This book explores the hitherto neglected history of the campaign for state funding of the arts. By focusing on the important but forgotten movements for music and drama subsidy before and during WWII, Howard Webber makes an important contribution to the history of the arts subsidy.Before the Arts Council rediscovers three forgotten but influential campaigns for state support of the arts in Britain before and during World War II. Webber’s impressive historical excavation challenges existing scholarship which argues that the arts subsidy was the result of the war, and instead re-situates the campaign’s origins in the pre-war years. Webber does so by drawing on correspondence from influential figures including Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Maynard Keynes and J.B Priestly, along with extensive use of government papers.Before the Arts Council challenges the ‘creation myth’ of arts subsidy in Britain, the view, dominant since 1945, that in the 1930s the British government and public were indifferent or hostile to arts subsidy, that all this changed in 1939, and that the Arts Council was the natural consequence. The book rediscovers three influential prewar and wartime campaigns for state support of the arts:Correspondence from figures including Christie, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Maynard Keynes, Thomas Beecham and J B Priestley is supplemented by extensive use of government papers and press reports. Together they provide a new perspective on the history of the state and the arts in Britain before and during the war.

Before the Arts Council: Campaigns for State Funding of the Arts in Britain 1934–44 PDF

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