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The Culture, Media and Sport Committee is to hold a “short inquiry” into the work of Arts Council England, which supports activities across a number of areas, including libraries.
Announcing the inquiry on its website, the CMS Committee said it would look at Arts Council England’s “scope, scale and remit”.
The announcement continued: “We wish to examine the economic and artistic criteria that underpin funding decisions. Furthermore, we seek views on whether the geographical distribution of funding is fair and the justification for the current weighting of this towards London.”
The committee is asking for written evidence from groups who wish to contribute to the inquiry.
Arts Council England said it welcomed the committee’s inquiry. Chief executive Alan Davey said: “There are valuable and varied accounts of the arts and culture landscape across the country. We hope that the Committee receive a range of submissions that show this diversity of experience and opinion.
“Arts Council England’s remit is to support great art for everyone. The arts ecology of England is complex and interrelated and there are inherent and long standing challenges in achieving our ambition – in reaching all parts of the country, rural and urban, cities and the suburbs and in reaching people from many different communities. To do this well, we need a strong and nationally connected arts infrastructure in our capital city as much as we need an equally strong and vibrant arts infrastructure in the regions.
“We look forward to discussing the detail of our investment criteria, and reflecting the scale of our ambition in delivering great art for everyone across England to the committee.”
The deadline for submissions to the inquiry is 24th February.