Abstract
This chapter examines the processes of arts advocacy and policymaking during the 1940s in Great Britain at the moment when the United Kingdom’s post-war cultural infrastructure was established. Using unpublished archival sources, the chapter looks behind the scenes into board meetings, hotel rooms, and dinner parties to illuminate the negotiations of policymaking. Focusing on the activities of Keynes, Massey, Sam Courtauld, Kenneth Clark, and R.A. Butler, it shares historical evidence of arts advocates collaborating through shared social networks, voluntary service on the boards of cultural organizations, and appointed committees, to strengthen and re-establish national institutions in London, including the Arts Council, the Tate, and the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. It concludes with a brief examination of The Arts Enquiry, a cultural policy research program funded by Dorothy Elmhirst in Great Britain during the 1940s.
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Upchurch, A.R. (2016). Arts Policy During the Second World War in the United Kingdom. In: The Origins of the Arts Council Movement. New Directions in Cultural Policy Research. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46163-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46163-6_4
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