The big moment for publicly funded art in Britain was the Second World War. “Something absolutely remarkable happened during the war”, says actor Simon Callow. “The theatre suddenly was right at the heart of society.”
After the war, the idea of “art for all” led to the founding of the Arts Council – “very much a response to the distress, the fear, the uncertainty of war.” Alan Yentob asks if culture can play that role again today.
Dealer Kenny Schachter explains how, in a perverse way, he feels this recession is the best thing that has happened to the art world in ten years.
Aired on Tuesday, 28 July at 22:35 on BBC One.