Abstract Cécile DOUSTALY

Cécile DOUSTALY (Université de Cergy-Pontoise) : « Reforming the governance of public arts organisations: the case of England ».

The consequences of the new governance frameworks and managerial practices introduced since the 1990s on state arts policies are by no means clear-cut (Gray 2009, Belfiore 2004, Pierre, J., Peters, B., 2000). The Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Non Departmental Public Bodies such as Arts Council England, local authorities and arts institutions have been asked to adopt structural reforms, joined-up decision making, users’ consultation and participation and new audit mechanisms which have proven complex to apply to the arts sector. Quantitative assessment criteria of cost-efficiency, users’ satisfaction and more recently “engagement” with the arts (measuring audience numbers) have been criticized by administrators and artists alike for being inadequate and simplistic. They have had unintended and detrimental consequences (Doustaly & Gray 2009). This paper will discuss the rhetorics and the impact of the latest organisational changes within public bodies supporting the arts which aim is to improve internal democracy as a way to increase ownership and implementation of governmental policy objectives.

A new local framework has been devised to allow more central resources devolution and greater local decision making. Local Areas Agreements, should now result from negotiations between Central Government and local authorities and respect the principle of « co-design », seen as a way to increase ownership of the policy and strike the right balance between locally and nationally driven priorities : neither top-down nor bottom-up, and not only joined-up — termed here reciprocal. They at last accept the idea of differing objectives between actors while supposedly allowing the centre to control the arts sector more effectively.

As an arm’s length body, Arts Council England (ACE) is composed of a variety of actors (administrators, arts practitioners and art lovers) who split over managerial practices and socio-economic targets introduced by the government as opposed artistic ones (NCA, 2009). Although this is not clearly stated in official statements, the 2009 ACE organisational reform has been expected to balance out such quantitative approach by reintroducing qualitative assessment based on peer review (artists and practitioners) judgement of “excellence”. Ongoing artistic assessment, sectoral reviews, and one-off appraisals of recipients are officially going to be used to improve transparency in grant giving towards recipients, “to create an Arts Council that best serves both audiences and artists” (ACE, 2010). This paper will try to provide a first assessment of the reorganisation and analyse whether it has succeeded in alleviating internal tensions and increasing the feeling of internal democracy (interviews planned in London in June 2010).