Robert Hewison and John Holden
2006

£15.00 + p&p, 232 pp
Col and b/w illus
ISBN 978 1 903080 05 4

Experience and Experiment, the history of the United Kingdom Branch of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, tells the story of a significantly successful venture, one that has had profound effects in the arts, social welfare and education in the UK since the Foundation’s establishment in 1956. The list of organisations that the Gulbenkian has nurtured from its earliest days is both extensive and impressive and includes the Samaritans, Shelter, the Runnymede Trust, the Royal Shakespeare Company, London Contemporary Dance and Snape Maltings. The Foundation’s seminal reports and publications have injected intellectual rigour and fresh thinking into the national debate and have prodded politicians into action – John Myerscough’s The Economic Importance of the Arts in Britain (with the Policy Studies Institute 1988), Ken Robinson’s The Arts in Schools (1982), Peter Newell’s Taking Children Seriously (1991/2000), to name a few. For the Gulbenkian has always acted as a catalyst, initiating original grant programmes, taking stock of their effect and leading the way for others to follow.

Commissioned from two of Britain’s best-informed cultural commentators, the book is written with critical perception and wit, and provides a fascinating reflection on changes in British social, educational and cultural policy, from post war patrician attitudes to ‘charity’, through the radical optimism of the sixties to the cash-driven ideology of Thatcherism and the emphasis on community self-help and capacity building which prevails today. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the development of social and cultural policy in the UK and highlights the unique contribution that can be made by enlightened independent trusts and charities.

‘If you are having a bad day in front of a daunting pile of grant applications of mixed worth, you could give yourself no better pick-me-up than dipping into this wonderful book.’ David Cutler, Baring Foundation

Robert Hewison has written widely on nineteenth- and twentieth-century British cultural history. He was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University, taught English Literature at Lancaster University, and is a regular contributor to The Sunday Times. He is an Associate of the independent think-tank Demos. His books include: Culture and Consensus: England art and politics since 1940 (Methuen, 1997), Towards 2010 (Arts Council England, 2000), and, with John Holden, The Right to Art (Demos, 2004) and Challenge and Change (Demos 2005).

John Holden is Head of Culture at the think-tank Demos, a member of the Management Committee of the Clore Leadership Programme, and a Fellow of the RSA. He has been involved in numerous major cultural research projects and recent publications include: Creative Reading and Capturing Cultural Value (both Demos, 2004) and Cultural Value and the Crisis of Legitimacy (Demos, 2006).