Enterprise Culture in British Arts Policy

Abstract

State support for the arts in the United Kingdom has a remarkable history. This chapter first sketches the trajectory of these developments,¹ then turns to contemporary support for both artists and art museums,² focusing on privatization and its consequences. Privatization refers to the growing need for arts organizations to rely on private sources of funds (chiefly, individual philanthropy and corporate sponsorship), a need that arises as a direct result of cutbacks in public funding of the arts. In the United Kingdom, privatization is accompanied by the pervading influence of enterprise culture — the privileging of business-world norms and rhetoric championed by both Conservatives and New Labour. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the continuing debate about state funding of the arts in the United Kingdom.