsh . The previou s
Chairman, Dr . O . H. Mavor, though having resigned this office, remaine d
on the Committee, together with most of the other members, and th e
Committee was increased in size .
The following year was one of experiment in administration . The
Council placed at the Committee's disposal a block grant to be use d
entirely at their discretion within the limits of the Council's own power s
and general policy ; the grant for 1947-48 was £36,000, of which abou t
£8,000 was spent on the direct provision of concerts, £4,500 on assemblin g
64
exhibitions, and £17,000 on grants and guarantees to independen t
organisations all over Scotland .
It was during this year that the Greenock Arts Guild first approache d
the Scottish Committee with what has proved to be one of the mos t
important artistic projects in the country ; this was a scheme to conver t
an existing building into a fully equipped Arts Centre, with theatre, smal l
art gallery and club rooms, the idea being that it should eventually becom e
a centre for all cultural activity in the area . The Committee gave it s
fullest approval to the proposal and has, during the succeeding eigh t
years, given considerable financial support to the venture . It is extremel y
gratifying to know that the Committee's faith in the Greenock scheme ha s
been completely justified ; Greenock Arts Centre is now a flourishin g
concern with an active body of over two thousand members and a ful l
and varied annual programme of events .
The year 1947 is chiefly memorable as the year of the first Edinburgh
International Festival of Music and Drama . This unique event was
planned in the closest association with the Arts Council and received th e
Council's financial support from the beginning . The Festival is now an
established international event which brings large numbers of visitors t o
Scotland each year from all over the world .
The Edinburgh Festival is perhaps the supreme example of the Art s
Council's support for the highest possible standards of performance a s
well as of works performed . At the other end of the scale are the extensive
concert tours by maybe two or three musicians and the small tourin g
theatre companies, ballet companies, and puppeteers which the Scottis h
Committee sends out each season to every part of Scotland . From the
earliest days of its autonomy the Committee realised the necessity fo r
spending a large proportion of its funds on the direct provision of th e
arts in the many small towns and villages which would be culturall y
starved without this material help . The emphasis here is on diffusion, bu t
at the same time great care is taken to see that a high standard is maintained ; the singers and instrumentalists, for instance, who are engaged for
these tours have all passed Arts Council auditions or are so well know n
as to be acceptable on their reputations alone .
In the field of Drama, the provision of first-class companies of actors
and actresses, with scenery, costumes and portable lighting sets, present s
problems that are far more difficult to solve . One method adopted by th e
Committee from the beginning was to give full financial backing to a
resident repertory company to arrange its own tours in consultation wit h
a
65
the Committee's officers . There were already established examples of thi s
in the Perth Repertory Company's tours of the Highlands and Islands ,
and the tours of Angus and Fife by the Dundee Repertory Company ;
these managements continued to receive the Committee's support eac h
year and consequently were able to extend their field of operations . The
Perth companies' tours in 1948 gave 82 performances in 38 small towns ,
with an average subsidy of only £16 a performance . The Dundee Repertor y
Company, in the same year, made a two weeks' tour of Orkney an d
Shetland, playing to full houses in Lerwick, Stromness and Kirkwall ; they
also had a successful week at Inverness on the way home . Other theatre
companies which toured in different parts of Scotland with Arts Counci l
support during 1948 and 1949 were Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, Edinburg h
Gateway Company, the Adelphi Theatre Guild, Veronica Bruce's Cygne t
Ballet, the Arts Council's own St . James's Ballet and Bertha Waddell' s
Children's Theatre .
Throughout these intermediate years of 1948, 1949 and 1950 the Art s
Council and its Scottish Committee were very active in the visual arts . A
large number of exhibitions was assembled during this period and many of
them toured extensively ; Fort William, for instance, had its first Art s
Council Exhibition-the Memorial Exhibition of Sir D. Y. Cameron's
paintings, and the Young Scottish Artists Exhibition started its tour at
Girvan in Ayrshire .
Although touring exhibitions continued to be the main work of the Ar t
Department, the Committee was responsible for bringing several majo r
exhibitions, which had been seen in London, to Glasgow and Edinburg h
during this period . The first of these, van Gogh at the Glasgow Ar t
Gallery, was seen by more than 100,000 visitors ; later in the same yea r
(1948) a selection of Old Master Drawings from the Albertina Collectio n
in Vienna was seen in Edinburgh by nearly 10,000 people . At that year's
Festival 20,000 people visited the Bonnard-Vuillard Exhibition sponsored
by the Edinburgh Festival Society and arranged by the Arts Council i n
association with the Royal Scottish Academy . In 1949, an exhibition of
sculpture in the open air was arranged in Glasgow, and in Edinburg h
during the Festival a selection from the Marquess of Bute's Dutch an d
Flemish paintings was shown ; in the same year the Duke of Bedford lent
54 important paintings from Woburn Abbey for a Scottish tour, and thi s
exhibition was subsequently shown in London . An exhibition of the work s
of the distinguished Scottish painter, James Pryde, also visited Londo n
after its first showing in the Diploma Galleries of the R .S.A. in Edinburgh ,
66
and in August and September 1950, 44,000 visitors to Edinburgh had th e
privilege of seeing the remarkable collection of Rembrdndt's works
assembled for exhibition during the Festival .
Early in 1948 it was decided to create the post of Director for Scotlan d
and Dr. George Firth was appointed . Dr. Firth's wide knowledge of
musical matters proved immensely valuable to the Committee . Durin g
1948 and 1949 consultations took place between the Choral an d
Orchestral Union of Glasgow, the Edinburgh Concerts Society an d
the Arts Council regarding the creation of a national orchestra fo r
Scotland . In the spring of 1950, full agreement was reached betwee n
the parties and, with the formation of the Scottish National Orchestra ,
a new era began for symphonic music in Scotland . A particularly
welcome feature of these negotiations was the response from Loca l
Authorities all over the country ; the number of such Authorities
giving support has increased over the years and has now reached a tota l
of 74 . This includes a number of places, too small ever to hope for a visi t
from the orchestra, which, nevertheless, make small annual grants toward s
its upkeep . The conductor of the new orchestra was Walter Susskind wh o
had, till then, been in charge of the Scottish Orchestra ; he was succeede d
by Karl Rankl, under whose expert guidance these 72 players have been
welded into a fine instrument with a wide repertoire of classics as well a s
modern works . An important function of the orchestra is its responsibilit y
towards living Scottish composers,' of whose works a number of firs t
performances have been given .
An important development of this period was the growth of a number o f
arts clubs in some of the smaller towns ; many of these came into existence
as a direct result of CEMA and Arts Council tours, some were inspire d
by Local Education Authorities and a few were fortunate enough t o
acquire premises of their own . The Galashiels Arts Club is an example o f
the imaginative use of an Education Committee's new powers in regar d
to Further Education under the 1945 Education Act . In 1948, Old Gal a
House, a fine example of 16th-century domestic architecture, was offere d
for sale ; with the help of the Education Committee, the club was able t o
secure the house as its headquarters, and the Scottish Committee of th e
Arts Council made an initial contribution of £1,000 towards the purchas e
price . By 1950, there were 16 of these art clubs working `in association '
with the Scottish Committee, all of them helping to enrich the life of thei r
members and acting as focal centres for all artistic activity in the district .
Their Committees have been invaluable in making local arrangements fo r
67
Arts Council events which could not have been presented without thei r
help ; this is particularly true of the remoter islands where such bodies a s
the Kirkwall Arts Club and the Arts Association of Lewis are vital link s
between the Scottish Committee's officers and the local inhabitants .
The year 1951 was Dr . Welsh's final one as Chairman of the Scottis h
Committee and also the year of the Festival of Britain . Preparations fo r
this great event had been going on for three years . The Scottish Committe e
received a special grant of £35,000 for Festival purposes in Scotland i n
addition to the annual grant for its normal work . Its first task was t o
choose a number of centres for the presentation of arts festivals in additio n
to the International Festival at Edinburgh ; the places selected were Aberdeen, Dumfries, Inverness and Perth . Each of these four festivals made it s
own distinctive contribution to the Festival of Britain . Perth, concentrating mainly on drama, presented the Glasgow Citizens' Theatr e
Company in James Reid's The Lass with the Muckle Mou', the Dundee
Repertory Company in Goldoni's farce The Liar and their own Pert h
Repertory Company in Twelfth Night . An important occasion at the
Dumfries Festival was the opening by H .R.H. the Duchess of Gloucester
of the Gracefield Arts Centre ; the emphasis at this festival was on Rober t
Burns, while Inverness, as capital of the Highlands, included traditiona l
Highland arts and crafts . Aberdeen produced a comprehensive festival o f
all the arts, while among the outstanding events at Edinburgh were th e
exhibition of Spanish Paintings at the National Gallery of Scotland, th e
Glyndebourne Opera productions of La Forza del Destino and Don
Giovanni, the Sadler's Wells and Yugoslav Ballets, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre's production of Si r
David Lindsay's Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estates (originally produced at
the 1949 Festival) .
In addition to its special support for these five official festival centres ,
the Scottish Committee took steps to encourage and sustain local effor t
wherever this seemed likely to bring results ; grants and guarantees against
financial loss were allotted to music, drama and arts societies for specia l
programmes, and where no independent societies existed the Arts Counci l
filled the gap with its own directly provided plays and concerts . The
Scottish National Orchestra gave over 100 concerts during the Festival ,
adding a number of new towns to its normal circuit . Among the many
important exhibitions held during this festival year the one which cause d
the greatest stir was the Ecole de Paris exhibition of works by youn g
contemporary French painters . Nearly 30,000 people visited this exhibitio n
68
in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen . Other important exhibition s
in 1951 were Edvard Munch in Glasgow; Ramsay, Raeburn and Wilkie
in the National Gallery of Scotland at Edinburgh ; and 60 Paintingsfor'S1 ,
an exhibition of large canvases by most of the leading British painters of
the day . Native authors and composers were encouraged by the offer o f
prizes for productions of new plays, musical compositions and Scot s
poetry . A grant of £1,000 for Gaelic concerts was given to An Comunn
Gaidhealach who also prepared and carried out a prize scheme fo r
Gaelic poetry . In these, and in many other, ways the Scottish Committe e
gave an impulse to Scotland's special effort to show the world, as well a s
itself, what native talent, both amateur and professional, could achiev e
in the realm of the fine arts .
There is no doubt that the Festival of Britain provided a great stimulu s
to the practice and appreciation of the arts in Scotland ; at the same time ,
it is important to remember that this special outburst of artistic activity
had a solid basis in the work of previous years . A great deal of the credi t
for this is due to the two chairmen, Dr . Mavor and Dr . Welsh, who
steered the Scottish Committee through its first 10 years .
III
1952-195 6
In October, 1951, Dr . Welsh completed his five years of office a s
Chairman of the Scottish Committee ; he was succeeded by the present
Chairman, Sir George McGlashan, C .B.E., J.P., who received his
Knighthood in the 1954 New Year Honours . Mr . McGlashan, as he was
then, had had a long record of distinguished public service and had already
served for almost four years as a member of the Committee . His exceptional administrative gifts have proved invaluable to the Arts Council .
The period from 1952 onwards has been largely one of consolidation .
Rising costs have made it more than ever necessary' to practice goo d
housekeeping ; there has been no diminution in activity, especially in the
field of direct provision, but the Committee during these last five years ha s
been zealous in trying to maintain the standards already achieved and t o
raise them wherever possible . New projects have been supported onl y
after most careful consideration of their probable long-term contributio n
to the artistic life of the country as well as of all the financial implications .
69
The preservation of established organisations of proved worth has bee n
the Committee's chief concern, but next in importance has been th e
endeavour to keep up a constant supply of concerts, plays, ballet an d
recitals of all kinds for touring the very large number of places which ar e
too small or too remote to be able to engage these artists independently .
These make up the bulk of those shown in the list on pages 120-127 ,
which is, as nearly as possible, a complete list of all the cities, towns an d
villages actively engaged in the presentation or performance of the art s
which receive support from the Scottish Committee ; the full number i s
over 180, and a study of their geographical positions on the adjoinin g
map (pages 74 and 75) will, it is hoped, give some idea of the wide range
of the Committee's work and the problems involved .
The net amount of money available each year to the Scottish Committe e
increased from £52,000 in 1951-52 to £75,750 in 1953-54 and has remaine d
at this figure for each subsequent year . By 1953 an increase in the gran t
had become a vital necessity in order to help a number of important and
deserving organisations to keep their heads above water . The larges t
individual amounts were given to the Scottish National Orchestra, th e
Edinburgh Festival Society, and the associated Repertory Theatres i n
Dundee, Glasgow and Perth ; the Committee was also able, for the firs t
time, to give financial help to the Pitlochry Festival Theatre . At the same
time the amount spent on direct provision was increased to over £13,000 ,
making possible several new ventures of which probably the most interestin g
were The New Scottish Touring Theatre playing The Importance of Being
Earnest and the Gateway Theatre Company's tour of Robert Kemp's The
Heart is Highland, in which Lennox Milne played all 13 characters- a
tour de force for which she was given the Committee's award for the most
outstanding contribution to the Scottish Theatre in that year .
An event of major theatrical importance was the formation, in 1953, o f
the Edinburgh Gateway Company . Under the chairmanship of Rober t
Kemp, a company of first-class actors and actresses was brought togethe r
to perform for Edinburgh a similar function to that of the Citizens '
Theatre in Glasgow-the production in fortnightly repertory of plays b y
Scottish authors as well as classics and other plays of quality . Both
companies supply a need in these two large cities which has not, unti l
recently, been catered for by the commercial managements . It is, therefore,
in some degree a tribute to their work that Sherek Players have thi s
summer (1956) presented two companies alternating weekly betwee n
Glasgow and Edinburgh in a repertory season mainly of Scottish play s
70
(many of them new) : the casts being largely composed of actors and
actresses from the Citizens' and Gateway Companies .
Perth Repertory Theatre runs two companies, each playing alternat e
weeks in Perth and Kirkcaldy ; during the summer these companie s
undertake extensive tours, mainly of one-night stands-one going to the
Highlands and Islands and the other to the Borders . Dundee Repertory
Company, on the other hand, performs for 52 weeks every year entirely i n
its own theatre, presenting a change of play every fortnight ; it has also ,
until recently, provided a second company for part of the year to tour in
Fife and Angus . In contrast to these, Pitlochry runs a summer Festival o f
Drama with half a dozen plays in true repertory ; that is to say a visitor to
this Festival can see all six plays at any time between May and Octobe r
in the space of a week.
All five resident repertory theatres have had their ups and downs, bu t
all, with one exception, have managed to keep attendances up to average ;
the exception is Dundee, where, for some reason, the audiences hav e
dropped off in the last two years . It is the earnest hope of the Directors o f
the Dundee Theatre that this is only a temporary recession and that whe n
television is no longer a novelty in the town the audiences will gro w
larger . This does not mean that the management is sitting back an d
waiting for better times ; on the contrary, great efforts are being made t o
attract new clients ; a publicity officer has been appointed and the Scottis h
Committee has made available a small grant for the specific purpose of
subsidising bus journeys from outlying districts . It is gratifying to kno w
that this policy is already beginning to show results .
Music has also had its setbacks during these last five years ; the Scottis h
National Orchestra, in particular, suffered a falling off in attendances fo r
a time, especially at the regular concerts in Glasgow and Edinburgh .
There has also been the problem of how far the management dare go i n
raising prices to keep pace with constantly rising costs . The Board of
Directors have tackled these problems with energy and imagination an d
the orchestra's finances at the time of going to press are in a very health y
state . One experiment adopted by the Board met with great success ; this
was the promotion of a series of Industrial Concerts for employees o f
Glasgow and Edinburgh business firms . Again, in June 1956, a trial
fortnight of Promenade Concerts in St . Andrew's Hall, Glasgow, drew ful l
houses every night. In these, and in other, ways new audiences are bein g
created and the orchestra's income is rising .
Most of the amateur choral and orchestral societies and chamber music
71
clubs are members of the National Federation of Music Societies to whic h
the Arts Council's Scottish Committee allots a block grant each year for
disbursement to the individual societies . Until 1952, the amount of thes e
grants and guarantees against loss had been decided by a Joint Committe e
of the Arts Council and the Council of the N .F.M.S. sitting in London .
In 1953 it was arranged that, in future, these grants should be decided in
Scotland by a Joint Committee composed of representatives of th e
Scottish Committee of the N .F.M.S. and the Scottish Committee of th e
Arts Council. The Joint Committee meets annually in June to conside r
applications from between 30 and 40 societies and clubs for guarantee s
against loss on their programmes for the coming season ; special grants
are also given to those chamber music societies which include the engagement of one or more string quartets in their season's programmes .
Professional Opera companies (apart from those appearing at th e
Edinburgh Festival) are very infrequent visitors to Scotland . The Carl
Rosa Company comes for a short period each year, and the Coven t
Garden Company has of late appeared every two years . For many years
now it has been left to the amateurs in Glasgow to augment this scant y
supply-latterly with Arts Council support . The Glasgow Grand Opera
Society not only mounts two operas every year, but insists that at least on e
of them shall be a work which is not part of the normal opera company' s
repertoire. Recent performances have included Lalo's Le Roi d' Ys, WolfFerrari's Jewels of the Madonna, Verdi's Nabucco and Sicilian Vespers, and
Bellini's Norma.
Other indigenous musical ventures which have received the Committee's support during this period are the Recitals of Pipe Music arrange d
by the College of Piping, the Lunch Hour Concerts in Edinburgh an d
Glasgow, the Saltire Singers, and the Clarsach Society .
In 1951, the Committee set aside part of its funds for the purchase of
pictures by contemporary Scottish artists . In the years that followed the
Committee has continued to add pictures to its collection which now
numbers 98 works . These are divided into two groups for touring, eac h
with its own catalogue, and a third group is almost completed ; they have
been shown widely, not only in Scotland but also in England, Wales an d
Northern Ireland .
Important exhibitions shown during this period include Modern British
Pottery and Textiles, Jankel Adler and Gwen John in 1952; Sickert, Raoul
Dufy and Scottish Crafts in 1953 ; French Impressionists and Postimpressionists in 1954 ; and, in 1955, Contemporary Italian Art, Charles
72
Rennie Mackintosh and Water Colours by Contemporary Scottish
Artists. Mention must also be made of the series of remarkable exhibition s
of French paintings shown at the Edinburgh Festival ; these were : Degas,
1952 ; Renoir, 1953 ; Cizanne, 1954 ; and Gauguin, 1955 .
Since its first meeting in 1943 the Scottish Committee's offices had bee n
at 29 Queen Street, Edinburgh . By the end of 1952 it had become apparent
that the staff was being greatly handicapped in its work by the inadequacy
of the accommodation and the Committee decided to acquire premises of
its own. Through the good offices of the Chairman a suitable propert y
was found at 11 Rothesay Terrace, and the staff moved there in May, 1954 ;
these premises include a Gallery which has been used for art exhibitions ,
chamber music and poetry recitals .
By the end of 1956 the Scottish Committee will have enjoyed 10 year s
of autonomy . During this period there have been a number of change s
in its membership ; a full list is given in Appendix D .
The record, on the whole, is one of steadily increasing demand for th e
best the arts can give, higher standards of performance in music an d
drama and a growing awareness of the importance of the work being don e
by living Scottish authors, composers and artists . On the other side o f
the picture there has been the problem of constantly rising costs withou t
a corresponding increase in funds ; this has led to the postponement o f
many excellent schemes, particularly those involving new building .
The Scottish Committee has no reason for complacency . There is still
much to be done, especially in the encouragement of ever higher standard s
of performance and of works performed . Nevertheless, its record of soli d
achievement in its first decade of autonomy is surely one of which it can
be proud .
IV
1955/56 : NOTES OF THE YEA R
The Scottish Committee is responsible for the choice, initiation and
standard of its work in Scotland within the limits of the Council's ow n
general powers and policy ; these in turn being in accordance with the
terms of the Royal Charter granted in August 1946 . One cannot dissociat e
standards from finance, and the funds available to the Scottish Committe e
do have a limiting effect on what can be undertaken . It is, nevertheless, a
good exercise to have to keep within -bounds and at the very least i t
encourages the virtue of prudence .
73
Financ e
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The accounts of the Scottish Committee are given in detail on page s
104-109 .
Membership
There has been only one change in the membership of the Scottish
of Committee Committee ; Mrs. Rona Mavor retired on December 31st, 1955, and she
was replaced by Mr . E. S. Harrison, of Elgin . Mr . Colin Chandler, Mr.
J. A. Henderson and Mr . Robert Kemp were invited to serve on th e
Committee for a further term .
It is with the greatest regret that whilst writing this report we heard o f
the death of one of our Committee members who bears a famous Scottis h
name, J . H. Bruce Lockhart . Though troubled with illness, he had served
the Arts Council well for a period of 18 months .
Staff
Towards the end of the year, it was decided to appoint Mr . Donald
Mather, formerly the Council's Regional Director for North Easter n
England, to be Deputy Director for Scotland .
Arts Centres
During the past nine or ten years, the Scottish Committee has pursued a
policy of helping to bring arts centres into being . This has been on a
limited scale and on the principle that the Committee helps those who help
themselves . The biggest of these in conception and actual size is th e
Greenock Arts Guild . Part of the premises have been in use for a numbe r
of years, but in December last the greatest and in every way most ambitiou s
part of the scheme, the building of the theatre, was completed and opened
by the Secretary of State for Scotland . Greenock Arts Centre was the firs t
scheme of any size to be supported by the Scottish Committee and was
undertaken soon after the war to give practical assistance to the arts in a n
industrial area . In spite of many setbacks over these nine years, th e
Chairman, Mr . D. G . Mitchell, and his enthusiastic supporters hav e
persevered and the opening in December was a great occasion, not onl y
for the people of Greenock but for the Scottish Committee and, indeed ,
the Arts Council as a whole .
Direct
This season the total number of directly provided concerts exceede d
Provision :
150 and, once again, the work in this field broke new ground-in ever y
music
case to most enthusiastic audiences . Perhaps the most interesting an d
gratifying single factor arising from a survey of the year's work is th e
undoubted success of the long-term policy of raising the standard o f
public taste . An examination, firstly of the demand and secondly of th e
letters received after the various concerts, reveals without any doubt tha t
the higher forms of music are by far the most `popular,' particularly i n
places which have been receiving concerts steadily over a number of years .
Letters of critical appreciation are being received in increasing number s
76
from both organisers and members of audiences and it is interesting t o
note a growing emphasis on standards, both of performers and of work s
performed . Some places are now running short courses of lectures on th e
music to be performed at forthcoming concerts . An outstanding even t
this year was the tour of the Boyd Neel Orchestra in the course of whic h
Shetland enjoyed, for the first time, a visit from a professional orchestr a
and Orkney had the same experience after a gap of eight years . Both
Lerwick and Kirkwall made the visit the occasion for a civic reception .
That `the appetite grows by what it feeds on' is fully borne out by th e
tours of the Opera for All Group and the Intimate Opera Company ,
the audiences for which again topped the 4,000 mark . The Saltire Singers ,
in the course of their two short tours, played to a total audience of wel l
over 2,000 .
An outstanding feature of this year's drama touring was the success of
the New Scottish Touring Theatre's production of Candida which opene d
in Stornoway and then played one-night stands for three weeks in th e
Northern areas . One letter of appreciation is typical of many, conveyin g
`thanks for making this wonderful treat available to our members, wh o
seldom have the opportunity of seeing such excellent performances . To
those of us who miss the live theatre it is like "a spring of water in a dry
land" .'
It is heartening, when one learns of the lack of support which is, i n
some places, causing the close-down of theatres, to know that amongs t
the smaller communities in Scotland there is a great enthusiasm for th e
living theatre . Financial considerations, of course, make it impossible fo r
this potential audience to be satisfied except by means of state-subsidise d
tours and the main outlet must continue to be found in the amateur dram a
movement .
The four theatre tours which were sent out (two by the Children' s
Theatre, one by the New Scottish Touring Theatre-in Candida-and
one by the Gateway Company-in A Nest of Singing Birds) played to a
total audience of nearly 20,000 . A further 10,000 people saw performance s
of Dances and _Mimic of Spain, the Lee Puppet Theatre, Flspeth Dougla s
Reid and recitals of poetry and drama and of ballet .
The year has been an active one ; 78 showings of exhibitions have been
arranged in 36 centres in Scotland ; 19 exhibitions have been undertake n
by the Scottish Committee and 11 have been `imported' from Headquarters .
In addition to this, 23 lectures and 16 programmes of films on art hav e
been supplied to the clubs in the smaller centres .
77
Drama
Visual Ari s
Repertory
Theatres
The exhibition of Ten English Painters 1925-55 proved to be a majo r
art event of the year and was the most successful exhibition of the serie s
which has been arranged through the courtesy of the Royal Scottish
Academy each year since 1949 in their Diploma Galleries in Edinburgh .
The exhibition contained 88 paintings drawn from a large number o f
private and public collections and presented for the first time in Scotlan d
representative groups of paintings by ten English artists of repute who ha d
previously been known only by isolated pictures in mixed exhibitions an d
by reproductions .
An exhibition representative of the last two generations of Danis h
painting and sculpture was sent by the Danish Government to Icelan d
and the opportunity was seized of bringing it to Scotland where the shi p
called on the return journey to Denmark . The exhibition, which was a
very large one, was shown in the Glasgow Art Galleries .
Many of the local art clubs, through whom the Committee works, hav e
now been active for ten years and more . New ideas are essential if these
clubs are to continue to function, and every support, both financial an d
practical, has been given to encouraging them to assemble exhibition s
in their own areas . Two important exhibitions have been arranged, one i n
Helensburgh and the other in Elgin, of Old Master paintings from privat e
collections in the area . Two further similar exhibitions are almost completed . Exhibitions of surprising quality have resulted . Scotland is stil l
an area of untapped resources and, in addition to this, many privat e
owners are willing to lend their best pictures for a short period for a n
exhibition in the locality which they would not lend for a longer perio d
further from home . The clubs concerned have had much guidance fro m
the Arts Council and the National Gallery of Scotland and this relation ship and the resulting exhibitions have given them a great fillip . Every
encouragement will be given to the arranging of further exhibitions o f
this kind.
The repertory theatres in Perth and Dundee continued to send out tours
which were, as usual, warmly received although, in each case, rising costs
could not be compensated by higher takings . An interesting feature i n
the fortunes of the repertory theatres in Scotland is that, except i n
Dundee, audiences, particularly in the earlier part of the season, showed a
distinct upward trend as compared with last year. The first indication of
this encouraging movement was seen at the Pitlochry Festival Theatr e
which, despite the joint onslaught of a railway strike, a General Electio n
and a heat-wave, had an exceptionally successful season . Dundee
78
Repertory Theatre, on the other hand, showed a general drop i n
attendances, though, as mentioned earlier in this report, there is ever y
hope of a revival in its fortunes .
Last year's report referred to the decision of Glasgow Corporation t o
rescue the Citizens' Theatre by purchasing the building and leasing it t o
the Company . This has now been done and the theatre is undergoin g
extensive alterations during the summer recess .
A recent development in the affairs of the four resident repertor y
theatres is their agreement to join together in a Federation of Scottis h
Repertory Theatres . The theatre companies concerned are the Dunde e
Repertory Company, the Edinburgh Gateway Company, the Glasgow
Citizens' Theatre and the Perth Repertory Company . Representatives
meet quarterly, each theatre in turn acting as host, to discuss matters o f
common interest and with the wider aims of benefiting Scottish play wrights and the Scottish theatre in general.
The year has shown improvements not only in a much higher standard Scottish
of performances, but in the increasing number of people who have heard Nationa l
Orchestra
the orchestra .
The scheme of experimental industrial concerts inaugurated in Octobe r
1954 has developed beyond all expectations, and during the past year
over 30,000 people drawn from factories, trades and the professions have
gathered together in 16 concerts in the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh .
Despite the increase in prices which the Board felt it necessary t o
announce in October 1955, in the major series of concerts in the fou r
cities, more people have attended the performances, and a considerabl e
increase in income has resulted.
More people attended the 1955 Edinburgh Festival than ever before, Edinburgh
yet in spite of this the financial position was made more difficult on Festival
account of a further large increase in costs . Attendances at the Glyndebourne Opera reached the record figure of 26,145 (96 per cent of capacity) ,
and the Usher Hall concerts drew an audience of 59,692 (97 per cent o f
capacity) . The many other events were almost equally successful, yet i t
seems unlikely that prices can be raised without affecting attendances .
The future of the Festival would therefore seem to depend on findin g
further sources of revenue if the very high standard is to be maintained .
79
10
WALES
TEN YEARS IN RETROSPECT
Reviewing the work of the Arts Council's Welsh Committee in this, th e
Council's 10th birthday year, it is interesting to quote part of an openin g
address given by Lord Harlech, the then Chairman of the Committee, at
its first meeting in June 1954 . He said :`I should like here to draw attention to the fact that we owe to tw o
Welshmen the flying start which CEMA achieved in 1940 . Dr . Tom
Jones, as Secretary of the Pilgrim Trust, was the active Vice-Chairma n
and inspirer of the original Committee and Council . Mr . W. E. Williams ,
the founder of the "Art for the People" scheme of travelling exhibitions ,
was also an early advisor and made his exhibitions an integral part of the
CEMA programme .' (The latter is now Sir William Emrys Williams ,
Secretary-General of the Arts Council.) `Quality rather than quantity ,
standards and real education value rather than mere entertainment wil l
henceforward be the aims . To attain such aims emphasis must be lai d
upon what I may call the classics-i .e . worthy performances or presentation of the work of the great masters, irrespective of nationality or date .
But the increased study and performance of the classics is but a base fo r
the emergence and discovery of new work by living composers, dramatist s
and painters . We need to produce and cherish new creative genius, an d
stimulate adequate performers as actors or instrumentalists to render
worthy the great heritage of the past and also the work of our con temporaries .'
Subsequent to that meeting, the activities of the Welsh Committee unde r
him and his successor, Dr. Wyn Griffith, have been consistent with the
aims outlined by Lord Harlech . In the first years of this decade, the
Committee's work was, of necessity, experimental but, as year succeeded
year, its support has enabled a variety of organisations to aim at highe r
standards of performance and presentation of the Arts which they sponsor .
Organisational methods have improved and have developed on soun d
economic lines, as careful budgeting has been encouraged and organi sations showing this trend in their affairs have been true collaborator s
with the Welsh Committee in its endeavour to bring the best in the art s
to the people of Wales, while at the same time bringing a realistic approach
to the financial problems involved. Not an easy task-but the goodwill
80
established between the Welsh Committee and these organisations ha s
served to bridge many a difficult gap looming ahead of some worthwhil e
project .
The results of the Committee's activities have been slow in emerging and
have not been spectacular except in the case of opera . Creative artists
have been inspired to write, to compose and to paint in the knowledge o f
the Committee's sympathetic concern for their work and more suppor t
for the creative artist is planned in the coming year than has ever bee n
possible to undertake before . In previous years, the main task of the
Committee has been to establish new and support existing organisation s
promoting the arts and `to stimulate adequate performers as actors and
instrumentalists to render worthy the great heritage of the past and als o
the work of our contemporaries .' We still have no national orchestra,
but with the help of the Arts Council in the years 1945-1950 additiona l
players were engaged for the instrumental ensembles established at th e
three University Colleges of Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Bangor ; the Wang
Quartet of Cardiff University, which includes many of the works of th e
Welsh composers in its repertoire, has been acclaimed in London at its
recent recitals . Young singers and instrumentalists have been given thei r
opportunities through the Music and Arts Clubs established all over the
Principality which are sustained by the support of the Welsh Committee .
The wealth of talent to be found for the theatre, the visual arts an d
music in Wales is a never-failing source of excitement . If . anything, th e
Welsh are too talented-they take to the theatre like ducks to water-wit h
their beautiful voices they make magnificent sounds so easily that the ide a
that stern discipline and hard work are necessary for the mastery of correc t
techniques has been a difficult one for them to assimilate . The Welsh
Committee has appreciated the need to provide for training, experienc e
and opportunity to enable these talents to be developed on the right lines .
The best example, to prove that given these facilities the Welsh peopl e
are capable of great achievements, is that of the young Welsh Nationa l
Opera Company whose spectacular success, within a comparatively shor t
space of time, can be attributed to the uncomplaining acceptance of a
regime of hard training and discipline imposed upon it by its energeti c
and enthusiastic Chairman, Mr. W . H. Smith . In 1949, the considerable
potential of this Company, under the direction of Mr . W . H. Smith, was
recognised and, in subsequent years, the Arts Council and its Wels h
Committee have subsidised it to the limits of their resources . The tw o
training centres established in Cardiff and Swansea flourished accordingl y
81
and now the Company has some 200 trained and experienced choristers ,
in addition to which resident Principals have been provided with musica l
and dramatic coaching for the roles assigned to them in the repertoire o f
some twenty operas . Allied with the development of the training centres ,
a splendid scenery store, workshops and properties have been acquired ,
so that the Company is now in a position to stage all the operas in its
repertoire out of its own resources . These resources are added to each
year, as it has been the policy to mount one new production annually, fo r
which expert producers and designers are engaged to supplement the wor k
of the resident producer . The Company has given regular seasons o f
opera in Cardiff and Swansea and, since 1953, in Bournemouth . In additio n
to its regular seasons in the towns mentioned, the Company visite d
Aberystwyth and Llandudno in 1951 and Manchester in 1953 . Included
in the repertoire in the 1953 Cardiff season was a first opera by the Welsh
composer, Arwel Hughes, libretto by Wyn Griffith, named Menna .
Subsequently, in 1954, the Company presented this opera at the Roya l
National Eisteddfod, Ystradgynlais, in the Welsh translation by Dr . T. H.
Parry Williams, where it was performed to approximately 6,000 people .
The Company paid its first visit to London in 1955, where three of th e
four operas presented at Sadler's Wells Theatre were new to Londo n
audiences and are not included in any other Company's repertoire in th e
United Kingdom-further reference to this visit is made in the report on
the year 1955/56.
Opera being what it is, an amalgam of all the arts and the right mediu m
for the musical and dramatic talents of the Welsh people, the Wels h
National Opera Company has proved to be a most rewarding outlet for
the activities of the Welsh Committee ; the Committee is justly proud of it s
association with this Company and acknowledges its good fortune in being
able to participate substantially in fostering so important a venture . Th e
Committee pays tribute to the Company's Chairman, Mr . W . H. Smith ,
its Board of Management, and to all those concerned with its development and achievements, including the Cardiff and Swansea Corporation s
and the Glamorgan County Council .
Interest in the visual arts has not been particularly noticeable until th e
last decade in Wales . Those concerned, including the Welsh Committee ,
with stimulating and developing an appreciation for painting and sculpture ,
can now, however, take heart in the tremendous advance which has bee n
made in this field in the last few years .
The Welsh Committee has been very active in arranging exhibitions o f
82
the works of the masters as well as seeking out and fostering the talent s
of native painters . The latter activity has been more rewarding than thos e
closely associated with it at first appreciated and it is now a cause for
surprised gratification to hear so frequently the appreciative comments o f
our visitors from over the border and other countries on the numbers o f
talented Welsh painters emerging to-day in a land which has hitherto bee n
regarded as devoid of interest, to say nothing of creative genius in th e
visual arts, despite a countryside and an industrial area unmatched i n
beauty and dramatic possibilities for self expression in this medium .
A Welsh National Theatre is still a dream-would that another `Mr .
W. H . Smith' could be found to rally and train the forces available fo r
such a project . As it is, the energies of the Committee have been directed
towards the support of Welsh Drama Festivals held annually, the aims o f
which are to present original Welsh plays and those in the classica l
repertoire in translation . This support to Welsh Theatre, in addition t o
which the Committee has each year toured competent English Theatr e
Companies and since 1954 its own Welsh Company, has done much t o
develop a higher regard for quality in the Welsh Theatre, both in th e
writing and presentation of plays and, at the same time, afforded opportunities for, and a stimulus to playwrights, actors, producers and technicians concerned with theatre in the vernacular.
1953/54 marked the first year of autonomy for the Welsh Committee
and inclusive of that year to March 31st, 1956, the Committee's expenditur e
during the course of its work in Wales has been approximately £86,837 .
It has been, and will continue to be, the task of the Committee to seek ou t
and, within the limits of its resources, nourish and afford opportunities fo r
the talents which it finds in all branches of the arts . Who knows in
another 10 years what the results will be-looking back over the pas t
decade the rewards of the Committee's activities have not been in considerable .
II
1955/56
In 1955/56, the Welsh Committee's third year of autonomy, a grant of
£33,650, was received from the Arts Council . The Committee's accounts
are shown on pages 110 to 115, from which it will be seen that the balanc e
83
Finance
Art
carried forward at March 31st, 1956, is £9,474 17s . This sum includes
£5,000 which the Committee reserves for contingencies and £900 set asid e
for two Exhibitions, the arrangements for which have been postponed t o
the current year for lack of gallery space last year . The actual savings i n
the period under review, amounting to £3,574 17s ., were achieved becaus e
the second English Drama tour did not materialise, guarantees were no t
fully claimed, and the net cost of the Committee's Welsh Theatre Compan y
tour was less than anticipated .
The Welsh Committee, in collaboration with art galleries, art societie s
and colleges, continued to make available to the Welsh public a variety o f
exhibitions . The major exhibition of the year, shown at the Nationa l
Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, and the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery ,
Swansea, was the exhibition of 73 Pre-Raphaelite Paintings and Drawing s
drawn from public and private collections throughout the country . Th e
purpose of this exhibition was to enable a reassessment to be made of th e
merits of the Pre-Raphaelite painters, and to bring before the Welsh publi c
a number of important pictures which hitherto were well known to man y
only through poor reproductions.
The fifth annual exhibition of Pictures for Welsh Schools organised by
the Society for Education through Art in collaboration with the Wels h
Committee, once again proved successful . More than half of the 104
works exhibited were purchased by local education authorities in Nort h
and South Wales . The sales total of over £900 was a record figure ; it is
clear that in this way an encouraging market has been found for the work s
of Welsh artists while, at the same time, schoolchildren are brought int o
daily contact with original works of art .
Other exhibitions organised by the Welsh Committee included a
selection for touring of Purchases by the Contemporary Art Society fo r
Wales, and Paintings from the Welsh Committee's Collection . Altogether ,
29 different exhibitions were given, 45 showings in 17 different centres .
In a number of places, guide-lecturers were provided to serve as a valuabl e
link between the painter and the public .
During the year, 14 paintings and one work of sculpture were purchase d
for the Welsh Committee's Collection and some of the works from th e
Collection were lent to galleries and colleges .
As a valuable and enjoyable medium of art education, the art fil m
continues to increase in popularity . Welsh tours were arranged in the
spring and autumn and selected programmes were shown in galleries an d
to art societies, colleges and schools . Among the films which receive d
84
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85
Music
Opera
particular praise from Welsh audiences were Pre-Columbian Mexican Art ,
The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci and From Renoir to Picasso .
While the Committee has continued to make available to the publi c
works of art of high standard, it has also sought the means of helpin g
artists to produce them . In Wales, the practising painter or sculptor ofte n
works in isolation . He needs opportunities for exhibiting and selling hi s
work, and help with the difficulties of transport and communication .
Above all, at a time when the accent in education is on technology and in
a community where he finds integration difficult, he stands much in need
of reassurance, encouragement and sponsorship . These needs the Welsh
Committee has again striven to fulfil in the period under review .
The Committee commissioned Arwel Hughes to write his second oper a
and Grace Williams her second symphony ; both these works are now well
under way and should be ready for performance in the near future .
Music Clubs, working under guarantees offered by the Committee,
promoted 121 concerts at a cost of approximately £5,600, of which the tota l
subsidy from the Welsh Committee amounted to £1,571 . During the
planning period an increasing number of clubs showed interest in strin g
quartet music and, in all, 12 concerts were given by the Hirsch and Wan g
Quartets to a total of 1,631 people .
In general, Club membership increased . This was particularly so in
rural areas, where programmes arranged by the Clubs concerned continue d
to draw audiences from a wide area . For example, Criccieth & Distric t
Music Club, with a membership of 210, has 70 members who trave l
distances from 8 to 28 miles to the concerts .
The Arts Council `Opera for All' Company visited Wales for the eight h
time and, during a four-week tour of 17 performances, played to 4,68 1
people .
St. David's Cathedral Concert Society promoted a series of concerts i n
the Cathedral during the summer months, with financial assistance fro m
the Committee.
Welsh Choral Societies affiliated to the National Federation of Music
Societies gave 26 concerts during the year, and three new choirs affiliate d
to the Federation in this period . Perhaps special mention should be mad e
of the Gwent Bach Society, which restricts its repertory to the works o f
Bach and his predecessors . During the year they have performed such
works as The Christmas Story of Schutz and Music for the King's Sackbutts
and Cornetts by Matthew Locke .
The Welsh National Opera Company played in Swansea, London ,
86
Bournemouth and Cardiff. During their first visit to Sadler's Wells for a
week in July 1955, the Company presented four operas ; two by Verdi ,
unknown to contemporary London, namely, Nabucco and Sicilian Vespers ;
and Menna, the first opera by the Welsh composer Arwel Hughes, librett o
by Dr . Wyn Griffith ; the fourth opera produced by Norman Jones wa s
Rigoletto . Despite the sweltering heat, London and its critics flocked t o
hear and acclaim this young Company which was supported by th e
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Vilem Tausky, Charles Grove s
and Arwel Hughes conducting .
The Covent Garden Opera Company visited Cardiff for two weeks i n
February, presenting eight operas and played to full houses, excluding th e
performance of Troilus and Cressida, which suffered the usual public
resistance to the new and unknown .
The Halle Orchestra played in Aberystwyth in June and in Treorchy in
September 1955 . The Liverpool Philharmonic gave three promenad e
concerts in Cardiff in July under -guarantee from the Cardiff Corporation .
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra played in Wrexham on Novembe r
28th under a joint guarantee offered by the Borough and Rural Distric t
Councils and gave two concerts in Haverfordwest on the following day .
A small orchestra, conducted by Rae Jenkins, gave concerts in Fishguar d
and Cwmbran-which, in the case of Fishguard, was guaranteed collectivel y
by five Pembrokeshire Local Government Authorities, and in the case o f
Cwmbran, by the Urban District Council .
The Montgomery County Music Festival, with the Halle Orchestra an d
George Weldon conducting, opened the 1955 Festival season, followed b y
the International Festival at Llangollen in July, where the English Oper a
Group performed The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten on the
opening night, and the Liverpool Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra ,
conducted by John Pritchard, performed Honegger's King David, with
Emlyn Williams as Narrator, in the concluding concert of the week . Th e
Royal National Eisteddfod at Pwllheli in August included in its varie d
programme of events an evening of verse reading, a performance o f
Ewyrth Ifan (Uncle Vanya) by the Committee's Welsh Company and a n
excellent production by John Gwilym Jones of Pirandello's Fel y tybiwch ,
y mae (Cosi e; se vi pare) . Alun Hoddinott's first symphony commissione d
by the Guild for the Promotion of Welsh Music was given its first performance there . The Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts, in October ,
with the London and B .B.C. Symphony Orchestras sharing the honours,
drew excellent audiences with one curious exception, the choral concert .
87
Orchestras
Festivals
Drama
Poetry
All the above Festivals, with the exception of the International a t
Llangollen, received financial assistance from the Welsh Committee.
One of the most rewarding of the Committee's activities in the perio d
under review was that of presenting a new play by Saunders Lewis . This
play, Gymerwch chi Sigaret, his first in a contemporary setting, gave grea t
opportunities for the talented Welsh cast assembled by the producer,
Herbert Davies, and for the designer, David Tinker . This second Welsh
Company managed by the Committee gave the first performance of th e
play at the Llangefni Festival and, in a subsequent tour of nine performances, was seen by 4,188 people .
The English Drama Company, which was assembled by the Bristol Ol d
Vic, by arrangement with the Welsh Committee, played Rattigan's The
Deep Blue Sea to a total of 10,700 people in a tour of five weeks in th e
autumn of 1955 . The play was produced by Paul Lee and the setting s
designed by Jenny Webster.
The second Welsh Drama Festival, held at Llangefni, Anglesey, i n
September, maintained the high standards set in the previous year . Obey's
Noah and Gogol's The Inspector, both excellently produced, the former b y
Edwin Williams and the latter by Cynan, were presented, in addition t o
which, as previously mentioned, the Welsh Committee's production o f
Saunders Lewis' play Gymerwch chi Sigaret was performed there .
The Swansea Welsh Drama Association presented three plays at thei r
annual Festival, of which one was a new comedy by John Griffiths, th e
second Shaw's Devil's Disciple in a Welsh translation and the third a
revival of D . T . Davies' comedy Capten Harriet. These two festivals of
Welsh plays and the first organised by the Welsh Drama Council of Wale s
in Newtown were supported by the Welsh Committee .
Theatre Companies in association with the Arts Council visiting Wale s
in the period under review were : Bristol Old Vic Company, Cardiff i n
June ; The Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet Company, Llandudno an d
Swansea in the same month ; and the Old Vic Company with their production of Julius Caesar, Swansea in August, under a guarantee of £50 0
offered by the Swansea Corporation .
The Welsh Committee in the period under review have offered tw o
awards of £100 each for (1) the best unpublished collection of Wels h
poems, and (2) the best unpublished collection of English poems . The
winners of the awards will be announced in October this year .
In March 1956, three experimental Poetry Recitals were arranged i n
Newport, Cardiff and Swansea, and the readers were Christopher Hassal l
88
and Maureen Robinson . Although the audiences were small, their
enthusiastic appreciation was an encouragement to feel that the experiment had not been undertaken in vain .
Members due to retire from the Committee on December 31st, 1955,
were Mr . C. E. Gittins, Mrs . Irene Edwards, Miss Frances Rees and
Alderman Llew . Heycock . New members appointed were Dr . J. Henry
Jones, Dr . William Thomas and Mr . D . H. I. Powell. The Very Rev . C.
Witton-Davies, Dr . D . E. Parry Williams, the Marquess of Anglesey an d
Sir Wynn Wheldon were re-appointed for a further period of service unde r
the chairmanship of Dr . Wyn Griffith, with Sir Ben Bowen Thomas
serving as assessor for the Ministry of Education .
11
NOTES ON THE ACCOUNT S
The notes below are given in amplification of the Annual Accounts which
are contained in Appendices A, B and C following .
Two loans, the Citizens' Theatre Ltd ., Glasgow : £6,000, and Milford
Haven Arts Club : £165, which have been carried hitherto in the Head quarters Balance Sheet, have now been transferred, the first to the Balanc e
Sheet of the Council's Committee in Scotland, and the second to th e
Balance Sheet of the Committee in Wales, as these organisations dea l
direct with the Scottish and Welsh Committees respectively .
New inventories were prepared during the year ended 31st March ,
1956, of all the Council's assets, and the book values of the assets reconcile d
with the figures shown in these new lists . This operation has revealed a
substantial appreciation in values, which is recorded in the capital accoun t
in the main Balance Sheet . No credit has been . taken in the Revenue
and Expenditure Accounts .
The regional re-organisation, mentioned elsewhere in the Report, doe s
not produce any financial saving in the accounts for the year 1955/56 ,
as none of the Regional offices was closed before 31st March, 1956 .
89
Welsh
Committee
THE ARTS COUNCI L
APPENDIX A
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUN T
1954/5 5
£591,337
97,235
4,339
935
GENERAL EXPENDITURE ON THE ARTS (See Schedule 3)
GENERAL OPERATING COSTS (See Schedule 4)
2,062
RESERVE FOR LOANS TO ASSOCIATED ORGANISATIONS
7,500
15,000
75,750
GRANT TO SCOTTISH COMMITTEE
32,000
97,827
TRANSFER TO CAPITAL ACCOUNT REPRESENTING CAPITA L
EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR
SPECIFIC RESERVE-CARL ROSA TRUST LIMITED
-
£614,670
TRANSFER FROM HEADQUARTERS OF LOAN outstanding to th e
Citizens' Theatre Limited, Glasgow
GRANT TO WELSH COMMITTEE
-
TRANSFER FROM HEADQUARTERS OF LOAN outstanding t o
Milford Haven Arts Club
-
LOSS ON SALE OF ASSETS
£816,596
7
8
211
9
6
0
0
76,270
0
0
6,000
0
0
33,650
0
0
165
0
0
4,068 16
1
£842,213 16
2
27,866 BALANCE brought down
12,058 11 1 0
33,445 BALANCE carried forward
21,386 5
£61,311
90
1
03,444 16 1 1
OF GREAT BRITAI N
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 195 6
1954/5 5
£785,000 GRANT IN AID : H.M . Treasury
1,077 LOAN REPAYMENTS
- CANCELLATION OF RESERVE FOR LOANS
1,395
CANCELLATION OF GRANTS and provision for expenses in previou s
year not required
SUNDRY RECEIPTS
Interest : Bank and Investment
Miscellaneous
1,258
27,866 BALANCE carried down
£816,596
61,311 BALANCE as at 1st April, 1955
£61,311
£820,000 0
0
516 13
4
6,165 0
0
1,540 9
6
1,933 1
6
£1,034 15 8
898 5 1 0
12,058 11 1 0
£842,213 16
2
33,444 16 1 1
£33,444"16 1 1
91'
THE ARTS COUNCI L
BALANCE SHEET A S
LIAKLME S
1954/55
CAPITAL ACCOUNT
Balance as at 31st March, 1955
Add Capital Expenditure during year transferred fro m
Revenue and Expenditure Account
Add Appreciation on Revaluation
£64,359 11 1 1
2,062
10,569
9 6
811
76,991 10
4
Less Transfer of Theatre Equipment to Carl Rosa Trus t
64,360
Limited
2,000
0
0
--
£74,991 10
4
13,073
GRANTS AND GUARANTEES OUTSTANDING
10,429
0
0
15,521
SUNDRY CREDITORS
30,009
6
5
23,478
SPECIAL FUNDS (See Schedule 1)
24,335 17
9
15,000
SPECIFIC RESERVE-CARL ROSA TRUST LIMITED
33,445
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUN T
Balance as at 31st March, 1956
21,386
5
1
£161,151 19
7
NOTE : No provision has been made for depreciation . Payments from the grant i n
aid do not include any such provision, but only the cost of renewals .
£164,877
92
Carried forward
OF GREAT BRITAI N
AT 31st MARCH, 1956
ASSETS
1954/55
£11,217
OFFICE EQUIPMEN T
At valuation as at 31st March, 195 6
MOTOR VANS AND CAR S
At valuation as at 1st April, 1949, and additions at cost t o
31st March, 195 5
Less items sold less additions during yea r
£13,972 16 1 0
£14,578 3 6
229 13 10
14,578
2,802
14,986
-
PIANO ACCOUNT
At valuation as at 31st March, 195 6
THEATRE AND CONCERT HALL EQUIPMENT
At valuation as at 31st March, 195 6
ART EXHIBITION EQUIPMENT
At valuation as at 31st March, 1956
LITHOGRAPH S
At Cos t
Less items sold during year
20,201
199
16,343
5,000
21,952 SUNDRY DEBTORS, PAYMENTS IN ADVANCE
£111,729 Carried forward
12,489 4
1
9,270 0
2
574 17
8
256 5
0
3,750 0
0
16,343 3
7
5,630 0
0
0
4
16,351 13 4
12,601 13 4
SPECIAL FUND INVESTMENTS (See Schedule 2 )
At cost or as at date of transfe r
(Market value £13,287 12s . 2d . )
INVESTMENTS
3 per cent . Savings Bonds, 1960/7 0
(Market value £3,926 Is . 4d . )
4 per cent . Defence Bonds (Market value at Par )
0
22,801 1 1 1
LOANS TO ASSOCIATED AND OTHER ORGANISATION S
(See Schedule 6)
Secured by Mortgag e
3,750 0
Unsecured and only conditionally recoverabl e
12,601 13
3,875
1,535 0
20,201 2 8
2,599 19 3
WIGMORE HALL CANTEEN STOCK
As at 31st March, 195 6
Less Reserv e
8
575 13 4
15 8
576
PICTURES AND SCULPTURES
At cost as at 31st March, 195 5
Additions during year at cos t
14,348 9
5,000 0 0
630 0 0
29,733 3 1 1
£130,704 2 1 0
93
THE ARTS COUNCI L
BALANCE SHEET A S
LIABILME S
£164,877
£164,877
Broughtforward
161,151 1 9
£161,151 19
7
I have examined the foregoing Account and Balance Sheet . I have obtained
all the information and explanations that I have required, and I certify a s
the result of my audit that in my opinion this Account and Balance Shee t
94
OF GREAT BRITAI N
AT 31st MARCH, 1956
ASSETS
£111,729 Broughtforwar d
£130,704 2 1 0
CAS H
On Deposi t
On Current Accoun t
Imprests
In Hand
15,000 0
14,806 9
386 19
254 7
0
9
5
7
53,148
30,447 16
9
t 1 oq, is / /
t101,1 :)1 1Y
/
Chairman : KENNETH CLARK .
Secretary-General : W. E. WILLIAMS .
are properly drawn up so as to exhibit a true and fair view of the transactions of the Arts Council of Great Britain and of the state of their affairs .
(Signed) F . N . TRIBE ,
Comptroller and Auditor-General.
Exchequer and Audit Department ,
8th August, 1956 .
95
THE ARTS COUNCI L
SCHEDULE 1-SPECIAL FUND S
PILGRIM TRUST SPECIAL FUN D
As at 31st March, 1955
Add Interest Account
H. A. THEW FUN D
Capital Account
Income Accoun t
Balance at 31st March, 1955
Add Income during year
Less Payments during year
MRS. THORNTON FUN D
Capital Account
Income Accoun t
Balance at 31st March, 1955
Add Income during year
Add Conversion Premium
ARTS COUNCIL : THEATRE ROYA L
BRISTOL RESERVE FUND
As at 31st March, 1955
Add Income during year
Less Payments during year
£2,979 2 0
66 10 0
9,094 10
£3,045 12
9
£1,334 7 4
304 12 1 0
1,639 0 2
150 10 0
1,488 10 2
141 15
172 10
2 0
5,408
9
1
316
6
3
10,583 0 1 1
9
6
0
5,724 1 5
4,519 19 8
2,321 2 1 0
6,841 2
1,858 13
6
0
4,982
9
Total Special Funds as per Balance Sheet £24,335 17
96
0
9
DF GREAT BRITAI N
SCHEDULE 2-SPECIAL FUND INVESTMENTS
Nominal
Value
PILGRIM TRUST SPECIAL FUN D
31 per cent. Defence Bonds (Conversion Issue)
£1,900
0 0
Book
Value
£1,895 13
Market Valu e
at 31st
March, 195 6
0
£1,900
0
0
H . A . THEW FUN D
3 per cent. British Transport Stock, 1978/8 8
3 ~ per cent . Conversion Stoc k
6,876 16 11
2,809 19 10
6,326 13 11
2,767 16 10
4,776 10 1 0
2,009 2 1 1
MRS . THORNTON FUN D
21 per cent . Consolidated Stock
3 per cent . Funding Stock, 1959/69
3 per cent . Funding Stock, 1959/69 (P .O . Issue )
4 per cent . Conversion Stock, 1957/58 (P .O. Issue)
3 per cent . Defence Bonds (Conversion Issue)
31 per cent . City of Birmingham Stock
3 per cent . British Transport Stock, 1978/88
31 per cent. Defence Bonds (Conversion Issue )
3-1 per cent. Defence Bond s
2j per cent. National War Bonds, 1954156
665
2,097
250
200
30
100
355
740
1,000
100
1 9
2 1
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
5 10
0 0
0 0
0 0
488
2,099
249
203
30
102
337
739
1,000
102
16 10
15 0
7 6
7 6
0 9
0 0
10 6
5 6
0 0
16 3
355 16 5
1,646 4 6
196 5 0
196 0 0
30 0 0
88 10 0
249 15 1 1
740 0 0
1,000 0 0
99 6 7
£17,124
65
£16,343
Total Special Fund Investments as per Balance Sheet
3 7 £13,287 12
2
97
THE ARTS COUNC I
SCHEDULE 3 - GENERA L
MUSI C
Opera and Ballet
Grants and Guarantees (See Schedule 5)
Directly Provided Concert s
Other Activities
Grants and Guarantees (See Schedule 5 )
Directly Provided Concert s
Wigmore Concert Hall (Including costs of Repairs and Alterations to Building )
Net Income of Wigmore Hall Caterin g
Net Total Expenditur e
DRAM A
Grants and Guarantees (See Schedule 5)
Companies special engaged for Arts Council Tour s
Midland Theatre Compan y
Salisbury Arts Theatre Company Limited (Maintenance of Building )
Net Total Expenditure
AR T
Grants and Guarantees (See Schedule 5 )
Exhibitions
Art Film s
New Burlington Gallery
Net Profit on Joint Exhibitions with other Organisation s
Lithograph Sale s
Net Total Expenditure
POETRY
Grants and Guarantees (See Schedule 5 )
FESTIVALS
Grants and Guarantees (See Schedule 5 )
ARTS CENTRES AND ARTS CLUB S
Grants and Guarantees (See Schedule 5 )
GENERAL ART ACTIVITIE S
New Project s
Miscellaneou s
Net Expenditure transferred to Revenue and Expenditure Accoun t
98
OF GREAT BRITAI N
EXPENDITURE ON THE ARTS
Gross
Revenue
Gross
Expenditure
Net
Revenue
Ne t
Expenditure
2
1
£418,179 16
7,368 3
3
7
£418,179 16
1,300 1
3
6
1,082 1
9,420 13
6
5
89,168 17
5,403 17
11,150 12
0
3
6
89,168 17
4,321 15
1,729 19
0
9
1
514,700 9
99 10
7
5
£6,068
£99 10
5
99 10 5
2,743 3 8
16,308 10 0
835 1 9
55,682 13 9
4,571 9 8
23,662 15 2
788 9 4
46 12
3,155 15 0
42,972 15 11
4,591 10 11
1,525 2 10
3 12 1
1 17 8
64,865 4 1 1
46 12 5
23,433 18
6
1,082 16
0
5,914 18
0
2,969 3
6
1,850 0
0
0
6
3
2
26,585 12 1 1
1,082 16
0
5,914 18 0
5,914 18
0
2,969 3 6
2,969 3
6
1,000 0 0
850 0 0
6
0
5
3,151 14 5
1,082 16 0
64,818 12
5
3,155 15
19,480 2
3,602 4
347 11
3,150 0
1 14
2
55,682 13 9
1,828 6 0 7,354 5 2
46 12 5
23,492 13 5
989 6 8
1,177 11 8
£514,600 19
1,000 0 0
850 0 0
£614,670 7 8
99
THE ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAI N
SCHEDULE 4
GENERAL OPERATING COSTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 195 6
HEADQUARTER S
Salaries and Superannuation
Music
Drama
Art
Finance
Secretarial and General
Rent, Rates and Maintenance Expenses
Office, Travelling, Entertainment and Sundry Expenses
Printing and Publicity
REGIONAL OFFICE S
Salaries and Superannuation
Rent, Rates and Maintenance Expenses
Office, Travelling, and Entertainment Allowances an d
Sundry Expenses
Transferred to Revenue and Expenditure Account
£5,587 5
3,841 9
10,829 17
6,858 12
15,732 15
0
7
9
1
0
£42,849 19
13,064 2
11,003 0
2,447 0
-
5
4
6
5
17,659 0
1,692 12
0
0
9.111
8
£69,364
2
28,463
0
3
£97,827 2 1 1
NOTE : Endowment benefits due to members of the Pension Fund are assured by Policies held by the Council .
100
THE ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAI N
SCHEDULE 5
GRANTS AND GUARANTEE S
MUSI C
Opera and Balle t
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Limited
Sadler's Wells Trust Limited
Intimate Opera Society Limited
English Opera Group Limited
Carl Rosa Trust Limited
Mercury Theatre Trust Limited (Ballet Rambert)
Sadler's Wells School Limited
The Welsh National Opera Company Limited
£250,000 0
100,000 0
1,000 0
4,000 0
41,429 16
6,000 0
15,000 0
750 0
Other Activities
London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited
Liverpool Philharmonic Society Limited
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Halle Concerts Society
London Symphony Orchestra Limited
Payments to Music Societies and Clubs affiliated to the Nationa l
Federation of Music Societies in respect of guarantees
Jacques Orchestra Limited
Boyd Neel Concert Society Limited
Rural Music Schools Association
Institute of Contemporary Arts (Music Section)
Society for the Promotion of New Music
Western Orchestral Society Limited (Bournemouth Symphon y
Orchestra)
Brighton Philharmonic Society Limited
The Royal Philharmonic Society Limited
Central Music Library Limited
Direct Grants and Guarantees to Musical Organisations for specia l
Concert Activities
DRAMA
Royal Victoria Hall Foundation
Old Vic Trust Limited-Waterloo Road
Old Vic Trust Limited-Bristol
Chesterfield Civic Theatre Limited
Ipswich Arts Theatre Trust
Nottingham Theatre Trust Limited
Salisbury Arts Theatre Limited
The West of England Theatre Company Limited
Mobile Theatre Limited
Leatherhead Theatre Club
Colchester Repertory Company Limited
The Cambridge Arts Theatre Trust
Guildford Theatre Club Limited
Council of Repertory Theatres
Oxford Repertory Players Limited
£418,179 16
3
89,168 17
0
0 £507,348 13
3
12,000
12,000
12,000
9,000
2,000
0
0
0
0
0
17,851
500
2,500
2,000
800
800
1 10
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
0 0
8,000
1,300
1,000
500
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
6,917 15
2
10,000
15,000
3,500
500
500
3,000
1,350
2,000
5,000
1,000
500
750
500
350
1,500
Carried forward
0
0
0
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
£45,450 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
10 1
SCHEDULE 5-continued
Brought forward
DRAMA (continued)
The Elizabethan Theatre Company Limited
Northampton Repertory Players Limited
The Playhouse, Kidderminster
The British Centre of the International Theatre Institute
The Hornchurch Theatre Trust Limited
Birmingham Repertory Theatre Limited
Pioneer Theatres Limited (Theatre Workshop)
Sheffield Repertory Company Limited
Canterbury Theatre Trust Limited
Promotion of New Drama-Commissioning Fees and Awards
Travel Grants for Producers
Derby Little Theatre Club Limited
English Stage Company Limited
Lincoln Theatre Association Limited
Theatre Planning
Theatre Grid Scheme
AR T
Institute of Contemporary Arts
Red House Museum and Art Gallery-Christchurch
Petersfield Arts and Crafts Society
Bournemouth Arts Club
Bromley Art Society
Cirencester Arts Club
The Penwith Society of Arts in Cornwall
Midland Group of Artists
Colchester Art Society
The Finsbury Art Group
Seligman Catalogue
Open Air Exhibition of East Anglian Sculpture
Women's International Art Club
The London Group
£45,450
0
0 £507,348 1 3
17
274
39
250
500
2,000
500
500
500
2,361
125
250
2,500
150
149
115
18
6
9
0
0
0
0
0
0
10
0
0
0
0
3
7
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
4
4
1,500 0
60 0
25 0
100 0
20 0
60 0
200 0
449 0
35 0
40 0
406 15
20 0
140 0
100 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
55,682 1 3
3,155 1 5
POETR Y
The Apollo Society
The English Festival of Spoken Poetry
The Trustees and Guardians of Shakespeare's Birthplace
Help for Spoken Poetry
Leicester Poetry Society
Cley Women's Institute
300 0 0
136 10 0
135 14 9
497 10 4
10 0 0
3 0 11
1,082 1 6
FESTIVAL S
The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts
The Bath Festival Society
Cheltenham Arts Festivals Limited
King's Lynn Festival Committee
Haslemere Festival (The Dolmetsch Foundation)
The Taw and Torridge Festival Society Limited
Hovingham Festival
Three Choiis Festival, Hereford
Cheltenham Festival of Literature
Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Musical Association
658 16
1,000 0
1,000 0
500 0
150 0
766 0
90 1
750 0
250 0
750 0
4
0
0
0
0
0
8
0
0
0
5,914 1 8
Carried forward
102
£573,184 1 6
SCHEDULE 5-continued
Brought forward
ARTS CENTRES AND ARTS CLUBS
Plymouth Arts Centre
Bridgwater and District Arts Centre
Guildhall of St . George, King's Lynn
The Basingstoke Theatre Association Limited
Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, Falmouth
Grants to Arts Clubs
450
300
350
75
275
1,519
GENERAL ART ACTIVITIE S
New Projects
Weymouth and South Dorset Arts Centre
The Middlesbrough Little Theatre
Miscellaneou s
The British Institute of Recorded Sound
Langley Moore Museum of Costume
0
0
0
0
0
3
£573,184 16
0
2,969
3
6
1,850
0
0
£578,003 19
6
0
0
0
0
0
6
500
500
0
0
0
0
500
350
0
0
0
0
Noce : Maximum commitments are given, not necessarily the amounts paid.
THE ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAI N
SCHEDULE 6
LOANS TO ASSOCIATED AND OTHER ORGANISATION S
Loans secured by mortgage
Less repaid during year
£3,875 0 0
125 0 0
£3,750
Loans unsecured and only conditionally recoverabl e
Add new loans made during year
Less repayments during year of loans previously reserve d
Less loans written off during year
Less loan transferred to Scottish Committee
Less loan transferred to Welsh Committe e
This sum is fully covered by reserve as shown in the Balance Sheet
516 13
9,910 0
6,000 0
165 0
0
0
21,693 6
7,500 0
8
0
29,193 6
8
16,591 13
4
£12,601 13
4
4
0
0
0
103
THE COUNCIL' S
APPENDIX B
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUN T
1954/5 5
£62,079
GENERAL EXPENDITURE ON THE ARTS (See Schedule 1)
91 722 GENERAL OPERATING COSTS (See Schedule 2)
2,649
TRANSFER TO CAPITAL ACCOUNT REPRESENTING CAPITA L
EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR
-
ALTERATIONS TO PROPERT Y
11 Rothesay Terrace, Edinburgh
-
RESERVE FOR LOAN
£74,450
4,2131 BALANCE brought down
£65,334
6
9,661
9
494
9
2,000
0
11,000
0
£88,490 5
7
4,440 1 1
deduc t
11,868 BALANCE carried forward
£7,655
104
7,427 1 5
£11,868 6 1 1
COMMITTEE IN SCOTLAN D
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 195 6
1954/5 5
£75,750
GRANT FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL O F
GREAT BRITAIN
-
TRANSFER FROM HEADQUARTERS OF LOA N
outstanding to the Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow
-
REPAYMENT OF LOAN
2,702
CANCELLATION OF GRANTS AND GUARANTEE S
in previous year not required
SUNDRY RECEIPTS
Interest on Deposit Account
Rent of Basement
211
4,213 l BALANCE carried down
deduct]
£74,450
7,655 BALANCE as at 1st April, 1955
£7,655
£76,270
0
0
6,000
0
0
263 16
12 1
£82,270
0
0
400
0
0
1,103 16
7
275 17
4,440 11
9
3
£88,490 5
7
1
8
11,868 6 1 1
£11,868 6 1 1
10 5
BALANCE SHEET A S
LIABILITIE S
1954/55
CAPITAL ACCOUN T
Balance as at 31st March, 1955
Add Capital Expenditure during year transferred fro m
Revenue and Expenditure Account
£17,376 14
1
494 9
9
£17,871 3 1 0
£17,377
6.351 GRANTS AND GUARANTEES OUTSTANDING
6,093 15
0
2,587 SUNDRY CREDITORS
6,014 13
8
7,427 15
8
£37,407 8
2
11,868
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUN T
Balance as at 31st March, 1956
NOTE : The allocation of £3,000 in the year 1954/55 for the Dumfries and Distric t
Arts and Community Association is carried forward as a commitmen t
out of the above balance of £7,427 15s . 8d .
£38,183
I have examined the foregoing Account and Balance Sheet . I have obtaine d
all the information and explanations that I have required, and I certify a s
the result of my audit that in my opinion this Account and Balance Shee t
106
AT 31st MARCH, 1956
ASSET S
1954/55
£8,307
PROPERT Y
11 Rothesay Terrace, Edinburgh
OFFICE EQUIPMEN T
At valuation as at 31st March, 1955
Additions during year at cost
2,117
1,363
£8,307
£2,117 6
188 19
4
2
2
9
MOTOR CARS
. At cost as at 31st March, 1955
2,306
5 11
1,362
8
3
200
PIANO ACCOUN T
At valuation as at 31st March, 1955
200
0
0
103
THEATRE AND CONCERT HALL EQUIPMENT
At cost as at 31st March, 1955
103
2
6
5,592
3
0
1,902 4
9
19,005
17,633 19
7
£38,183
£37,407 8
2
5,287
PICTURES, SCULPTURE, ETC .
At cost as at 31st March, 1955
Additions during year at cost
LOAN S
Unsecured and only conditionally recoverable
Less Repayment during year
Add Loan transferred from Headquarters
Add New Loan made during year
Less Reserve
5,286 13
305 10
2,000
400
0
0
0
0
0
0
6,000 0
5,000 0
0
0
12,600 0
12,600 0
0
0
1,801 SUNDRY DEBTORS
CAS H
On Deposit Account
On Current Account
In Hand
13,000 0
4,568 19
65 0
0
7
0
Chairman of the Scottish Committee : G . T . McGLASHAN .
Secretary-General : W . E . WILLIAMS .
are properly drawn up so as to exhibit a true and fair view of the transaction s
of the Arts Council's Committee in Scotland and of the state of their affairs .
(Signed) F. N . TRIBE ,
Comptroller and Auditor-General.
Exchequer and Audit Department,
8th August, 1956 .
10 7
THE COUNCIL'S COMMITTEE IN SCOTLAN D
SCHEDULE 1
GENERAL EXPENDITURE ON THE ART S
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 195 6
MUSI C
Grants and Guarantees
Scottish National Orchestra
Music Societies
Directly Provided Concerts
Less Receipts
£9,851
2,948
7
6
£19,000
3,312
0
0
0
8
6,903
1
0
3
3
1
8
18,597 16
1
1,074 12
9
£29,215
DRAM A
Grants and Guarantees
Tours
Less Receipts
15,950
5,553 19
2,906 3
BALLET
Tours
Less Receipts
ART
Grants
Exhibition Expenses
Less Fees and Catalogue Sales
0
0
2,647 16
1
1,613 3
538 10
3
6
-
2
1
202
6,513
840
7
0
4
6
5,673
0
0
6 10
5,875
6 10
ARTS CENTRES AND CLUB S
Grants
3,071
9
1
EDINBURGH FESTIVAL SOCIETY
7,500
0
0
£65,334
6
5
Net Expenditure transferred to Revenue and Expenditure Account
THE COUNCIL'S COMMITTEE IN SCOTLAN D
SCHEDULE 2
GENERAL OPERATING COSTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 195 6
Salaries and Wages
Travel and Subsistence
Rates, Insurance, Heating, Lighting and Maintenance Expenses
Publicity and Entertainment
Telephone, Postage, Stationery and Sundry Expenses
Transferred to Revenue and Expenditure Account
108
£5,713 3
1,272 9
909 16
729 4
1,036 16
3
0
2
5
7
£9,661 9
5
THE COUNCIL'S COMMITTEE IN SCOTLAN D
SCHEDULE 3
GRANTS AND GUARANTEES FOR 1955/56
MUSI C
Scottish National Orchestra
£19,000
National Federation of Music Societies
2,085
Glasgow Grand Opera Society
350
Edinburgh Lunch Hour Concerts
200
Glasgow Organ Recitals
120
Edinburgh Organ Recitals
120
College of Piping
100
Direct Grants and Guarantees to Music Clubs for Concerts (£50 and under)
337
DRAM A
Perth Repertory Theatre (two Companies)
Dundee Repertory Theatre
Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow
Edinburgh Gateway Theatre
Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Drama Award
Poetry Award
Theatre Award
London Club Theatre Group
ART
Royal Netherlands Embassy (Exhibition of Dutch Traditional Costumes)
Moray Arts Club
Direct Grants of f20 and under
ARTS CENTRES AND CLUBS
Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow
Perth Repertory Theatre
Troon Arts Guild
Inverness Arts Centre
Galashiels Arts Guild
Moray Arts Club
Direct Grants of £50 and under
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
6,000 0
3,500 0
3,000 0
2,000 0
500 0
500 0
300 0
100 '0
50 0
0
0
0 (K0
0
0
0
8
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
22,312 0
8
15,950 0
0
202 0
0
3,071 9
1
100 0 0
75 0 0
27 0 0
1,505 13
1,000 0
150 0
120 0
100 0
100 0
95 16
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
z4i,»>
y
y
NOTE : Maximum commitments are given, not necessarily the amounts paid .
109
THE COUNCIL' S
APPENDIX C
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUN T
1954/5 5
£22,765
7,998
485
867
GENERAL EXPENDITURE ON THE ARTS (See Schedule 1)
8
3
165
0
0
TRANSFER TO CAPITAL ACCOUNT REPRESENTING CAPITA L
EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR
1,253
7
1
BALANCE carried down
3,157
8
4
£34,373 4
7
RESERVE FOR LOAN
6,317 BALANCE carried forward
11 0
0 11
8,107
GENERAL OPERATING COSTS (See Schedule 2)
£32,115
£6,317
£21,690
9,474 1 7
£9,474 17
0
COMMITTEE IN WALE S
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 195 6
1954/55
£32,000
GRANT FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL O F
GREAT BRITAIN
-
TRANSFER FROM HEADQUARTERS OF LOA N
outstanding to Milford Haven Arts Club
-
CANCELLATION OF GUARANTEES AND PROVISION S
FOR FEES AND EXPENSE S
in previous year not require d
SUNDRY RECEIPT S
Interest on Deposit Account
Profit from Sale of Assets
11 5
£32,11 5
867 BALANCE brought dow n
5,450 BALANCE as at 1st April, 1955
£6.317
£33,650 0
0
165 0
0
201 6
89 19
£33,815 0
0
266 18
8
9
2
291 5 1 1
£34,373 4
7
3,157 8
4
6,317 8
8
£9,474 17
0
111
THE COUNCIL' S
BALANCE SHEET A S
LIABILITIE S
1954/55
CAPITAL ACCOUNT
Balance as at 31st March, 195 5
Less Transfer to Garthewin Theatre Compan y
Add Capital Expenditure during year transferred fro m
Revenue and Expenditure Account
£3,47 1
290 GRANTS AND GUARANTEES OUTSTANDIN G
3,062 SUNDRY CREDITOR S
6,317
£13,140
REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. ACCOUNT
Balance as at 31st March, 1956
£3,470 19
75 0
0
0
3,395 19
0
1,253 7 1
£4,649
6
295
0
1,096 1 4
9,474 1 7
£15,515 17
6
I have examined the foregoing Account and Balance Sheet. I have obtained
all the information and explanations that I have required, and I certify as
the result of my audit that in my opinion this Account and Balance Shee t
112
COMMITTEE IN WALE S
AT 31st MARCH, 1956
ASSETS
1954/55
£464
OFFICE EQUIPMENT
At cost as at 31st March, 1955
Additions, less items sold during year
MOTOR CARS
At cost as at 31st March, 1955
Additions, less items sold during year
1,546
THEATRE AND CONCERT HALL EQUIPMEN T
At cost as at 31st March, 1955
Less Transfer to Garthewin Theatre Company
75
PICTURE S
At cost as at 31st March, 1955
Additions, less items sold during year
£463 13
86 17
1,546 10
658 18
75
75
1
1
0
0
0
0
1,385 15
507 12
8
0
165
165
Less Reserve for Loan
282
0
0
9,654 16
1,051 12
11 17
9,387
£13,140
2,205
3
8
-
1,893
7
8
148
6
2
10,718
5
3
£15,515 17
6
0
0
SUNDRY DEBTORS
CAS H
On Deposit Account
Current Account
In Hand
2
3
0
1,386
LOAN
£550 10
3
0
0
Chairman of the Welsh Committee : WYN GRIFFITH.
Secretary-General : W . E . WILLIAMS .
are properly drawn up so as to exhibit a true and fair view of the transaction s
of the Arts Council's Committee in Wales and of the state of their affairs .
(Signed) F . N . TRIBE ,
Comptroller and Auditor-General .
Exchequer and Audit Department,
8th August, 1956.
H
11 3
THE COUNCIL'S COMMITTEE IN WALE S
SCHEDULE I
GENERAL EXPENDITURE ON THE ART S
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 195 6
MUSI C
Grants and Guarantees
Opera
Festivals
Music and Arts Clubs
Societies
Commissions
Directly Provided Concerts
Less Receipts
£10,982 19
2,274 19
1,571 1
600 0
400 0
£1,881 15
1,138 13
6
6
6
0
0
4.
6
743
1 10
£16,572
DRAM A
English Tours
Less Receipts
2,930 17
1,526 15
6
5
Welsh Tours
Less Receipts
2,073 15
636 14
2
5
Grants and Guarantees
Poetry Awards
Poetry Recitals
Less Receipts
183 4
30 17
1,404
2
1,437
549
200
0 9
3 11
0 0
Art Films
Less Art Film Fees and Catalogue Sales
Guide Lecturers' Fees and Expenses
Less Fees
3,742 13
E
1,375
1
1
6
9
494 13
7
798
7
1
6
9
3
75 15
2
1,913 0 5
1,114 13 4
247 19 8
241 10 5
97 7 2
21 12 0
Net Expenditure transferred to Revenue and Expenditure Account
114
4
6
9
152
AR T
Grants and Guarantees
Exhibition Expenses
Less Exhibition Fees and Catalogue Sales
2
£21,690
5
011
THE COUNCIL'S COMMITTEE IN WALE S
SCHEDULE 2
GENERAL OPERATING COSTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 195 6
Salaries and Wages
Travelling and Subsistence
Rent, Rates, Insurance, Heating and Lighting
Publicity and Entertainment
Telephone, Postage, Stationery and Office Maintenance
£5,096 17 4
1,599 16 0
406 1 4
155 17 1 0
848 15 9
Transferred to Revenue and Expenditure Account
£8,107
8
3
£15,829
0
6
THE COUNCIL'S COMMITTEE IN WALE S
SCHEDULE 3 •
GRANTS AND GUARANTEES FOR 1955/5 6
MUSI C
Welsh National Opera Company Limited
Swansea Festival of Music and the Art s
Montgomery County Music Festiva l
Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales Pwllhel i
Welsh Regional Committee National Federation of Music Societie s
Combined Choirs Festiva l
Llangefni and District Music Festival
Dee and Clwyd Festiva l
National Federation of Music Societie s
Orchestral Association of Wales
Direct Grants and Guarantees to Music and Arts Clubs for Concert s
Commission s
DRAMA
Drama Council for Wale s
Anglesey Welsh Drama Festiva l
Llangefni Dramatic Societ y
Garthewin Theatre Compan y
ART
Society for Education through Ar t
Less Refund 1954 Exhibitio n
Anglesey Art Societ y
Contemporary Art Society for Wales
Denbighshire Art Society
Pontypool Educational Settlemen t
Powys Fine Art Association
Portmadoc Art Clu b
£10,982 19 6
699 19 _ 6
400 0 0
900 0 0
200
25
50
500
100
1,571
400
50
394
30
75
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
0
0 0
3 11
0 0
0 0
549
3 11
£300 0 0
75 6 5
224 13
25 0
100 0
15 0
20 0
100 0
10 0
7
0
0
0
0
0
0
494 13
7
£16,872 18
0
NOTE : Maximum commitments are given, not necessarily the amounts paid .
11 5
APPENDIX D
LIST OF MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL AND OF TH E
SCOTTISH AND WELSH COMMITTEES FROM TH E
DATE OF INCORPORATION BY ROYAL CHARTE R
(AUGUST 9th, 1946) t
Members of the Counci l
* Sir Ernest Pooley, Bart .
Joseph Compton
Ivor Brow n
Dr . Thomas Woo d
Sir Lewis Casso n
Sir Cecil Graves
* Sir Kenneth Clark
The Hon . Sir Jasper Ridle y
* The Viscount Eshe r
The Countess of Albemarle
* Sir Ifor Evan s
Richard Capel l
Mrs . Barbara Ayrton Gould
Edric Cundel l
The Lord Harlech
John Carte r
Sir George T . McGlashan
Mrs . Thelma Cazalet Kei r
* Sir Stanley Marchant
Sir John McEwen, Bart.
Dr. Ralph Vaughan Williams
Sir William Coldstrea m
* Sir William Emrys William s
The Lady Fermo y
The Lady Keyne s
Benn Levy
Dr . James Welsh
Professor Anthony Lewis
* Sir Bronson Albery
John Newso m
Sir Maurice Bowra
Lady Ogilvie
The Countess of Rosebery
Lt .-Col. Vere E . Cotton
Eric Linklater
Robert Kemp
Mrs . Hugh Dalto n
Sir Wynn P . Wheldo n
* Dr. Ll. Wyn Griffith
*Member of the Executive Committee .
tNOTE :
Lord Keynes, who was Chairman of CEMA at the time the Chancellor of the Exchequer
announced the Government's decision to set up the Arts Council of Great Britain, died i n
April 1946 . Dr. O . H . Mavor retired from the Arts Council shortly before the date o f
its incorporation .
Members of the Scottish Committee
Dr. James Welsh
Sir Ernest Bullock
Ian Finlay
Eric Linklater
Dr. O. H . Mavo r
Sir William McKzchni e
Dr. J . R . Peddi e
The Countess of Rosebery
Neil Shaw
Sir James Ferguson, Bart.
Sir George T . McGlashan
Sir William O . Hutchiso n
Sir Frank Mears
Sir Cecil Graves
J . A . Henderso n
James McNaught
Hugh Marshall
116
The Rev . Dr . George MacLeod
E . K. Waterhous e
William Wilso n
Miss Isobel Sinclai r
Colin Chandler
John Nobl e
Robert Kem p
Mrs . Rona Mavo r
Sir John McEwen, Bart .
D. K . Baxandall
Ernest Bode n
William MacTaggart
John M . Playfair
J . H . Bruce Lockhar t
Miss Violet C . Young
E. S . Harrison
Members of the Welsh Committee
The Lord Harlech
Dr. Ll. Wyn Griffith
Haydn Davies
Principal Ifor L . Evans
Sir Cyril F . Fox
Mrs . Herbert Jones
Dr . D . E . Parry Williams
Mrs . Emrys Evans
C . E . Gittins
Dr. W . J . Williams
Professor Gwyn Jones
P. H. Burton
Sir William Llewelyn Davies
Morgan Nicholas
D . H. 1 . Powell
Mrs . Irene Edwards
John Hughes
Dewi Llwyd Jones
Miss Frances Ree s
T . I . Elli s
Dr. D. Dilwyn John
Saunders Lewi s
Ceri Richard s
Mansel Thomas
The Marquess of Anglesey
County Alderman Llewellyn Heycoc k
Sir Wynn P . Wheldo n
The Very Rev . C . Witton-Davies
Aneirin Talfan Davies
S . Kenneth Davie s
Professor I . L. Foste r
Dr. Thomas Parry
Mrs . D . R . Prosse r
Emlyn William s
Dr. J . Henry Jones
Dr. William Thomas
11 7
APPENDIX E
ARTS COUNCIL EXHIBITIONS HELD IN GREAT BRITAI N
DURING THE PERIOD APRIL 1955 - MARCH 1956
ENGLAND
Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture
Arts Council Collection, Part I
w Arts Council Collection, Part II
w Arts Council Collection, Drawings
s The Artist's View of an Industry
w Drawings and Dry-Points by Sir Muirhead Bone
British Painters of To-day
British Subject and Narrative Painting
Paintings from the Chatsworth Collection
Contemporary Paintings from Southampton Art Gallery
British Watercolours from the Gilbert
Davis Collection
Designs for Opera and Ballet at Covent
Garden
Paintings by William Etty
s Four French Realists
s Gauguin
Alberto Giacometti ; Sculpture, Paintings, Drawings
Harold Gilman
s
s
Spencer Gore, Paintings and Drawing s
C . F . Hill
Indian Paintings from the Victoria &
Albert Museu m
Contemporary Italian Art
Penwith Society of Arts Exhibition, 1954
Rutherston Collectio n
Paintings by Christian Rohlfs
Some 20th Century English Watercolour s
Some 20th Century English Water colours (second selection)
Some 20th Century Paintings from th e
Collection of Peter Pears and Ben jamin Britte n
Drawings by Stanley Spence r
Ten Years of English Landscape Paintin g
Drawings and Etchings by G. B . and
G . D . Tiepol o
James Tisso t
Vincent Van Gog h
Young Contemporaries, 195 5
Graphic Arts, Books, Design, etc .
w Contemporary Prints from the Arts ws Contemporary Foreign Lithograph s
Council Collection
The Lloyd-Baker Collection of Print s
Art in British Advertising
Rembrandt Etchings from the Collectio n
w British Lithographs published by Millers
of Viscount Downe
of Lewes
Contemporary Stained Glas s
w Contemporary British Lithographs s Street Literatur e
(second series)
Victorian America (Currier & Ive s
s Craftsmanship To-day
Lithographs )
Contemporary Embroidery
Victorian Music Cover s
Etchings and Engravings from the Art s
Council Collection
Reproductions and Photograph s
Japanese Woodcuts (UNESCO)
Ten Years of British Architecture 19451955
s The Art of Landscape
w Fifty Years of Picasso
w Cezanne
sw Reproductions of Portraits
Two Thousand Years of Chinese
Painting (UNESCO)
s Photographs of the Royal Tombs a t
Westminster Abbey
w Christian Art, Part I
The Art of the Sculpto r
w The Art of Drawing, Part I
Toulouse-Lautre c
The Art of Drawing, Part 1I
w Vincent Van Gogh
The Art of Drawing, Part III
61 exhibitions held in 133 centres . (306 showings includin g
12 exhibitions held in the Arts Council and the Tate Gallerv .)
118
SCOTLAND
J .D . Fergusso n
39 Paintings by Post-Graduate Students
of the Edinburgh College of Ar t
Seven Scottish Painter s
Design in Prin t
Contemporary Scottish Paintings, Part I
Contemporary Scottish Paintings, Part Il
Water Colour Paintings by Con temporary Scottish Artist s
Society of Scottish Artists
Portrait Drawings by Scottish Artist s
19th and 20th Century French Painting s
from the Glasgow Art Galleries
Model of Coventry Cathedral
Leslie Hunter Exhibitio n
Exhibition of Pictures from Local Collections in Moray
Ten English Painters
54 Paintings from the Galleries i n
Scotland
McKnight Kauffer Exhibition
Portrait Drawings by David Foggi e
Picasso Aquatints (Illustrations to
Buffon's Book on Natural History)
Paintings by Claude Rogers .
30 exhibitions (including 11 exhibitions from England) were
given 78 showings in 36 centres.
WALES
Contemporary Welsh Painting and
Sculpture
Paintings of Wales : Recent Purchases b y
the Contemporary Art Society fo r
Wales and the Arts Council Wels h
Committee
Pictures for Welsh Schools (Organise d
in collaboration with the Society fo r
Education through Art)
Pre-Raphaelite Paintings and Drawing s
Reproductions for Community Centre s
Paintings from the Arts Council's Wels h
Collectio n
Some purchases from the Contemporary
Art Society for Wales
Fifty Prints from the Society of Woo d
Engravers .
17 exhibitions (including 13 exhibitions from England) wer e
given 33 showings in 9 centres .
NOTE : w Also exhibited in Wales .
. s Also exhibited in Scotland .
119
APPENDIX F
EVENTS SUPPORTED BY THE SCOTTISH COMMITTE E
(1955/56)
MUSIC
PLACES
DRAMA
Ho
U 51
w
~o
w
Fo
U-
uo
w 7
Aaa
C 0
z
., 94
a
a
a
Aaa
x
13
Aberdeen
x
4
Aberlour
d
X~
w
w
i
2
1
I,
1
1
1
4
Alloa
2
Alness
6
Alyth
1
Anstruther
1
10
Arbroath
1
Ardrishaig
I
2
4
Annan
Ardrossan
2
ji
2
1
Aviemore
1
3
Ayr
3
3
Ballater
Banff
3
Berwick
2
1
Blairgowrie
5
Boat of Garten
1
Bowmore (Islay)
i
*See page 12 7
1
2
Arrochar
120
o ~
z w
a
~
w z
7
Airdrie
Alford
AR T
2
MUSIC
PLACES
o
U o
Fo
o
q 0
00
Qa
q~
za
H
4
Bridge of Allan
Broadford (Skye)
3
2
1
Brodick (Arran)
Brora
3
Buckie
2
~"
a Uw
ZO
5
1
3
5
1
1
1
2
1
4
2
Carnoustie
5
Castle Douglas
2
1
1
Castletown
Coatbridge
3
Cove and Kilcreggan
2
Creetown
1
1
Crieff .
Cumnock
Cupar (Fife)
z< a]
3
Burghead
Campbeltown
a ~
n z
3
Festival
Braema r
Brechin
ART
DRAMA
5
2
2
2
1
2
Dalbeattie
1
Dalkeith
Delny
2
1
Dingwall
4
1
Dornoch
1
Dounby (Orkney) .
1
12 1
MUSIC
PLACES
2
4
~o
w 4
U
U
a 0
.
0
AO
z 0
.
A
U
U
A
Dufftow n
3
4
2
0
a
~0
w
m M
z
a s
0
AO
w
a' U
z a
w
2
Dumfries
Dundee
ART
DRAMA
2
4
3
15
1
Rep . Co.
2
6
7
3
4
Dunfermline .
Dunoon
Duns
6
2
3
1
Dunvegan (Skye)
Festiva l
+50
Edinburgh
Elgin
5
1
4
1
Forfar
4
2
4
Forres
3
2
3
Fortrose
2
3
Fort William
3
Fraserburgh
3
1
2
2
1
3
4
2
Rep . Co.
9
1
Garve
2
(
2
Girvan
2
50
Glasgow
Glenrothes
122
10
2
3
Galashiels
Gorebridge
1
1
Fochabers
Gatehouse
2
1
2
Evie (Orkney)
Falkirk
1
Festiva l
+Rep .
1
3
l
1
PLACES
E-O
UO
A 0
a
Grangemouth
DRAMA
MUSIC
Z-F,
a
1
FO
2
Ca9
a
a
za
1
5
Grantown-on-Spey
4
Haddo House
1
1
<a
~
w F
1
1
1
Harray (Orkney)
1
Hawick
3
Helensburgh .
2
1
Hillswick (Shetland)
1
Holm (Orkney)
1
1
Huntly
1
Innerleithen .
2
1
Inverness
9
Inverurie
2
Jedburgh
1
1
5
1
1
2
2
Keith
1
Kilmarnock .
8
1
1
Kilmory (Argyll)
2
1
Kilmun
2
Kingussie
2
Kinlochleven
3
Kirkcaldy
A ~
1
Hamilton
Invergordon
y
z
1
Greenock
Haddington .
ART
2
I
4
2
25
1
l
123
PLACES
MUSIC
as
a
4
4
4
z
zaa
AaP.
z°a
- a
w o
2
1
Kirkconnel .
3
Kirkcudbright
2
2
Kirkwall
2
2
1
3
Kirriemuir
.
Kyle of Lochalsh .
Ladybank
Lanark
Langholm
2
1
1
.
1
3
.
3
1
1
Largs .
Lerwick
2
2
Leven .
1
Lochcarron
1
1
Lochgilphead
1
Lochranza
Lockerbie
2
2
Lossiemouth
1
1
Markinch (Fife)
Millport
1
3
`
5
2
2
10
Montrose
Morebattle
3
Nairn
5
124
1
2
Miingavie
Moffat .
a W
w ^~
5
2
.
Lamlash (Arran)
ART
DRAMA
1
PLACES
MUSIC
z
F z
U 0
w
z
~- 0
U ~,
H z
U 0
w
0
Z0
z
60
A
7 a
a
Nethy Bridge
1
New Abbey .
1
a
a
a
En
q z
az ~~
<
W
u -~
2
1
Newburgh
Newport
1
Newton Stewart
1
1
2
1
2
North Berwick
4
3
1
Ormiston
Paisley .
Peebles
ART
H o
U
A
Oban
DRAMA
4
1
2
2
Penicui k
Perth
Peterhead
6
3
Rep. Co .
1
Festiva
+5 l
Pitlochry
Port Appin
1
Port Charlotte (Islay)
1
Port Ellen (Islay)
2
Portnahaven (Islay)
1
Portree (Skye)
1
1
Port William
1
1
Prestonpans .
1
1
Prestwick
Renfrew
Rothesay
3
3
2
1
1
1
12 5
MUSIC
PLACES
DRAMA
U~
H z
wo
z
U 0
A°
zQOa
a
z
H z
w
o
za
0
St . Andrews
a
~ WU
2
2
1
St . Margaret's Hope (Orkney) .
Saltcoats
1
1
Scalloway (Shetland)
2
2
1
1
Skelmorlie
i
2
1
Stewarton
Stirling
2
Stonehaven
4
2
Stornoway (Lewis)
2
2
Stranraer
2
1
Symington (By Kilmarnock)
1
1
1
Tain
1
4
Thornhill
2
Thurso
Tobermory (Mull) .
1
Tranent
1
Stromness (Orkney)
126
W ~
2
4
St . Boswells .
Troon .
Turriff
~z
a W
< ~
1
Sandwich (Shetland)
Shotts .
.:
i
Rutherglen
Selkirk
ART
3
2
2
1
3
1
2
3
2
2
j
I
1
'
1
i
i
2
2
2
1
3
PLACES
MUSIC
z
F z
U O
m
cG
W
a
a
z~
U
A
Ullapool
West Linton
Wigtown
Wishaw
z
F O
Uy
m ..
aa
Ca
F Z
U O
m I
a
z a
ART
'
mz
a
z m
¢ a
m o
u
1
3
Whiting Bay (Arran)
Wick
DRAMA
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
I
1
* DIRECT PROVISION means events organised by the Scottish Committee, with th e
help of local organisers, the Arts Council taking full financial responsibility .
INDIRECT PROVISION refers to events promoted by an independent body receivin g
a grant or guarantee against loss from the Arts Council . Examples are The Scottish Nationa l
Orchestra, the Repertory Companies, Arts Clubs and member societies of the Nationa l
Federation of Music Societies .
]2 T
ART
The Hon . Michael Astor
Sir Anthony Blunt, K.C.V .O .,
F .B.A.
Professor A . Clutton-Brock
Clifford Ellis
Professor Lawrence Gowing,
C.B .E .
Basil Gray
PANE L
Sir William Coldstream, C .B .E . (Chairman)
E . C . Gregory
Sir John Rothenstein, C .B .E.,
J. Leslie Martin, Ph .D ., F .R .I.B.A .
Ph .D.
H. D . Molesworth
Hugh Scrutto n
W. T. Monnington, R .A .
Mrs. Somervill e
Henry Moore, C .H., D .Lit .,
Keith Vaugha n
A .R .I .B .A .
Professor Ellis K . Waterhouse,
Benedict Nicolson, M.V.O .
C .B.E .
John Piper
Carel Weight, A .R .A ., R.B .A.
DRAMA PANE L
Dame Peggy Ashcroft
Sir Basil Bartlett, Bt .
Wynyard Browne
John Clements, C.B.E .
Nevill Coghill
Lord Cohen of Birkenhead, M .D . ,
LL.D ., F .R .C .P .
Professor Bonamy Dobree, O.B .E.
Benn W. Levy, M .B.E . (Chairman)
Richard Findlater
Derek Salberg
Professor J . Isaacs
Glen Byam Shaw, C .B .E .
Sir Barry Jackson, LL .D ., D .Litt . Stephen Thoma s
General Sir William Platt, G .B .E ., Peter Ustino v
K.C.B., D .S .O.
John Whitin g
Michael Redgrave, C.B .E .,
Hugh Willatt
F.R .S .A .
Miss Irene Worth
MUSIC
Dr . Thomas Armstrong
Eric Blom, C .B .E .
Clive Carey, C.B .E ., F .R.C.M .
Henry Davis
Miss Astra Desmond, C .B .E .
William Glock
PANE L
Professor Anthony Lewis (Chairman)
Walter Goehr
SirWilliam McKie, M .V.O., D.Mus .
Herbert Howells, C .B .E., D .Mus ., Gareth Morris, F.R.A .M .
F .R .C.M .
Professor Humphrey Procter-Gregg
R . J . F. Howgill, C.B.E.
Humphrey Searle
Dr. Donald J . Hughes
Miss Seymour Whinyates, O .B .E .
Miss Kathleen Long
Leslie Woodgate
POETRY
PANE L
Joseph Compton, C .B .E. (Chairman)
Christopher Fry
Laurie Lee, M .B .E.
Patric Dickinson
W. R. Rodger s
Professor Bonamy Dobrde, O .B .E. Roy Fuller
John Hayward, C.B.E .
Miss Janet Adam Smith
G . S . Fraser
Printed in England at The Baynard Pres s