Antony Gormley - The Angel of the Arts?

Antony Gormley is joined by ballet dancer Deborah Bull on an 11-person committee, reduced from 23 because Chairman Gerry Robinson wanted to streamline the decision-making process.

"I am an artist," Mr Gormley said. "I passionately believe that Art is the thing that gives us our identity today.

"I don't want to make an argument for it on monetarist grounds, I want to make an argument for it on creative grounds."

The new members have been chosen for their breadth of knowledge of the arts as a whole, previously members represented different geographical regions and separate areas of the arts.

The new Arts Council line-up was announced by Culture Secretary Chris Smith: "The new Arts Council encompasses a diverse range of talent from a variety of different professional backgrounds.

Chris Smith is pleased by the new appointments

"I am particularly pleased that a number of artists and performers of international standing have committed their time and expertise to the council.

"What all its members have in common is the ability to offer expert understanding and committed leadership to the arts in this country."

The new council includes six fresh appointments and four serving members who have been chosen to serve again.

Chairman Mr Robinson said: "There is artistic breadth and authority, the practitioner perspective, the regional dimension, experience and continuity from the previous council and new and youthful blood.

Geoffrey Robinson is determined to slim down the Arts Council

"This blend will without doubt provide vision, strategic thinking and decisive leadership on behalf of artists, arts organisations and audiences throughout England."

The council will still be advised by panels of experts from different areas of the arts but their chairmen will no longer serve on the body and will lose their decision-making powers.

Several well-known long-serving panel members were upset by that decision and many resigned.

The council's drama advisory panel, including names like playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn and West End producer Thelma Holt, resigned en masse in May.

They were followed by Lady McMillan, who quit as chairman of the council's dance panel, and this week Stephen Phillips left the touring panel.

Sir Peter Hall and Sir Cameron Mackintosh were among 60 signatories of a letter to Chris Smith insisting they would not serve on any panel whose chair was not a full member of the council.

The new members of the committee, who are unpaid, will serve for three years, and those who were reappointed for two.

They are:

New members:

• Derrick Anderson - chief executive of Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough Council.
• Deborah Bull - Principal Dancer at the Royal Ballet since 1992.
• Antony Gormley - Turner Prize winner in 1994.
• Anish Kapoor - another sculptor of international reputation.
• Joanna MacGregor - an international concert pianist.
• Hilary Strong, Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Reappointments:

• David Brierley - Former General Manager of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
• Christopher Frayling - Rector and Professor of Cultural History at the Royal College of Art.
• Andrew Motion - poet, biographer and Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.
• Prudence Skene - until recently Director of the Arts Foundation.

The Arts Council distributes government and National Lottery cash to the arts, as well as developing and improving knowledge of the arts.

However the workload has gone up dramatically since the Lottery started, and meetings have been lengthy as members fight their particular corners.