Baroness Hodge

Hodge has also been named Kier Starmer's new anti-corruption champion

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Baroness Hodge touted to lead Arts Council England review

Culture Secretary has said the ‘imminent’ review of Arts Council England will seek to avoid the ‘deadening debate between access and excellence’.

Mary Stone
2 min read

Labour Peer Baroness Hodge is thought to have been selected to lead a review of Arts Council England (ACE), according to a report from Sky News, with her appointment expected to be announced before Christmas.

Hodge was a minister under Gordon Brown and was appointed the Prime Minister’s new anti-corruption champion yesterday (10 December).

A review of ACE was first announced in March under the previous Conservative government. Dame Mary Archer, chancellor of the University of Buckingham and a former chair of the Science Museum Group, was chosen at that time to lead the process.

In September, the Department of Culture Media Sport said the public body review of ACE, which was paused ahead of July’s general election, had been “closed,” adding, “Ministers are considering next steps, and further details will be announced in due course”.

A DCMS spokesperson told Sky News: “We do not comment on speculation.

“We will announce next steps on the review of Arts Council England in due course.”

‘The deadening debate’

Speaking to the Culture, Media and Sport committee yesterday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the government would begin the review “imminently”, with the aim of completing the process by the end of 2025.

She said the review would seek to avoid the “deadening debate between access and excellence”, saying: “It has to be both, and the last review was very much framed around those two competing priorities.”

She said: “I’ve been very concerned about the way in which arts and culture has become something that young people can only afford if their parents can pay.

“So we went away and did a piece of work looking at mapping out across the country where people have access to arts and culture, who is consuming that and who is benefiting from that.”

She continued “I want [ACE] to do far more at working with local organisations to fund what is already there in communities to be able to grow and expand.”

“My own experience with Arts Council funding is that too often people are brought in to do culture and arts to a place, and I think that’s not had the benefits that communities would expect.”