Department for Culture Media and Sport

arts council england

Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts in England. Along with the national office, there are nine regional Arts Councils.

The Arts Council is part funded by the DCMS and the Department has allocated the following grant-in-aid until 2008:

  • 2005/06: £410.4 million
  • 2006/07: £410.4 million
  • 2007/08: £410.4 million

Arts Council England and arts policy
The Funding Agreement between Arts Council England and DCMS sets out our shared strategic objectives:

  1. To improve the opportunities available throughout England for people to engage with the arts and in particular to increase the number of people from priority groups who participate in the arts and attend arts events.
  2. To improve the opportunities for children and young people to experience the arts and develop their artistic and creative skills.
  3. To support an infrastructure of excellence producing internationally recognised artistic work across the arts sector.
  4.  To be an authoritative development agency and advocate for the arts.
  5. To improve organisational delivery.

Arts Council England report progress against their Funding Agreement Targets in their Annual Report.

The Department also expects Arts Council England to distribute Lottery funds in line with Financial and Policy Directions.


Arts Council England is responsible for running:

Artsmark: the national award that rewards schools who show a commitment to all the arts. More on Artsmark

Creative Partnerships: bringing school children and their teachers together with creative organisations and individuals to work in partnership on creative projects. More on Creative Partnerships

The “arms length” principle
Arts Council England and the regional Arts Councils operate "at arm's length" from Government in deciding funding for individual artforms and art organisations.

This means that decisions on how much support should be given to a particular artist, theatre or music group are taken by experts in Arts Councils, and not by Ministers in the department.  

This principle has been a feature of the arts funding system in England for the last 50 years.
More on funding for the arts in England.

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