Identity in conflict: the SAC’s role in the development of Scotland’s national companies

This presentation examines the Scottish Arts Council’s (SAC) role in developing national companies for the performing arts (i.e. opera, ballet and classical music) in post-war Scotland. It focuses in particular on the tensions between SAC and the national companies over how their ‘national’ role should be defined. Up until the 1970s, SAC and the national companies both agreed that the role of a national company should be to represent the nation’s highest artistic standards. However, since the 1970s, SAC has been under increasing pressure to make the arts more accessible to the public. Consequently, it has tried to redefine national companies’ role in terms of providing a nationwide arts service. This has been resisted by the national companies, who have used their national status to win over the support of political leaders and undermine SAC’s autonomy over arts policy.