This is the story of two short-lived artist-run spaces that are associated with some of the most innovative developments in the arts in Britain in the late 1960s. The Drury Lane Arts Lab (1967–69) was home to the first UK screenings of Andy Warhol's twin-screen 3 hour film Chelsea Girls, challenging exhibitions (John and Yoko / John Latham / Takis / Roelof Louw), poetry and music (first UK performance of Erik Satie's 24-hour Vexations) and fringe theatre (People Show / Freehold / Jane Arden's Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven / Will Spoor Mime Theatre). The Robert Street 'New Arts Lab' (1969–71) housed Britain's first video workshop TVX, the London Filmmakers Co-op's first workshop and a 5-days-a-week cinema devoted to showing new work by moving-image artists (David Larcher / Malcolm Le Grice / Sally Potter / Carolee Schneemann / Peter Gidal). It staged J G Ballard's infamous Crashed Cars exhibition and John & Dianne Lifton's pioneering computer-aided dance/mime performances. The impact of London's Labs led to an explosion of new artist-led spaces across Britain. This book relates the struggles of FACOP (Friends of the Arts Council Operative) to make the case for these new kinds of space and these new art-forms and the Arts Council's hesitant response – in the context of a popular press already hostile to youth culture, experimental art and the 'underground'. With a Foreword by Andrew Wilson, Curator Modern & Contemporary British Art and Archives, Tate Gallery.

First published in 1998, this volume considers the subject of arts policy as a subject of public policy making proper in UK and Ireland, with a particular focus on theatre as a profession rather than a mere hobby. Previous studies have placed the burden of policy improvements on the arts themselves, looking at what ‘the arts’ can do to be worthy of government funding and favourable policy, and have seen government actions as if they have a uniform effect. This study takes ‘the arts’ out of the abstract and discusses specific ways that diverse activities with even more diverse needs can be best approached with government policy, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of government initiatives. It is aimed at both political scientists and anyone with an interest in arts and cultural policy.

Text by Grayson Perry, Blake Morrison.

Art first became public in Britain through a series of interlocking relationships between national galleries, patrons, collections of art, and sections or classes of the population as a whole. This study concentrates on London, and analyzes the formation of the major national art institutions at its geographical and managerial centre.

The organization and management of the arts and public-sector arts organizations in Britain have undergone major changes over the last twenty years. This book analyzes the process and politics of change in the world of the arts and develops an analytical framework for understanding an under-researched area of British political life.