Victoria and Albert Museum

Arts Council of Great Britain: records, 1928-1997

Series description

Context

A major function of the Arts Council'sVisual Art Department was the mounting of exhibitions at the Hayward and Serpentine Galleries in London and the organisation of touring exhibitions for the rest of the country. The first three travelling exhibitions were organised by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts in May 1940.

The Hayward Gallery opened in 1968 and was initially operated and maintained by the Arts Council, whose major exhibitions were then for the most part concentrated there. In 1970 the Arts Council also opened the Serpentine Gallery and exhibitions were also shown at other major galleries in London such as the British Museum, the Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

During the 1980s a greater part of the Arts Council's grant-in-aid on art was put towards developing a programme with municipal art galleries. Regional touring exhibitions and the exhibition programme at the Hayward Gallery now became the responsibility of the South Bank Board, which was established as an independent limited company in 1988.

The files relating to the art exhibition section of the Arts Council were stored with the Hayward Gallery rather than with the Arts Council. In order to reflect the separate custodial history of these records and in the interests of original order, they have not been re-intergrated into the Arts Development Division sub-group. Instead they have formed the independent "Hayward Gallery" sub-group of the Archive.

Scope and content

The files contained within this series relate to the Arts Council's liason with various galleries around the country. They reflect the Council's efforts in dissemination, an important aspect of the organisation's work. The files mainly consist of correspondence concerning the lending of Arts Council exhibitions for display at these galleries.

Arrangement

These files are arranged alphabetically by the town or city in which the gallery is located. There is a section of sorted files which are individually listed, followed by a section of files which were found in an unsorted state. They include files received from the Hayward Gallery in September 2001.

Access

Restrictions on access

Access to unpublished material less than 30 years old is subject to the written permission of the Arts Council of England. Apply in the first instance to the Archive of Art and Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum.