Galleries in great britain The National Gallery
The National Gallery in London, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 in its home on Trafalgar Square. The gallery is a non-departmental public body; its collection belongs to the public of the United Kingdom and entry to the main collection is free of charge.The National Gallery's beginnings were modest, it was not formed by nationalising an existing royal. It came into being when the British government bought 36 paintings from the banker John Julius Angerstein in 1824. After that initial purchase the Gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two thirds of the collection. The resulting collection is small in size, compared with many European national galleries, but encyclopedic in scope. It used to be claimed that this was one of the few national galleries that had all its works on permanent exhibition, but this is no longer the case.
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It was the first gallery to be established within the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the work of J.M.W. Turner. The front part of the building was designed by Sidney R. J. Smith with a classical portico and dome behind. Construction commenced in 1893. The gallery opened in 1897 as the National Gallery of British Art, but became commonly known as the Tate Gallery, after its founder Sir Henry Tate. The central sculpture gallery was designed by John Russell Pope. The gallery housed and displayed both British and Modern collections, but was renamed "Tate Britain" in March 2000. Tate Britain includes the Clore Gallery of 1987, designed by James Stirling, which houses work by J.M.W. Turner.
The main display spaces show the permanent collection of historic British art. It has rooms dedicated to works by one artist. The gallery also organizes career retrospectives of British artists and temporary major exhibitions of British Art. Every three years the gallery stages a Triennial exhibition in which a guest curator provides an overview of contemporary British Art. The 2003 Tate Triennial was called Days Like These. The collections in Tate Modern consist of works of international modern and contemporary art dating from 1900 onwards. The Tate Collection is on display on levels three and five of the building, while level four houses large temporary exhibitions and a small exhibition space on level two houses work by contemporary artists.
Abbot Hall
Abbot hall is one of the few places that you can see and enjoy art in a truly relaxed and friendly atmosphere. You can be enjoyed in the setting of elegant georgian rooms of classical proportions. The setting, architecture and light filled rooms combine to create a special magic, giving you the impression of looking at art in the relaxed atmosphere of someone's home. Today Abbot Hall has a very fine collection of British Art, including important key works by such artists as Romney, Turner, Ruskin, Ben Nicholson, Frank Auerbach and Tony Bevan. Paintings from the 18th century collection are hung in the Georgian rooms on the ground floor so that they can be enjoyed in an appropriate setting. They include a very fine pair of views of Windermere by PJ de Loutherbourg as well as an important group of portraits by Romney from various different periods of his life. Abbot Hall has a significant collection of watercolours mainly from the second half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. There is a large group of topographical views of the Lake District including works by such artists as Dayes, Hearne, Cristall, Varley, Copley Fielding, Constable, Frederick Nash, Hills and Severn.. Other important works by J.M.W. Turner include his large watercolour of Devil's Bridge in the St. Gothard Pass of 1804 and the recently acquired 1821 watercolour of Windermere. The collection covers the whole century and concentrates more on painting than sculpture. There is good representation from the St Ives School with three important works by Ben Nicholson and a fine group of paintings by Winifred Nicholson. The collection includes works on paper by artists such as Piper, Sutherland, Christopher Wood and Gertler, and some important prints by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Henry Moore and David Hockney. In 2003, Abbot Hall acquired Paula Rego's Triptych, one of the most important works produced by the artist in recent years.
The National Gallery of Scotland
The National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, is the national art gallery of Scotland. The building, which was designed by William Henry Playfair, first opened to the public in 1859. The archive and study facilities at the National Gallery include the Prints and Drawings Collection of over 30,000 works on paper, from the early Renaissance to the late nineteenth century. The library covers the period from 1300 to 1900 and holds approximately 50,000 volumes of books, journals, slides, photographs and microfiches, as well as archived material relating to the collections, exhibitions and history of the National Gallery.
BRITISH MASS
RADIO
British broadcasting has three public bodies are responsible for television and radio services throughout Britain. They are: the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) broadcasts television and radio services; the Independent Television Commission (ГГС) licenses and regulates non-BBC television services, including cable and satellite services, and; the Radio Authority licenses and regulates all non-BBC radio services. From 1926 radio was entrusted to the BBC, which still has a board of governors appointed by the government.
The BBC has five national radio channels for listeners in the United Kingdom. Radio (channel) 1 provides mainly a programme of rock and pop music. Radio 2 broadcasts lights music and entertainment, comedy as well as being the principal channel for the coverage of sport. Radio 3 provides mainly classical music as well as drama, poetry and short stories, documentaries. Radio 4 is the main speech network providing the principals news and current affairs service, as well as drama, comedy, documentaries and panel games. BBC 5,which is devoted chiefly to sport, education and programmes for young people. The BBC has over 30 local radio stations and about 50 commercial independent stations distributed throughout Britain.
Besides these domestic programmes, the BBC broadcasts in England and in over 40 other languages to every part of the world. It is the World Service of the BBC. The main part of the World Service programme is formed by news bulletins, current affairs, political commentaries, as well as sports, music, drama, etc. In general, the BBC World Service reflects British opinion and the British way of life. The BBC news bulletins and other programmes are re-broadcasted by the radio services of many countries.
TELEVISION
Since the 1970s 98% of British households have had television sets able to receive four channels, two put out by the BBC, two by commercial companies. Every household with TV must by law pay for a license, which costs about the same for a year as a popular newspaper every day. One agreed purpose has been to ensure that news, comment and discussion should be balanced and impartial, free of influence by government or advertisers.
a new Independent Television Commission was set up in 1991. The Commission also took over responsibility for licensing cable programme services, including those satellite TV channels which are carried on cable networks.
The general nature of the four TV channels functioning seems likely to continue, with BBC1 and ITV producing a broadly similar mixture of programmes in competition with each other. ITV has a complex structure. Its main news is run by one company, Independent Television News, its early morning TV - a.m. by another. There are about a dozen regional companies which broadcast in their regions for most each day, with up to ten minutes of advertisements in each hour, between programmes or as interruptions at intervals of twenty or thirty minutes.
The organization and style of the television should be singled out. In terms of the size of audience, the television has long since taken over form of broadcasting in Britain . Its independence from government interference is largely a matter of fact agreement. There have been occasions when the government has successfully persuaded the BBC not to show something. But there have also been occasions, when the BBC has refused to bow to government pressure. Most resent cases have involved Northern Ireland.
There is no advertising on the BBC. But Independent Television (ITV), which started in 1954 , gets its money from the advertisements it screens. It consists of a number of privately owned companies, each of which is responsible for programming in different parts of the country on the single channel given to it. The British prefer this kind of pseudo—realism in their soaps. In the early 1990-s, the BBC spent a lot of money filming a new soap called ELDORADO, set in a small Spanish village which was home to a large number of expatriate British people. Although the BBC used its most successful soap producers and directors, it was a complete failure. Viewers found the complicated storylines and the Spanish accents too difficult to follow, and could not identify with the situations in which the characters found themselves. It was all just too glamorous for them. It was abandoned after only a year.
Britain now has two other channels (BBC2 and Channel4) which act as the main promoters of learning and 'culture’. Both have been successful in presenting programmes on serious and weighty topics which are nevertheless attractive to quite large audience. BBC2 is famous for its highly acclaimed dramatizations of great works of literature. Another thing that these channel do well, particularly, Channel 4, is to show a wide variety of programmes catering to minority interests -including, even, subtitled foreign soap operas.
Television viewing is Britain's most popular leisure pastime: 95 per cent of households have a colour television set and 68 per cent have a video recorder. There are four television channels, and five national and over 100 local radio stations.
Some programmes especially radio, allow members of the public to challenge politicians and other public figures on major issues.
The Government is not responsible for programming content or the day-to- day conduct of the business of broadcasting. Broadcasters are free to air programs with the only limitation on their independence being the requirement that they not offend good taste.