History
Mark Featherstone-Witty had been inspired by Alan Parker's 1980s film Fame to create a secondary school specialising in the performing arts. By the time he started trying to raise money through The School for Performing Arts Trust (SPA), he had refined a novel integrated curriculum. He approached Richard Branson to be the Project Champion who had agreed, but would only do so if other record companies chipped in. As it happened, The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) were concerned with home taping and realised they had no political influence to bring the necessary pressure to bear. The Conservative Government needed to give impetus to their flagging City Technology College scheme.
Over 20 years, the BRIT School has been the beneficiary of more than £7 million from the British Record industry, with a substantial annual contribution from the proceeds of the Brit Awards, administered via the record industry’s charity, The BRIT Trust.
Read more about this topic: BRIT School
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
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“It would be naive to think that peace and justice can be achieved easily. No set of rules or study of history will automatically resolve the problems.... However, with faith and perseverance,... complex problems in the past have been resolved in our search for justice and peace. They can be resolved in the future, provided, of course, that we can think of five new ways to measure the height of a tall building by using a barometer.”
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)