The changing face of cultural policy

In 1967, UNESCO held a conference in Mexico City to discuss cultural policy. One of the outcomes of this meeting was a series of monographs produced over the course of the 1970s and early 1980s in which member states of UNESCO, one by one, discussed what they understood cultural policy to mean, and described the practice of cultural policy in their own country at that time. The resulting collection of reports provides a fascinating insight into how government policy towards culture was interpreted and implemented around the world three or four decades ago.

Overwhelmingly the concern of cultural policy in those days was with the creative arts – how they contribute to a civilised society, how more people could be introduced to the benefits of artistic consumption, and how the arts content of education systems and the media could be improved. The UK report, for example, discussed the Arts Council of Great Britain, local authorities and the regional arts associations as the vehicles by which cultural policy was delivered; the BBC and the press were mentioned, but only in terms of their contribution to producing and reporting on the arts, not in a broader cultural context.