International exhibitions

DCA/9 documents the planning of a large number of international exhibitions, organized in support of trade, retail or cultural initiatives. Cities where such activities were planned included: Accra, Beirut, Belgrade, Bergen, Berlin, Bordeaux, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dublin, Florence, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Isfahan, Jablonec, Kyoto, Lagos, Ljubljana, Mexico City, Milan, Minsk, Moscow, Munich, New York, Paris, Prague, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Shirokiya, Singapore, Sofia, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Teheran, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Vicenza, Warsaw, Zurich. In a small number of cases, proposals did not progress beyond the planning stage.

The Council orchestrated a busy exhibition programme in line with the necessarily visual components of its educational agenda. This programme extended overseas, where it was particularly vigorous after 1960. Exhibitions were frequently organised in support of British governmental initiatives, on behalf of, for example, the Board of Trade, the British Council, or the Central Office of Information. In these cases they often formed components of British Festivals, British Weeks and Trade Fairs, and British Shopping Fortnights. In many instances close liaison with the relevant British Embassy was a feature of the process.

The surviving files have been retained in their original numeric order as allocated by the Council"s Registry. This means that records in a series do not necessarily have consecutive file numbers, and may not be located together.

Record created by Lesley Whitworth, with minor edits by Sue Breakell, August 2010.

Paddy Maguire, "Craft Capitalism And The Projection Of British Industry In The 1950s And 1960s", Journal of Design History, 6:2 (1993), 97-113