ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAIN: INDUSTRIAL MUSIC CLUBS

Correspondens

• <corpname>Blackburn Music Club, c 1946-1947, Lancashire</corpname>
• <corpname>Burnley and Nelson Music Club, 1946-1952, Lancashire</corpname>

Deposited by the Records Officer, Arts Council of Great Britain, 10 April 1986 (acc. 5821)

The Arts Council of Great Britain, incorporated by Royal Charter in August 1946, was a direct development of the wartime Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA). The aim of this body, working in conjunction with the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), had been to preserve the arts and provide entertainment for the Home Front during the war.

In 1946, at the conclusion of the factory concerts provided by CEMA and of the symphony and other concerts provided by ENSA, the Arts Council was asked by the Ministry of Labour and National Service to assume responsibility for the future of the music clubs for war workers which ENSA had organised, including those in Burnley and Blackburn.

The organisation and expansion of these music clubs was undertaken by specialists appointed by the Council and known as the industrial music organisers. By 1948 the number of clubs had grown from 6 to 20, appealing directly to workers in factories although the general public could also join. Programmes generally alternated professional chamber concerts with illustrated talks by well-known experts, and a club rather than a concert atmosphere was encouraged by members' evenings, quizzes and Brains Trusts as well as gramophone recitals presented by the members themselves.

From 1948 the Council aimed to leave the management of club affairs, including payment of concert artists' fees, in the hands of club committees, so in June that year the Industrial Music Organisers were released by the Council and their work amalgamated with the rest of the work of the regional directors.

By 1951 the industrial music clubs were no longer distinguished or administered as such: some had become affiliated to the National Federation of Music Societies and others were dealt with under a system of direct aid.

This archive consists of files which were apparently created by the Arts Council's Assistant Music Directors, and include programmes and correspondence about the organisation of events. They were cleaned and reorganised by the Arts Council prior to deposit at this Office.

[From information supplied by the Arts Council of Great Britain: an expanded version is available on file.]