Arts Council of Great Britain: records, 1928-1997

Series description

Context

These items have been kept together in order to reflect original order, since they clearly belonged to a sequence of numerically ordered files. The records date from the 1960s and mark the crossover period between the work of DALTA and its gradual development and expansion into the Arts Council's own Touring scheme. In fact some of the earlier files relate solely to the work of Jack Phipps at DALTA rather than at the Arts Council.

The bulk of the files however date from 1970 to about 1980 and hence reflect the initial development of the Touring Department before it was taken over by Regional Affairs and then re-established again in 1986.

Scope and content

This series includes files kept on the various companies (theatre, dance, and opera) which toured through DALTA / ACGB, the theatres which booked touring product, and the Local Authorities / Regional Arts Associations, which had dealings with DALTA / the touring department. There are also files relating to general administration and papers documenting the work of the Touring Advisory Committee, including correspondence with organisations such as SACLAT (Standing Advisory Committee on Local Authorities and the Theatre), and RTCC (Regional Touring Consultative Committees), as well as details of the Touring Department's structure, staffing, and budget. Since the Touring Department was concerned with the theatres in the regions, as well as the companies which toured to them, this series also contains a considerable number of building reports commissioned by the council during the 1970s; some of these reports cover all technical aspects of the theatre in question, others focus on a single identified need.

Arrangement

The items in this series are arranged into four categories (1) Theatre / Dance / Opera Companies (2) Theatres and Theatre Management Organisations (3) DALTA / Touring Department Business (4) Local Authorities / RAAs; within the categories, files are arranged chronologically.

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Access to some unpublished material may be restricted and requests for access can take up to 20 working days to be processed.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