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This book is the first historical assessment of English regional cultural policy. With its dialect and striking modern icons such as the Angel of the North, the north east has been described as England's most distinctive region. This study reveals the impact of the new cultural institutions that emerged after 1945 upon a region with deeply rooted vernacular traditions. The creation of the regional arts board and the development of regional broadcasting as well as the national efforts to manage the northern economic problems presented challenges for vernacular culture. In the ensuing battle between provincial and metropolitan values the north east as a modern cultural region took shape. The concluding chapters detail the cultural regeneration of the urban riversides, a much vaunted example of successful culture-led regeneration.
This volume is essential for anyone with an interest in the formation of cultural identities, the development of regional government arts policies, urban regeneration and cultural and social history.
The book, always intelligently questioning accepted orthodoxy, alert to the inter-play between individuals and institutions, and richly suggestive of the relationship between metropolitan and vernacular cultures, succeeds admirably in its central aim of outlining and analysing north-eastern cultural policy from 1945.
Dave Russell, Twentieth Centruy British History
1. Cultural region: 1945-2000
2. ‘Radio Days’: sound broadcasting in the north east
3. Television and regional broadcasting culture 1953-77
4. Artists and impresarios 1959-79
5. Northern arts: Institution building and the cultural region 1946-84
6. Riverscapes
7. Coda: Gateshead
Bibliography