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MUMBAI:
UK pubcaster the BBC's DG Mark Thompson has announced a deeper
commitment to arts and music on the BBC, with a range of initiatives
aimed at supporting cultural Britain and better serving the
public.
He
pledged that the BBC would:
*Create
a new Arts Editor role for BBC News, which will help ensure
that appropriate focus is given to arts events and stories
on a day-to-day basis.
*Demonstrate
a new energy in working with partners, creating a BBC arts
board to improve the gestation process for great content ideas
and partnerships.
*Create
stronger partnerships that make the most of the potential
of the digital world, with the announcement of three new projects
in development. A partnership with the Public Catalogue Foundation
could enable the public to view every one of the UK's 200,000
publicly-owned paintings online.
*Deliver
big, bold content ideas, including a pan-BBC Poetry season
which is one of the highlights of an overarching language
theme in 2009.
Thompson
says, "The BBC has a special responsibility to support
and enable the cultural life of Britain, particularly though
our investment in arts and music programming.
"Today
we are not only reaffirming our commitment to arts, but we're
announcing a series of measures that will put this relationship
on an even stronger footing. Through innovative new partnerships,
I believe the BBC can deliver big, bold arts programming that
is accessible, distinctive and enjoyable."
Partnerships
for the digital world: Partnerships he notes are a vital
way for the BBC to connect with the arts and music communities
which in turn can benefit the whole arts community.
Building on the BBC’s many existing partnerships –
with organisations like the UK Public Library Sector, the
National Theatre, the Royal Opera House, the Scottish Arts
Council and the Manchester International Festival – the
BBC announced plans to explore a series of new partnerships
focused particularly on getting content online.
One
project in development with the Public Catalogue Foundation
could enable the public to view every one of the UK's 200,000
publicly-owned oil paintings, 80 per cent of which are currently
hidden away.
The
aim is to establish a website on bbc.co.uk, called Your Paintings,
where the public can view and find information on every oil
painting in public ownership. The benefits to the public at
large and the participating public collections will be substantial.
The
Public Catalogue Foundation is a registered charity that was
launched in 2003. It is 30 per cent of the way through cataloguing
the UK's national collection of oil paintings and the partnership
is now looking at how it can best make those images accessible
to the general public. They should be online by the end of
2010, with the joint aim to publish every painting by 2012.
The
BBC is also exploring ideas with the Arts Council, which could
give the public free online access to archive arts content.
One
such scheme could make the Arts Council's vast film collection
– dating back to the Fifties and covering different arts
genres from documentary to performance – available for
the public to view online for the very first time.
The
project will also explore the possibility of aggregating archive
material from the Arts Council with related BBC arts archives
and those from other major content holders.
The
BBC also announced that BBC Radio 4 is working with the British
Museum on a complementary online project for its series, A
History Of The World In 100 Objects.
The
heart of the project is a 100-part Radio 4 broadcast series
telling the history of the world through 100 objects from
the British Museum's collection, narrated by Director of the
British Museum, Neil MacGregor.
The
series is due for transmission in February 2010 and the objects
will be simultaneously displayed in the galleries of the museum
as the series airs.
The
partnership is working to provide a significant online element,
which will enable users to explore the objects beyond transmission
of the programmes. It is also developing a complementary project
to the series, which could connect other museums with the
BBC across the nations and regions of the UK.
New
Arts Board: Further the BBC has recognised the
need to simplify the process of getting arts and music content
commissioned and available across its television, radio and
online channels.
Thompson
would be setting up a pan-BBC arts board, sponsored by Director
of Vision, Jana Bennett, and Director of Audio and Music,
Tim Davie, consisting of senior arts and creative leaders
across the BBC and managed by a new arts coordinator.
The
aim of the board is to join up and maximise the programming
that the BBC delivers in the arts and music space through
better planning, creativity and collaboration across the whole
of the BBC's arts family. This will include regular input
from external experts and stakeholders as needed.
Arts
Editor: Thompson also pointed to the huge commitment the
BBC already has to the arts beyond its scheduled hours of
programming. BBC News' Arts and Culture team on television
and radio cover the latest national and regional developments
in the arts world.
To
reinforce the reporting of arts at the heart of the BBC website,
and to offer a complete service for arts lovers, BBC News
has launched an Arts and Culture section of the BBC News website.
BBC
News will also be creating the new role of Arts Editor to
add further weight to coverage of arts and culture in its
news programming.
The
Arts Editor will be the face for BBC Arts news coverage and
will ensure that the appropriate focus is given to arts events
and stories in Britain. This role will lead the strong existing
reporting team across TV, Radio and online.
Big,
bold content: The BBC plans to increase the reach
and range of output. Today it unveiled a pan-BBC Poetry season,
with programmes and content across BBC Two, BBC Four and CBeebies,
BBC Radio 4 and online.
Coverage
on BBC Two will include an authored documentary from Simon
Schama on John Donne and a film by Armando Iannucci on Milton.
There
will also be Lifelines, a series where four public figures
take a journey of discovery into the poems that inspired them.
Arena will screen a programme on TS Eliot and there will be
a nationwide poetry recital competition for primary schools,
Off By Heart.
On
BBC Four, Owen Sheers explores six great British works, Ian
Hislop welcomes the new Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage goes
in search of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight and there's a
documentary about the world's longest-running poetry programme,
Radio 4's Poetry Please, among other programmes. The BBC will
be working with external partners, including the Poetry Society.
Also
in 2009, BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 will mark the 200th anniversary
of the birth of Alfred Lord Tennyson.
The
BBC will be celebrating literacy in all its forms in the Why
Reading Matters season on BBC Four. At the heart of this season
is Just Read, in which children's laureate Michael Rosen tries
to instil a passion for books into reluctant young readers.
There's also a documentary on Why Reading Matters and what
effect it has on the brain, and how Reading Made Us Modern.
Radio
4 will bring listeners the Complete George Smiley – a
dramatisation of John Le Carre's remarkable series of novels.
BBC
Two will also be launching The Romeo Project, which will see
two schools brought together to perform Romeo And Juliet in
a prestigious theatre, learning to embrace and enjoy the words
of the Bard.
The
BBC will also be engaging young people in the art of public
speaking with a search to find Britain's best young speaker
in The Speaker on BBC Two while the BBC's creative director,
Alan Yentob, will be exploring the art of public speaking
for BBC Two, from Aristotle to Barack Obama.
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