The Press TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1968. The Arts Council

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31726, 9 July 1968, Page 12

The Press TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1968. The Arts Council

Mr G. G. Gibbes Watson, chairman of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, has resigned for reasons of health; and it would be worse than ungrateful to let the occasion pass without acknowledging his services on the council and for it, most notably in

the very difficult circumstances into which it has latterly been plunged. Many will have only a vague recollection of the establishment of the council by an Act of 1963 to commemorate the visit of Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip and to finance its work, as an autonomous body, by a grant of $60,000 from

the Consolidated Fund and by a grant from the Lotteries Fund Board, at first $400,000. This total income, only slightly supported by gifts, barely sustained commitments inherited from the former Arts Advisory Council and allowed little or no scope to pursue and develop a policy which it was the earliest business of the council to shape, and which it did, in fact, shape very wisely in view of the fact that, as a new, autonomous body, it must proceed cautiously. Nobody then foresaw that the falling net revenue of the Lotteries Fund Board would oblige it to reduce its grant in successive years to the council, which needed an expanding, not a contracting, income and which was accordingly reduced to the necessity of cutting its support for the arts instead of maintaining and extending it These facts show, of course, that the basis on which the council was financially established was a treacherous one; and so much the Government has acknowledged by making the council a special grant of $lOO,OOO, which still gives it a smaller income than it first had: to say “ enjoyed ” would be to use the word mockingly. The Government’s wise and welcome relief action directs attention to the fact that its own purpose in establishing the Arts Council is defeated, unless it moves to assure the council of a minimum income, enabling it to plan for two or three years ahead, and allows for the need, from time to time, to increase that income. Such was indeed our advice in a leading article of May 25 and it is now renewed. Examples of the retreats and cuts that have been enforced upon the council by reducing its income could be multiplied; but one is enough. It was one of the council’s most constructive decisions to aid the development of regional orchestras to a professional standard and complement, enabling them to serve the needs of opera and ballet; but the temporary suspension or contraction of this policy badly damaged not only regional music but the future of opera and ballet Meanwhile, Mr Watson’s has been a steady hand in control of the council It has made mistakes; but it has never blundered on to persist in them. His own interests have lain particularly in the visual arts; and his council’s policy has been constructive, in its awards system, in subsidising and promoting the purchase of works of art, and in promoting and subsidising exhibitions. As a man of affairs and as an amateur of the arts, Mr Watson has worked well as the first chairman of the Arts Council and deserves the thanks of the public accordingly. Mr R. S. V. Simpson, who succeeds him, will have the good wishes of all who recognise that the Arts Council has a great work to do and does it earnestly and voluntarily.