Your editorial in the latest issue - ?Nine Old Dogs: any new tricks?? is surely premature and unduly cynical.
The Arts Council proposals mis-presented as the abolition of the Regional Arts Boards, were really about the abolition of the Arts Council as we have known it, and the strengthening of the regions. Only the lamentable means by which they were implemented masked the ends. The Arts Council?s original prospectus excluded the Regional Chairs from the new Council. Expanding the Council and winning seats for the Regional Chairs was a major victory. I found the long awaited announcement of the new Council a very pleasant surprise, containing several new members who I know and respect, both for their expertise and who I am sure are unafraid to challenge and fight for what they believe in. Of course a new Council needs continuity, as do the regional bodies. Only time will tell how this new body comes to function and addresses its demanding task. But rather than kicking a dog that?s down, let?s celebrate and support the injection of new regional blood that will hopefully create a genuinely different body that now desperately needs a new name to go with it.
Published: 17-06-2002