ABSTRACT
As the first state organisation to have formal responsibility for the arts, the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA) shaped the pattern of arts funding for many years into the future. Its successor, the Arts Council of Great Britain, inaugurated in 1946, became an established part of the planned economy and social welfare provision together with other state-funded wartime arts organisations such as the War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC) and Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA). Thus it has been asserted that 'In a single decade, during and after the Second World War, the British Government did more to commit itself to supporting the arts than it had in the previous century and a half'. The circulation of exhibitions by a central authority with what virtually amounts to financial state aid partakes of the character of a fairy tale. CEMA's policy was to support a series of events for an initial period to establish a regular audience.
