I got very cranky the other day at a piece on the BBC 'Today' programme where the presenter and one of his interviewees - who used to be involved in arts sponsorship in this country - were asserting that the arts were elitist, for a minority and, it implied, ever...

The BBC and the Arts Council were each founded by great visionaries of the 20th century. For the BBC it was John Reith, who set up the company in 1922, aiming to "educate, inform and entertain" the public by bringing "the best of everything into the greatest number of homes"....

With over a million 16 to 24-year-olds in this country out of work, perhaps the responsibility to provide real employment opportunities for young people should fall upon areas of the economy with the greatest prospects for growth.

The creative and cultural industries is one such sector, contributing more than £36.3...

Arts Council England funds all kinds of music, but one area where we haven't been seen as players is in pop music - however you define it.

The Arts Council actually has a long history of supporting a wide range of contemporary music, from our pioneering Contemporary Music Network...

It was while listening to Professor Brian Cox on Desert Island Discs that it came to me.

Cox, megabrain, poster boy for the sexing up of science and once a member of synth band D:Ream, said that whenever he saw the prime minister he would ask: "how can we...

Whenever there's a squeeze on both public and household spending - and that's certainly true today - there are always voices calling for the arts to be downgraded and discarded as 'nice to have'. It was true in the '80s and '90s here, and in the depression in 1930s America....