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The Arts Council dilemma
Elizabeth Sweeting
1983
£4.00 + p&p, 112 pp
ISBN 978 0 903319 25 6
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The First Conference of Commonwealth Arts Councils, April 1979, initiated the valuable exchange of information and opinion which led to the decision to develop the connections formed there at a second one. In order to focus discussion without imposing undue restraints, it was agreed that the next forum should deal with public patronage of the arts. Representatives of a variety of organisations and arts agencies were invited to prepare papers which would describe in some detail the philosophy and practice of arts support in their respective countries.
The First Conference and the report focused on the arts council as the predominant system in the Commonwealth countries, in general based on the British model evolved from the 1940s. It was agreed that the second Conference should look also at other systems evolved in and deemed appropriate for other countries. Delegates were therefore invited from France, the USA and ex-colonial and Third World countries to contribute papers and to widen horizons of the discussion.
This report publishes the papers presented at the second Conference and attempts to draw together the main facts and appraisals both from the papers and from the Conference discussion of them.
Elizabeth Sweeting was Arts Consultant to the Government of South Australia from 1978–80. An experienced arts administrator, she has worked in a great variety of positions in that field in England also served as member of panels and working parties for the Arts Council of Great Britain. In Australia, she was chairman of the Conference on Arts Administration in Adelaide (1972) and in 1976 was invited by the Government of South Australia to be Director of the Arts Council of South Australia. From 1977 to 1980 she served as Council member of the Australia Council. She has participated in enquiries and reports for the Gulbenkian Foundation, UNESCO, and the Australia Council. She is the author of three books on theatre.