Public scrutiny and transparency matters

Arts Council England ought to thank ArtsProfessional (Issue 257 September 2012 Page 5) for their balanced and measured report of Carol Lee’s complaint about the grant allocation process for the “Artists Taking the Lead” project in Yorkshire.  (Links here: http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/Magazine/view.cfm?id=6474&iss…)

In a democracy like ours in the UK, it is essential that members of the public – taxpayers – who have funded the grant giving organisations, can ask questions about how and why grants were allocated and who was responsible.  There may be qualitative and unquantifiable judgements involved, but we ought to be able to understand the principles and the processes.