‘The problem with permanence is that you’re stuck with it’: the public arts centre building in the twenty-first century

Dedicated arts centres were a common outcome of the great expansion of the public sphere in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the early twenty-first century, however, many of our arts centres present a challenge to cultural policy-making. Expensive to maintain and operate, they are often ill-equipped to host the increasingly diverse range of communities and arts practices that have emerged with each generation. The article outlines the difficulties that the presence of such arts centres present to cultural policy-makers, using case studies of four Australian centres. It argues that the ‘mobilities turn’ in sociology provides a useful framework for considering the challenges posed by a static building and its array of highly mobile stakeholders. The study focuses on the perceptions of arts centre managers as cultural intermediaries – giving voice to the opportunities and constraints for the arts centre building and to the needs and interests of public policy-makers, artists and audiences, and juggling the tensions between the ideological, political, demographic and cultural forces that define the field in which they routinely operate. The managers negotiate distinctive challenges that arts centres face within the context of decentralised and fluid understandings of creative spaces for contemporary leisure practices.     

‘Missing’ from policy history: the Dartington Hall Arts Enquiry, 1941–1947

Largely undocumented in the published accounts of cultural policy history in the UK, the Arts Enquiry was a privately funded survey of the arts in wartime England. It was launched in 1941 as an initiative of the Arts Department at Dartington Hall and funded by the trustees of Dartington Hall, who spent £19,000 on the study over its six-year history. The Enquiry brought together artists, intellectuals, philanthropists and arts professionals in specialist committees to examine the visual arts, music, drama and documentary film. Three book-length studies were published: The Visual Arts (1946), The Factual Film (1947) and Music (1949). This article examines the history of the Arts Enquiry, its entanglement in the cultural politics of the period and what it reveals about policy formation in the UK, as well as the historiography of cultural policy.     

Enlightenment,revolution and romanticism: the Genesis of modern German political thought, 1790–1800

A recent discovery of an exchange of letters between John Maynard Keynes and the Reverend Kenneth Rawlings from 1936 to 1944 shows the way in which Keynes assisted Rawlings in the establishment of permanent amateur theatre premises in the County Town of Lewes. The timing coincided with the onset of World War II, and additional letters from Rawlings to others including the town clerk, Lord Gage, Margeret Masterman and Major G. H. Powell-Edwards reveal the tensions between the ardent pacifist Rawlings and establishment figures as war approached. Steadied by Keynes and like-minded influential figures, Rawlings wins through triumphantly, the theatre effort viewed as an essential cultural asset during the dark war years. It is noted in the present article that Keynes could observe Rawlings enact what became an aim of the Council for the Encouragement of Music with the Arts, of which he became president soon after its conception in 1940—that of providing a theatre for every town in England.     

太平洋战事前后国民政府救济难侨的活动

太平洋战事爆发前后,大批旅居南洋一带的侨胞为躲避战乱纷纷撤退归国。国民政府在财政极端困难的情况下,对归国难侨给予了积极的救济。在整个救济归国难侨的过程中,粤、闽、滇、桂等省在中央的指导与支持下,对于归国难侨、侨生以及国内的侨眷采取了积极的救济措施。太平洋战事爆发前后各地救济归国难侨的活动反映了政府在处理紧急事件方面开始有了一定的经验,同时也是抗战期间中华民族共同抵御外侮的团结互助精神的集中体现。     

19世纪英国城市政府改革与民主化进程

伴随着社会经济领域中的深刻变化,政治民主化逐渐成为19世纪英国历史的主旋律。英国的民主化进程不仅在议会改革中体现出来,而且也在城市政府改革中体现出来。英国19世纪的大众民主是在城市率先发展,并普及推广开来的。城市在此充当了大众基层民主的摇篮和发源地。以纳税人资格确定投票权,体现了权利与义务相统一的观念,摒弃了议会选举中的财产资格条件,这是向现代民主制方向发展的一个重要举措,也是一个历史进步。     

'J'y Suis, J'y Reste': The Parliamentary Statue of Oliver Cromwell by Hamo Thornycroft

The conservation of the statue of Cromwell by Hamo Thornycroft in 2009 (for full details and images see http://www.parliament.uk/about/visiting/exhibitions/cromwell_conservation.cfm ) provided an opportunity to review the history of this most controversial of parliamentary statues both within the context of the proposed statue programme for the new palace of Westminster and the development of British sculpture which the Royal Commission for the Fine Arts hoped to encourage with its commissioning programme. Whilst 2009 marked the 350th anniversary of Cromwell's death it was the tercentenary of his birth in 1899 which brought forward a clutch of statues, including parliament's, reflecting the Victorian reassessment, and indeed repopularisation of Cromwell, as a historical figure.     

联邦党人与反联邦党人关于宪法批准问题的争论

《美国宪法》是近代世界最早、也是迄今为止延续时间最长的一部成文宪法。在它制定至批准的3年中,联邦党人与反联邦党人展开了激烈的辩论,各自发表了他们建立国家的一系列设想。通过对他们在争论中所涉及的联邦政府的性质、联邦政府与州政府的关系、《权利法案》等焦点问题的探讨,有助于揭示宪法最终获得批准的深层原因,并重新认识两大派别在美国宪政发展史中的地位和作用。     

国民革命时期安徽若干历史问题辨正

国民革命时期,安徽政象复杂,许多史实扑朔迷离,不易厘清。现存史著在重构此段历史时,存在不少史实上的错误,亟待纠正。     

南京国民政府国庆纪念中的辛亥记忆

国庆纪念是传承辛亥革命记忆的重要形式。南京国民政府时期,国民党通过国庆纪念仪式,不断打造并唤起人们的辛亥记忆;并通过自己所掌握的话语权与纪念宣传,完成对辛亥革命史事及意义的再建构。借助于辛亥记忆,国民党不断把自己的建国理念贯穿于国庆纪念之中,为国民党统治的合法性确立基础。     

国民党二届五中全会前后的制宪诉求

融会中西,研究创新制定一部适合中华民国需要的宪法,是孙中山一生的刻意追求.南京国民政府成立后,宣称继承孙中山遗愿,把法制建设作为全力以赴的要事,社会各界利用国民党召开二届五中全会的机会,纷纷要求制定约法,在国民党方面,有国民党中央执行委员朱霁青、南京特别市党务指导委员会,国民政府方面有国民政府法制局在大会召开之前正式提出制定约法的议案于前,国民党中常委将法制局的建议作为提案提交大会,社会团体方面有上海商业请愿团于大会期间请愿,要求制定约法,有着重要社会影响的〈大公报〉的舆论推波助澜于后,又有上海市党务指导委员会于会后积极要求起草约法,形成了蔚为壮观的要求制定约法的声势.     

“整理国故运动”兴盛原因探究

20世纪20～30年代,“整理国故运动”曾经在民国学术界风行一时。究其原因,一方面是缘于新史料的不断发现和新方法的逐步运用;另一方面,当时学者们普遍抱有的“与外人争胜”的心态,也在很大程度上促成了“整理国故运动”的长期兴盛。     

南京国民政府时期国营煤矿事业经营的典型——以建设委员会与淮南煤矿为例的考察

南京国民政府时期国营事业的经营均不甚理想,然而20世纪30年代,在安徽北部怀远、凤台与寿县三县交界处,南京国民政府建设委员会自主开发经营的淮南煤矿,经营管理却颇为良好,它在一定程度上是建设委员会经营首都电厂与戚墅堰电厂所需燃料和京沪杭一带出现能源供应紧张的必然结果。建设委员会通过对淮南煤矿6年的精心经营,使其成为抗战前华东地区最大的煤矿。淮南煤矿的开发与经营,使20世纪30年代京沪杭一带能源供应紧张的形势得到了一定程度的缓和,尤其重要和明显的是,它使安徽中北部的经济得到了迅速发展,从而直接促成了皖北一个新的工业城市——淮南的形成。     

战后国民政府教育甄审失败原因探析

抗战胜利后,国民政府对收复区学生和教职员开展教育甄审,由于国民政府在教育甄审政策制定上的考虑不周,在推行上的举措失当,引起了被甄审者的强烈反弹.最终使这场威权重塑的运动不得不以失败而尴尬收场.