Arts Council of Great Britain: records, 1928-1997

Series description

Context

In 1958, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Harold Macmillan, invited the Arts Council to undertake a survey of existing buildings for the arts and to make recommendations for the future. The Council produced a two-part report, which it published in 1959 and 1960. Following the government white paper of 1965 ('A Policy for the Arts') the Arts Council was empowered to give capital grants and to encourage local authorities and other promoters to increase the number of viable arts venues. By 1976, grants totalling £8,214,500 had been paid or promised to 271 architectural schemes in England, Scotland and Wales under the 'Housing the Arts' initiative. In 1982-83, responsibility for 'Housing the Arts' was taken over from the Finance Department by the Regional Department. The capital programme was abandoned in the mid-1980s and the initiative survived briefly as a means to provide information and advice.

Scope and content

This series concerns individual projects developed under the 'Housing the Arts' initiative, including proposals for Coventry's Belgrade theatre, the Manchester Royal Exchange, and London's Almeida and Tricycle theatres. The files contain some or all of the following items: architectural elevations, plans and sections as well as occasional axonometric drawings; feasibility studies and stage design reports; annual reports, applications for capital grants, budgets, correspondence, minutes from meetings, photographs, press cuttings, printed publicity material and strategy papers.

See ACGB/12, ACGB/84 and ACGB/120 for further material relating to 'Housing the Arts'.

Arrangement

The files in this series are listed by place name within the following sections: London (alphabetically by borough), English regions, Scotland and Wales. One file, labelled 'Miscellaneous Papers,' relates to arts building projects in general and is included at the end of the catalogue.

Access

General information on access to archives at the V&A is available on the archive pages of the V&A website.

Restrictions on access

Access to unpublished material less than 30 years old may be restricted and requests for access can take up to 20 working days to be processed. When applying for access, it is helpful if you can quote the reference number, title and covering dates of the file(s) in question. For very large requests you are advised to contact us to discuss your requirements. All requests should be sent to archive@vam.ac.uk or Victoria and Albert Museum Archives (ref. ACGB), Blythe House, 23 Blythe Road, London W14 0QX.

Detailed catalogue