Contemporary Theatre "Philanthropy" and the Purchase of Participatory Privilege.

This brief article looks at the ramifications of private and corporate philanthropy having become institutionalised in the policy of Arts Council England – although couched in the rhetoric of mixed economic funding – and in the fund-raising strategies of theatres themselves (perhaps as a consequence). Philanthropic giving frequently comes with strings attached, strings tied to a much wider system of power. This, in itself, may seem a tired complaint: patronage of various kinds has been a fact of artistic life for centuries. But perhaps this complaint seems a little less tired once we ask how 'philanthrocapitalism' might be trickling through into arts funding policy, particularly in the light of the heritage from which this trickling stems. And what of the recent, but dumped plans of the current coalition government to cap philanthropic giving