After the mild shock of discovering that the Arts Council no longer believes in excellence as a criterion for assessment of arts organisations – relevance apparently replaced it some time ago – I have been trying to find out a bit more about its report on opera, the terms of reference, how it came to be commissioned, and why a belief in excellence is an indication of a hopelessly old-fashioned view of cultural practice and must be eradicated if possible.
For anyone interested in the article in yesterday’s Observer, here it is:-
You can download the report:-
Its authors are Tamsin Cox and Oliver Mantell.
Tamsin Cox has just completed a PhD at the University of Nottingham which, as it happens and very appropriately, is on the subject of ‘Concepts of value and worth in relation to arts and culture in competing narratives across multiple discourses: the example of post-war Britain’.
So, I guess she demonstrates that the ways in which the idea of value (ie a belief in excellence) is a cultural construct. As she summarises her research, it ‘looks at the status and role of ‘cultural policy studies’ as an academic field in debates concerning the ‘value’ of culture in public policy in Britain. My study will consider both historical and contemporary academic material which constitutes the academic contribution/intervention in this area, and consider what claims are made for the purpose and application of such work. It will look particularly at the ways in which different kinds of knowledge and knowledge production are privileged or validated over others in certain discourses, and what the reasons for this are’.
It is not yet available.
But the idea of excellence, which Maynard Keynes believed in so passionately as a post-war democratic right, has presumably been superseded by a view that all forms of cultural judgment are essentially political.
The Arts Council slogan used to be (no doubt, many years ago in the Dark Ages when people were foolish enough to believe in such things) ‘Excellence for All’, which was a useful encapsulation of its beliefs. ‘Relevance for all’ doesn’t quite have the same ring to it and I wonder who and how relevance is assessed.
Does it mean political engagement ?
Relevance is surely even harder to judge than excellence. And who makes that judgment, one wonders, since the process of assessment behind Arts Council decision-making is a touch opaque ?
I have quite a bit of re-education to catch up on.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
The opera report frequently uses the term ‘high quality’ without apparent disgust. Call me irrelevant and old, but isn’t that almost identical to the dreaded ‘excellence’? Incidentally, any report that has a summary a dozen single-spaced pages long seems to me to achieve neither excellence nor relevance.
It is not only the replacement of excellence with the opacity of the ‘relevance’ – to whom or what – it is the fact that their use of the English language is challenging to say the least. One of their other ‘key investment principles’ (EEK!) is …..’dynamism’ wonderful I hear you cheer – until you then read the guidelines issued under this term and it becomes apparent that ‘dynamism’ inexplicably translates as……wait for it…..more detailed REPORTING! Since when has box ticking been dynamic??? I acted as the Chief Exec of an ‘outstanding’ Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation for 7 years – just as ‘strong’ across the board in terms of finance, governance, creativity – balancing their frankly bonkers priorities and reporting with the actual running of something which worked and offered value and (dare I whisper it) excellence to those with whom we worked. They cut our funding in November 2022 – I then spent 9 months with a fantastic team and dwindling finances fighting this – Reader – it ended with a barrister’s report (paid for by ACE) who found in our favour….I could go on – but suffice it to say we are the ONLY NPO to be quietly put back into the portfolio with no provisos – no apology from Henley or Serota for 9 months of hell – and i have left the sector. There is more- much more going on here – and more victims – I fail to believe that nearly octogrnarian Dame Mary Archer (a scientist by trade whose primarily link to the arts is a notorious husband who writes novels which must be on the ‘relevance’ spectrum, because despite being rollicking reads I am not convinced of their excellence – but perhaps that is because I am not ‘relevant’. ANYWAY – thank you Charles for looking into this. It needs to happen!
Apologies for the typos – a combination of despair and my phone ! However, as excellence is to be discouraged (and judging by the report from ACE on our application) good spelling is too – I am happy with the errors……there is so much more going on here – and the political agenda looms large in an organisation which needs independence. There are wonderful people at ACE in a terrible situation.