Letter to the Committee Specialist from
the British Council
I am writing to update you on developments at
the British Council since the arts consultation process we undertook
earlier this year.
At the end of July we published the "Action
Plan for the Arts" and commissioned Graham Devlin to work
with us. His "Arts Content in Future British Council Programmes"
report has now been published and the British Council has also
produced a response to his findings.
This marks the final stage of the consultation
and demonstrates our continued commitment to our global arts work.
These documents are available to download at www.britishcouncil.org/arts-in-cultural-relations.
Graham Devlin's reports, along with the findings
of the consultation, has made an invaluable contribution to the
realignment of our future arts work. Action on many of the recommendations
is already taking place and in our fuller response we have underlined
our commitment to creating clearer communication to help rebuild
trust with the arts sector, further developing a commissioning
process to select projects which reflect our core cultural relations
purpose and continuing our work to strengthen our expertise in
the arts.
The British Council is also delighted to announce
the appointment of Rebecca Walton as Director Arts. Rebecca will
be continuing in the role that she has held in an interim capacity
since April 2008 and will work alongside the future Chair of our
newly formed Arts Advisory Committee, a new role we will recruit
for externally in January.
Thank you for your generous support and your
continued interest in the work of the British Council.
19 December 2008
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