APPENDIX 3
Letter from Mr Robert Hutchison, Chief
Executive of Southern Arts
I attended the Committee's session last Tuesday
morning in which an hour was spent in conversation with representatives
from the Arts Council of England. It was clear at the end of the
morning that the Committee had not scrutinised the Arts Council's
costly and far-reaching proposals for re-structuring the arts
funding system. If it is to carry out its scrutiny function satisfactorily
the Committee surely needs to analyse carefully the written evidence
that it has received on the Arts Council's proposals and to take
oral evidence from representatives from some of the Regional Arts
Boards that have consistently argued for a better way forward?
Since these are urgent matters—of central
importance to the conduct of arts policy—I hope that you
will ask some representatives of Regional Arts Boards to give
oral evidence in the near future.
On Tuesday morning the Arts Council representatives
presented a limited and distorted account of the processes of
consultation that there have been on their proposals—as
well as the results of those consultation exercises. When the
transcript of Tuesday's deliberations becomes available it may
be necessary to correct the distorted picture presented by the
Arts Council.
17 January 2002
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