So, announced in Wednesday's Budget is a new scheme, coming in September, for cultural organisations to claim tax relief on productions of theatre, ballet, dance and opera, musicals and othe…
In Arts Council England's This England report a couple of weeks ago and in Friday's "evidence review" of "The value of arts and culture to people", ACE tries to steer consideration away from…
We're learning a lot from the forensic dissection in articles and television programmes of the run-up to the First World War, not just of history but, if we reflect a moment in the context o…
The London-versus-the-rest controversy moves on. We've had academics, the artocrats, the politicians – oh, haven't we had them – the funders, now we're getting the workers. What …
There's still a popular opinion about critics that "those who can write/act/direct, those who can't review". It's mostly popular among those who have been at the wrong end of a critic's pen,…
On Thursday I saw the future, and it doesn't work. A simplistic, glib and over-cynical response, the good people at Nesta will say, but when a plea has to go out for someone who can...
The debate on arts funding, begun by the report Rebelancing Our Cultural Capital, about the apparent disproportion in arts funding for the regions compared with London, reached the House of …
Gambling has long been the curse of the acting profession, with so many cinemas and playhouses having been taken over by bingo halls and more recently casinos. But, although there's no way b…
Maria Miller has defended her funding strategy once again, telling us that being able to make a good economic case has got a better deal out of the Treasury. It is not, of course, a...
Southbank Centre artistic director Jude Kelly returns from duty at the Internet Services Providers’ Association conference in frozen New York today to find her cherished £120 millio…
What on earth is Michael Gove up to? Maria Miller has come up with one great opportunity to make sure the government does something right by our history and our culture, and he's set a...
On the face of it, things are looking pretty good as the arts glide into 2014. Box offices are booming, museums and galleries have never been so busy, our art-makers are universally pre-emin…
There aren't many schools that can boast an international concert venue for its school hall, certainly no state school. And there's surely no school of any kind that has its own bar. That…
So art is to be a part of the First World War commemorations " not "celebrations" as everyone is still having to be so careful to say. And so they should be, perhaps at the...
Simon Tait questions some of the assertions made in a recent report claiming Arts Council England skews its funding towards London
There's a slightly scary pragmatism working its way into the arts in the shadow of the recession, and Peter Bazalgette is a champion for it. He believes with all his heart in the arts, but...
Simon Tait talks to the new chairman of Arts Council England about the challenging times ahead