The Arts-Council grants
Sir: Should not the Arts Council advertise more the conditions under which it makes financial grants? Even when writing (as I did last month) to inquire as to what conditions would make me eligible, one may be misled into making a hopeful application—to no avail. The Deputy Secretary encouraged me to send a simple letter setting out my project and an estimate of cost (no official form required); but I thereupon received a reply from the Assistant Literature Director stating that 'a condition of these grants is that the writer should already have published at least one volume' of the projected work. If I had been so informed at the outset, I need not have troubled to apply.
Further, while on the subject of the Arts Council, is it nothing more than a coincidence that, although there are separate Arts Councils for Wales and Scotland, a large proportion of the grants to individual English applicants goes to those with Welsh, Scottish or Irish names?
In looking through the latest available Annual Report of the Arts Council one may note that there is a similar preponderence of Welsh, Scottish or Irish names amongst the officials and their staffs!
Frederick G. Rich ford Strathspey, 20 Stainsby Street, St Leonards-on- Sea, Sussex
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