The Arts League of Service in Modernist Cultures

Image: ‘This Old Man’, from Eleanor Elder, Travelling Players (1939)

I’m delighted that my article on the Arts League of Service has been published in the academic journal Modernist Cultures. The article, ‘”within the reach of all”: Bringing Art to the People within Interwar Britain’, is the first piece I’ve published from my Revolutionary Red Tape project. It took about 2 years to research, write, edit and finally publish, so it’s been quite the labour of love. I hope that you enjoy it! If you’d like to read it but you don’t have access to Modernist Cultures then please get in touch.

Here’s the abstract:

The years during and after the Great War saw an explosion in arts organisations attempting ‘to bring the Arts into everyday life’. This essay argues that arts organisations should be seen alongside institutions like bookshops, magazines and galleries as key mediating institutions between modernist artists and writers and the general public. Using the Arts League of Service as a case study, I explore whether it was possible for such organisations to be experimental, educational and popular. To what extent could they reconcile their democratic principles with their belief in the transformative power of experimental modern art, design, literature and performance?

Readers of the blog will be familiar with the work of the Arts League of Service (ALS), especially its founders Eleanor Elder and Ana M. Berry. The article places their work in the wider context of interwar arts organisations and other attempts to ‘bring art to the people’, from the Design & Industries Association (DIA) to the BBC. The piece is peppered, as ever, with some wonderful photos of the ALS Travelling Theatre and their activities. I particularly love the eccentric costumes designed by members of the company, such as the makeshift beards in the ‘This Old Man’ skit above.

I’d like to thank my fantastic colleagues Dan Moore, John Holmes and my two anonymous readers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this essay. Thanks too to Charlotte Purkis, Chloe Ward and Helen Southworth for useful conversations about the Arts League of Service. Finally, a special thanks to my dad, Nick West, who has tirelessly proof read every article I’ve ever written!