Dame Mary Archer, a former chair of the Science Museum Group, will lead a government review of the use of public money by Arts Council England (ACE).
Archer, the wife of the former Tory party deputy chair and novelist Jeffrey Archer, will look at whether the body can find cost savings of 5% and assess the “ambition and quality” of ACE-funded projects, according to an announcement by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The review comes during a period when ACE has been under sustained public and political scrutiny. This month it was forced to amend “reputational risk” guidance released in January that suggested “overtly political or activist” work could break funding agreements.
Several artists including Robert Macfarlane and Feargal Sharkey condemned the original advice, while Equity, the performing arts and entertainment trade union, said the effects of the guidance would be to censor work and “silence artists … especially those working in the activist or political space”.
ACE’s revised guidance later said: “The Arts Council will not remove or refuse funding to an organisation or an individual purely because they make work that is political.”
In 2022 ACE announced it was cutting £50m a year from arts organisations in London in its 2023-26 settlement, to fulfil a government instruction to divert money away from the capital as part of the levelling up programme. It meant institutions such as the English National Opera, the Donmar Warehouse and Hampstead theatre lost their funding. High-profile protesters including Juliet Stevenson called it “an agenda of cultural vandalism”.
The arts and heritage minister, Stephen Parkinson, said: “For more than three-quarters of a century, the Arts Council has been one of our most important national institutions, ensuring that life-changing arts and culture is available to everyone, free from political influence from the government of the day.
“This government has demonstrated its strong commitment to supporting a thriving arts sector, with a record number of organisations, in more parts of the country than ever before, benefiting from the increased public funding we have made available to Arts Council England. This review will help us to ensure that it is spending that money effectively, so that its important work can transform as many lives as possible.”
Archer, a scientist specialising in solar power conversion, and the chancellor of the University of Buckingham, said it was a privilege to lead the review “because the work of Arts Council England is so important to us all. It enriches our lives, enhances our individual wellbeing and maintains our national reputation for excellence across the arts and creative sectors.”
She said: “I look forward to working alongside my expert advisory panel, and listening to a wide range of voices, to help ACE to deliver its vital mission.”
Darren Henley, the ACE chief executive, said the review would give ACE “a welcome opportunity to show how we’re delivering our 10-year strategy, Let’s Create, by supporting artists, arts organisations, museums and libraries as they create ambitious, high-quality work for audiences and communities in villages, towns and cities across England.”
• This article was amended on 17 March 2024. An earlier version said that Jeffrey Archer was a former chair of the Conservative party. In fact he was deputy chair.
