"From CEMA to the EEC: The Development of British Cultural Policy from the end of World War Two to Membership to the European Community, 1945-1975"

This project was proposed after Britain voted to leave the European Union, and there was a noticed lack of discussion about the impact this would have on culture and art, and no discussion on Britain’s earlier aspirations of membership. Previous research on British politics during her applications to join the European Community focused on traditional questions of diplomacy, politics, and economics; this project instead looked at the period of 1945-1975 through the prism of culture and cultural policy, exploring public art and heritage, questions of nostalgia, and relations between Britain, the Commonwealth, and the European Community The aims of this research were to investigate Britain’s cultural policies in the decades prior to European membership to explore if there were periods in which governmental priorities seemed to align with cultural policies, affecting the role of the arts. This study took existing material relating to Britain’s three EEC applications and freshly examined government’s cultural polices during this period. Archives from government departments, museums and galleries, and popular press were used. The period of 1945-1975 explores Britain’s transition from post-war Imperial presence to member of the European Economic Community. The original contributions this thesis makes is in how it looks at an already well documented and understood era from the prism of arts and culture, with discussion on politics only where necessary. The politics of decolonization and the European project are replaced with discussions around evolving British governments’ priorities and the role of an arts policy. The findings of this research suggest the use of a cultural policy often reflecting versions of Britain that was in-line with political trends of modernism, the Commonwealth, and Europe; and argues that some British governments understood how to respond to an arts policy to promote their aspirations and proposed identities.