Arts Council of Great Britain: records, 1928-1997

Series description

Context

The Arts Council's commitment to touring productions of ballet, theatre and opera dates from its earliest days, when it inherited the war-time work of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA). In 1970, the Arts Council took over the formerly independent Dramatic and Lyric Theatre Association (DALTA) and appointed its director, Jack Phipps, to run a scheme to organise the touring of opera, ballet and drama. Initially, the touring scheme was known as DALTA. By 1973/74, it was being run by the Regional Department and the name DALTA was gradually replaced with 'Arts Council Touring'. In 1975/76, the Regional Department was disbanded and a separate Touring Department was formed. This department existed until 1979/80, when Touring was absorbed within a new Regional Department. The next restructuring took place in 1985/86. After this date, Touring was once again re-established as a separate department.

Scope and content

The majority of records in this series were produced between 1981 and 1985 when the Regional Department had taken over control of Touring at the Arts Council. The allocation of ACGB funds for touring was decided on a project-by-project basis and many of the theatre companies represented in this series were planning touring schedules for a single financial year only. With the exception of the first section in this series (material relating to departmental initiatives and working groups) these files concern specific applications for funding by a variety of touring and repertory companies, and contain related correspondence. In addition, some files contain printed publicity material, correspondence of a more general nature, show reports and / or national press reviews.

This series has been kept separate from other material about touring drama to preserve the original order (which was reflected in the distinctive reference coding: ACT-DR). For more information about touring companies see ACGB/96, ACGB/98, ACGB/102 and the ACGB/42/71

Arrangement

The files in this series are arranged in four sections: departmental initiatives and working groups, large and middle-scale touring companies, repertory companies, and small-scale touring companies. Files are ordered alphabetically within each section.

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