The date is not in many history books. But it should be. It is 60 years on Tuesday since Britain’s first minister for the arts, Jennie Lee, published the first UK government white paper on the arts. The white paper, which crammed more into 18 pages than many government documents do at 10 times that length, was a landmark, an attempt to set out “a more coherent, generous and imaginative approach” to the arts policy this country lacked.
The current culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has yet to publish such a white paper herself. She ought to do so. Nevertheless, last week she did the next best thing, travelling to Stratford-upon-Avon, the most iconic location on these islands in which to reflect on arts policy, to deliver an anniversary lecture in Buzz Goodbody’s experimental Other Place theatre.
