Minority arts

MS 1579/2/9

Minority arts

1978 - 1993

See also Minority Arts Programme meeting minutes MS 1579/1/1/2/2 and correspondence file MS 1579/1/1/9/2/5/4 'West Midlands Arts - general file'.

Copyright: Barrow Cadbury Trust and others

Partially Closed (Data Protection Act)

Organisations involved: Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust, Barrow Cadbury Fund Ltd., Minority Arts Programme.

Previous titles and/or title variations: Minority Arts Programme.

Related grant categories: equal opportunities.

Dates of use: 1980/1981 to 1986/1987.

Cadbury Trusts grant subject filing reference number(s): 9.

The minority arts category was established in 1980/1981 to make small grants of up to £500, but normally not more that £250, to ethnic minority groups or wider associations promoting minority arts in the West Midlands. Occasionally larger grants were considered for minority arts projects but these would be paid through other grant budgets, usually race relations. The annual budget for minority arts was generally set at £25,000 and administered by the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust and the Fund.

Oversight for minority arts grants was the responsibility of the Relevant Trustees of the Minority Arts Programme, Roger P. Hickinbotham, Anna C. Southall and Richard G. Cadbury, the newest Trustees appointed to the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust. Support and guidance for the Programme was provided by Trust Secretary Eric Adams. Minority Arts Trustees met regularly in Coventry and London and made recommendations to the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust and the Fund on minority arts grants.

Minority arts grant files first appear in the early 1980s and were assigned the number nine as a category filing reference in accordance with Anthony Wilson's classification scheme for grant subjects. The vast majority of minority arts grants were administered by Eric Adams. A representative minority arts grant file label might read 'EA/9/2(44)' to denote Eric Adams/minority arts/unknown/minority arts grant file number 44, in this case Art Link West Midlands. Adams does not appear to have used the second numerical reference to denote an individual organisation and its use, the number '2' for minority arts grants is unclear, possibly this refers to the file number. Relevant Minority Arts Programme copy minutes often appear in these files in addition to, or in place of, other Trust minutes.

The minority arts category was discontinued in 1986/1987. Any further applications with a minority arts emphasis were to be channelled through the race relations budget. These applications would be restricted to the West Midlands and remain modest in expenditure.