Giving a Voice to the Nation: the Arts Council of Great Britain and the development of theatre and performance in Britain 1945-1995.

公共补贴是战后英国戏剧的基石：新的创作；新的戏剧空间；新的戏剧风格和体裁；边缘群体的诞生和鼓励少数族裔参与，这些都归功于英国艺术委员会(ACGB)的政策和财政支持。ACGB的成立改变了剧院从业者(直接和间接)接受培训的方式，他们的职业被确定，以及机构和建筑的形成方式。《为国家发声》是关于英国艺术理事会对戏剧实践和发展的影响的第一次全面研究，而不是关于理事会所有艺术形式(其中许多是由前ACGB员工和成员撰写的)的一般历史。战后剧院以前的历史，特别是那些与新创作、地区和巡回剧院有关的历史，经常提到它的影响，但它从未得到充分的探索，部分原因是档案是一个相对未知的资源，也因为现存的作品严重依赖ACGB发布的报告，或轶事证据。因此，ACGB与剧院的关系通常被认为是由两个阶段组成的。第一阶段从20世纪50年代到70年代中期，被认为是一个本质上是仁慈的阶段，在这个阶段，体制为新一代艺术家的发展提供了空间和资金。第二种是从20世纪70年代中期到1994年的权力下放，这意味着一种更对立的关系：管理者和会计对艺术家发号施令。人们普遍认为，第二阶段是违反ACGB最初构想所依据的“公平原则”的直接结果，也是融资决策开始出于政治动机的直接结果，例如，那些直接批评政府价值观的公司的融资被削减或撤回。戏剧小组前主任伊恩·布朗已经在《新戏剧季刊》和《当代戏剧评论》上发表了多篇文章，表明第二阶段的情况比早期报道所说的更加微妙，本项目中提出的对档案的广泛测绘和分析将使项目团队和未来的研究人员能够根据更多的材料重新考虑这些阶段，并通过有组织的采访计划，询问ACGB和战后受资助剧院的历史上的关键人物，以反思ACGB的影响和发展。此外，追踪政策与实践以及政策制定者和实践者之间的关系50年来，提供了一种检查实践者和管理者之间知识转移的新方法。该项目将拓宽人们对剧院历史的认识和理解，并有助于提供一种更有条理、更严谨的方法来分析个人证词和档案资料来源。这将为未来在戏剧、文化研究和创意产业的其他分支领域的研究奠定基础和框架。通过改进的电子目录、在线论文、在线资源发现指南、发表的文章、座谈会和将在维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆举行的国际会议介绍研究结果，将确保未来的研究人员将获得长期和广泛的好处。

Public subsidy is the cornerstone of post-war British theatre: new writing; new theatre spaces; new theatrical styles and genres; the birth of the fringe and the encouragement of ethnic minority involvement all owe their continuing existence to the policies and financial backing of Arts Council of Great Britain (ACGB). The formation of ACGB transformed the way in which theatre practitioners were trained (directly and indirectly), their careers were defined; and the way in which institutions and buildings were shaped. 'Giving a Voice to the Nation' is the first comprehensive study of the Arts Council of Great Britain's influence on theatre practice and development, as opposed to a general history of the Council's work across all the art forms (many of which are written by former ACGB employees and members). Previous histories of post-war theatre particularly those concerned with new writing, regional and touring theatre - have often alluded to its impact, but it has never been fully explored partially because the archive is a relatively unknown resource, but also because extant works rely heavily on the ACGB's published reports, or on anecdotal evidence. As a result of this, the ACGB's relationship with theatre is generally conceived of as consisting of two phases. The first phase, from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, is seen as an essentially benevolent one in which the Establishment provided the space and money for a new generation of artists to develop. The second, from the mid-1970s until devolution in 1994, suggests a much more oppositional relationship: of administrators and accountants dictating to artists. This second phase is widely understood as a direct result of the violation of the 'arms-length principle' under which ACGB was originally conceived and as the point at which funding decisions started to be politically motivated, for example, companies whose work was directly critical of government values had their funding cut or withdrawn. Ian Brown, former Director of the Drama Panel, has already published a number of articles in New Theatre Quarterly and Contemporary Theatre Review suggesting that this second phase was more nuanced than early accounts suggest, and the extensive mapping and analysis of the archive proposed in this project will allow the project team and future researchers to reconsider these phases in the light of a greater body of material, and also, through an organised programme of interviews, to ask key figures in the history of ACGB and post-war subsidised theatre to reflect on ACGB's influence and development. In addition to this, tracing the relationship between policy and practice and policy-makers and practitioners throughout a fifty year period, offers a new way of examining knowledge transfer among practitioners and administrators. The project will broaden the way the history of theatres is perceived and understood and contribute a more structured and rigorous method of analysing personal testimony and archival sources. This will create the foundation and the framework for future research in theatre, cultural studies, and other branches of the creative industries. The presentation of the results of the research through an enhanced electronic catalogue, online essays, online resource discovery guides, published articles, symposia and an international conference to be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, will ensure that the benefits to future researchers will be both long-term and widespread.