About Britain - The Arts

The Arts

Timeline:

Late 14th Century - Geoffrey Chaucer writes The Canterbury Tales.

1600-05 - Shakespeare writes Hamlet, Othello and King Lear.

1798 - Publication of Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads.

1821 - John Constable paints The Hay Wain.

1849-50 - Charles Dickens writes David Copperfield.

1931 - Ninette de Valois establishes the Vic-Wells ballet company (becomes the Royal Ballet Company).

1945 - Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes performed

1955 - First performance of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

1965 - Sculptor Barbara Hepworth made a dame.

1967 - The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts' Club Band album released.

1994 - Release of the film Four Weddings and A Funeral.

2000 - Royal National Theatre tops winners list at prestigious Olivier Awards.

Funding of the Arts

In 2001/02 over £250 million was channelled from the Government to arts and cultural organisations through the Arts Council of England (ACE).

ACE is committed to nurturing creativity, experimentation, technology, diversity and wider audiences for the arts.

In May 2000 lottery grants of £4,472,000 announced by ACE for 'capital projects' including a new arts centre in Runcorn, Cheshire and the redevelopment of the Royal Shakespeare Company's theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

£39 million has been allocated to Welsh Arts. In August 2000, £2,174,000 in lottery fund distributed for various projects including public sculpture in towns such as Usk and Mumbles.

People attending ACE funded arts organisations in 1998/99: 24,554,000.

Visual arts museums receiving largest state subsidy 1998/99 (in millions):

Gallery British Museum, London - £33,921

Victoria and Albert Museum, London - £29,147

Tate Gallery, London - £19,218

National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside - £12,696

The National Lottery

Ticket sales since the launch of the National Lottery have secured over £26.9 billion, raising £9.3 billion for good causes. The average size of grants from the National Lottery is £40,000. It would take 17 days non-stop viewing to watch all the UK films supported by National Lottery Funding.

Government Art Collection

The collection dates from 1898 and now amounts to 11,500 works of art. The collection is on public display in 150 UK government buildings and 300 foreign locations including Embassies and High Commissions.

Business Sponsorship

Between 1975 and 1999, business sponsorship of the arts in the UK has grown from £600,000 to £141 million. In 1998/99 businesses put £35.2 million towards the capital costs of arts organisations and gave £8.9 million through corporate membership schemes.

Drumming Festivals

Over 550 arts festivals are held each year in the UK including The Edinburgh Festival, The Notting Hill Carnival and The London Film Festival

Dance

The main subsidised dance companies include:

The Royal Ballet
The English National Ballet
The Birmingham Royal Ballet
Rambert Dance Company
DV8

Each year 30-plus members of the Royal Ballet tour the country. The year 2000 saw London's 22nd annual international festival of contemporary dance - Dance Umbrella.

Scene from The Full Monty Film

The four key British film studios are Pinewood, Shepperton, Elstree and Leavesden.

UK stage director Sam Mendes' first film American Beauty carries off five Academy Awards (Oscars).

Music

The music industry is one of the top 'invisible earners' after banking and insurance. In 1999 it earned £1.3 billion.

Theatre

There are over 700 performing arts companies in the UK. Fringe theatre in London offers over 60 shows a night in addition to the main West End theatres. There are 40 regional theatre companies across the UK. Average annual attendance at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (opened in 1996) - 250,000.

TV and Radio

The broadcast media are by far the most influential of all media in bringing the arts into the home.

The BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs cost £6 million and took three years to make. It won record audiences of 20 million people - half the viewing public in UK. Overseas sales net £60 million.

The BBC

operates four television channels
five national radio networks
39 regional & local radio stations
broadcasts 100 hours of classical and other music each week on Radio 3
Independent Radio & TV
3 terrestrial channels
satellite TV and cable services funded mainly by subscription
3 national commercial radio stations and over 200 local radio services

The Angel of the North Visual Arts

The first painting acquired by the National Portrait Gallery: the 'Chandos' Portrait of Shakespeare. The National Gallery owns in excess of 2,300 paintings.

There are 8 million visits a year to the UK's 2,500 museums and galleries.

12 May 2000 - The Tate Modern art gallery opens in converted Bankside Power Station, London. Cost: £134 million. The main turbine hall is 152 metres long, 30 metres high and 23 metres wide. In its first year it attracted 5.2 million visitors.

In 2000, the £20,000 Turner Prize was awarded to Wolfgang Tillmans for an art arrangement of 60 photographs.

Children and the Arts

Two million children experience live arts performances in their schools provided by visiting groups each year. Many of the next generation of dancers come through the Royal Ballet School, the Central School of Ballet and the School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds.

To date, the UK's National Film and Television School graduates have picked up 250 awards for their films in international festivals.