I INTRODUCTION
1. On 20 December we announced evidence sessions
on selected arts development projects. We picked the proposals
of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to develop its Stratford
site and the latest in a series of plans to revitalise the South
Bank arts complex (SBC). We also announced interest in progress
with the restructuring of the Arts Council for England. Given
limited time available for this inquiry, we proceeded by taking
oral evidence from the main protagonists and called for written
evidence from others.
2. We took evidence from the RSC on 15 January 2002
and from the South Bank Centre (SBC) and the Arts Council on 22
January 2002. We received 66 memoranda (in addition to material
from the witnesses for oral evidence). All the oral evidence and
memoranda we received are published in a separate volume.[1]
We visited the RSC in Stratford in midFebruary and the South
Bank on 14 March. In a separate exercise on 5 March, we visited
the new home of the Laban Centre for Modern Dance emerging on
Creekside in Deptford.
1