Description | Records of the National Campaign for the Arts, comprising material relating to international arts policies in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, USA, Europe, Denmark, France, Italy, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Turkey, [1980s-1990s]; material concerning government dealings with the arts, including Reports of the Education, Science and Arts Committee, correspondence with MPs from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, and surveys of Local Authority arts spending; Reports of the Arts Council of Great Britain, 1945-1994, including reports on the national arts and media strategy; papers relating to regional Arts Boards in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; papers concerning quangos such as the British Council, the Crafts Council, the Museums and Galleries Commission and the Scottish Museums Council; material relating to arts organisations, including ABSA, the BBC, the British Film Institute, the English National Opera, the Independent Television Commission, the London Arts Lobby, the National Lottery and the Royal Opera House; subject files relating to types of art form, notably architecture, broadcasting, dance, education, film, literature, museums, libraries, music, opera, orchestras, radio, theatre and visual arts; publications relating to the arts in Great Britain; and correspondence files of officers of the NCA |
AdminHistory | The National Campaign for the Arts launched in March 1985. Its first Director was Simon Crine and its President was Melvyn Bragg. It was founded following a meeting of more than 600 arts organisations at The Old Vic in December 1983, to prepare a 'collective and independent response' to funding threats and to 'back the creation of a National Lobby for the Arts'. This Lobby, and the nascent advocacy group British Arts Voice, combined under the banner of the NCA with support from the Association of British Orchestras, Society of London Theatre, Theatrical Management Association (now UK Theatre), Equity, BECTU and Musicians’ Union. After many years as a lobby group funded by and for the arts sector, the NCA became a publicly-supported charity in 2012. Its high-profile national campaigns have included ‘I Value The Arts’ and ‘50p for culture’. In 2022, the National Campaign for the Arts merged with another organisation, Public Campaign for the Arts, to form a single body, the Campaign for the Arts, with a combined supporter-base of over a quarter of a million people. |