He is also very keen to point to the setting up of the National Advisory Committee for Creative and Cultural Education, established last year. The final report and recommendations of the Committee are to be published shortly, and should make for interesting reading. For his part, Gerry Robinson sets out to explain the role of the Arts Council in the on-going debate. The Arts Council's aim, asserts its chairman, is to be an effective and passionate advocate for the arts, which includes both practitioners, the artists, and their intended audience, the public. Wherever art is experienced, he argues, be it in an opera house or a village hall, its success invariably depends on the challenging dynamic that exists between the arts and its public.
Audiences are the oxygen on which the arts and artists thrive.
A work of art or craft needs to be seen and responded to. Audiences are the crucial and creative part of the artistic process. This is a revealing and useful article and might profitably be translated into Arabic in its entirety. The argument, debate, discussions, not to mention the proposals that have evolved out of them, are very enlightening. We are committed to stimulate excellence in all we do, and to ensure that the best art is genuinely available for all to appreciate and engage with.