• Christopher Madden
• International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies

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Image: John Kelly, 'Sculpture of the Tate Modern pavilion', 2006, courtesy The Piccadilly Gallery, London

10 August 2009The degree of independence that governments afford arts support is a universal concern. Debate has often centred on the choice between arts council or ministry, but such a dichotomy enormously oversimplifies the issues, particularly as so many countries have a mixture of the two institutional forms. This report, written by Christopher Madden, reviews the cultural policy literature and data gathered over by IFACCA over several years to address two main issues relating to political involvement in arts support: how much influence do governments have over arts funding?; and how much influence should governments have over arts funding? The report provides background to the issue of independence of arts support but does not argue for any particular institutional model. It takes a neutral stance, looking at cultural policy models and frameworks, surveying the incidence of different approaches around the world, and summarising views about the strengths and weaknesses of the two main approaches.