It was reported in The Guardian on saturday 27th September 2014 that Alan Davey currently the chief executive of the Arts Council is to take over as Controller of Radio 3.
Peter Bazelgette was quoted as saying that “Alan has been a brilliant chief executive of the Arts Council. The BBC and Radio Three is fortunate to get him. Well, up to a point Lord Copper. Alan Davey presided over recent “investment” in a rag bag of “National Portfolio Organisations” replete with the slogan “Great Art for Everyone”. However what should have concerned Davy is the paucity of funding for jazz.
The previous and the last Arts Council funding rounds were not informed by coherent policies for individual art forms. For example there is no policy for music and it’s creation, promotion, marketing, education and export. The BBC also has an enormous output of music but there is seemingly no policy that joins the whole lot up. It is well nigh time that the taxpayer was better served with a concrete policy rather than with this incoherent and disjointed approach to the arts and culture. On Davey’s performance at the Arts Council this is unlikely to happen.