The Press FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1963. Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30051, 8 February 1963, Page 10

The Press FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1963. Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council

In the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, to be founded at Her Majesty’s own request in lieu of personal gifts from the Dominion, New Zealanders will have a permanent reminder of this year’s Royal tour. It is hardly surprising that so wise a decision as the establishment of the council

should have been warmly welcomed throughout New Zealand. Having achieved recognition internationally for its humanitarian, economic, constitutional, and military attainments, the Dominion is striving to develop an indigenous culture, to which are contributed worth-while elements, both Maori and European. Although to a frontier civilisation such as New Zealand’s the concept of such an organisation may seem strange, there are good grounds for supposing that cultural growth and appreciation will be greatly fostered by a centralised agency, independent/ of politics and capable of recruiting and channelling resources in the national interest. The Queen Elizabeth Arts Council will presumably be such an agency. Culture (which itself can be an unfortunate word) and controversy are inseparable the world over; but this should not deter the Government or the. organisers of the new council. Much remains to be decided about the council’s structure, operations, and financial basis. However, initial decisions are not irreversible, and there are sound arguments for learning from experience—and from other countries—how the council

can serve New Zealand most effectively. It is reasonable to presume that the Queen Elizabeth council will absorb and supersede the existing Arts Advisory Council. The latter was constituted in November, 1960, and was financed originally with £30,000 from art union profits and £30,000 from the Consolidated Fund. (The popularity of the Golden Kiwi lotteries seems to justify far bigger grants to the new foundation.) The Arts Advisory Council decided at its first working meeting to confine its activities to the encouragement of music, drama, ballet, and the fine arts, and therefore to exclude literature from its ambit. It agreed (according to the 1961 report of the Internal Affairs Department) to “work to a broad policy of “encouraging the achievement of professional stan-

“dards in all fields of the “ arts ”. The department’s latest report records heartening results from the advisory council’s programme for the cultural training of New Zealanders, both overseas and at home, and for the general dissemination of cultural knowledge. Incidentally, the council has added immeasurably to the pleasures of the New Zealand public. Now, it seems, these healthy national activities are to be expanded and assured of stronger financial support. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to discover a better way of commemorating the current Royal tour than this continuing enrichment of the national consciousness.