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Arts Council England appoints 152 artistic assessors

26 Jan 2010 01:49 PM

Arts Council England today (26 January 2009) announced the appointment of 152 people to write assessments on the artistic work of its regularly funded organisations.

The appointments follow a fantastic response to the Arts Council’s recruitment campaign which saw over 1,100 people apply for the roles.

Andrew Nairne, Executive Director of Arts Strategy at Arts Council England said:

“We’re really pleased with the level of interest there's been and with the quality of the applications.

“We're confident that we've got an outstanding group of people who will give us rich and valuable commentary on the artistic work of the organisations we regularly fund.”

The new assessors will report on the full range of artforms – music, literature, dance, visual arts, theatre and combined arts – including specialisms such as work for children and young people, culturally specific arts and disability-led arts. They will begin reporting from February 2010.

The 152 assessors come from a range of backgrounds, including artists, arts managers, academics and journalists. A full list of the assessors is now available on the Arts Council’s website (www.artscouncil.org.uk/artistic-assessment).

Artistic assessments will feed into the Arts Council’s ongoing artistic evaluation of regularly funded organisations, providing a basis for discussions about artistic quality and a broad evidence base to inform the Arts Council's funding decisions. The assessments will be shared with the arts organisations and may provide a useful context for organisations’ own conversations about artistic quality.

The assessors have been awarded a two-year contract for services. They will be asked to write between 10 and 14 reports a year and will be paid a flat fee of £1,000 a year plus expenses.

Assessors will be eligible to apply for a second two year contract, but must then stand down for a period of at least two years before they may apply again. This is to help ensure that there is a reasonable turnover of assessors and that work is assessed by a variety of qualified people.

A further 148 assessors will be recruited later this year and will begin work in early 2011. This will mean that there will ultimately be 300 assessors available.

Further information about the Artistic Assessment scheme is available at www.artscouncil.org.uk/artistic-assessment.

Notes to Editors:

Arts Council England works to get great art to everyone by championing, developing and investing in artistic experiences that enrich people’s lives.

As the national development agency for the arts, we support a range of artistic activities from theatre to music, literature to dance, photography to digital art, and carnival to crafts.

Great art inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves, and the world around us. In short, it makes life better.

Between 2008 and 2011, we will invest £1.3 billion of public money from government and a further £0.3 billion from the National Lottery to create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country.

For more information (media only) please contact :

Emma Russell
Arts Council England, National
t:020 7973 6890
e: emma.russell@artscouncil.org.uk