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Arts Council England has recently published its Annual Review for 2008. It looks back and reports on our activities and achievements from Spring 2007 to 2008.

The review covers an eventful year; Liverpool became Capital of Culture; the refurbished Royal Festival Hall reopened; and we invested more than £529 million of public money from the government and the National Lottery in the arts.

The successful Comprehensive Spending Review settlement allowed us to deepen our commitment to excellence, risk-taking, innovation and reach.

Our investment strategy process brought in over 80 new regularly funded organisations, gave over 750 an above-inflation increase, while 185 had their funding withdrawn. It also raised a number of issues, as highlighted in the media - an example of which we reprint in full.

Grants for the arts, our open access funding programme, celebrated its fifth year in April 2008. Across the year, we made over 2,800 grants totalling nearly £57 million, and brought in a simplified application process.

We also published the findings from the arts debate, our comprehensive public inquiry into the arts and arts funding. They will play a vital part in shaping our future priorities, and helping us to achieve our mission of great art for everyone.

To download the review, please visit our website at: www.artscouncil.org.uk/annualreview2008.

If you would like to be sent a hard copy, or have any questions please contact Emma Russell in the national press office at emma.russell@artscouncil.org.uk or 020 7973 6890.