A lecture marking Prof Sir Roy Shaw’s legacy in adult education and arts policy. Drawing on his archive and family materials, it explores his commitment to widening opportunity and shaping national and regional cultural provision.
Detailed Description
The Best for the Most in the life of Sir Roy Shaw: lifelong learning, the arts, and inclusive opportunity
Keele University will celebrate the distinguished life and career of Changemaker Prof Sir Roy Shaw (1918-2012) through an exhibition (19 September – 28 October) and a public lecture on October 5 2026.
Roy Shaw was Director of Adult Education at Keele University between 1962 and 1975. In 1975, he left to become Director General of The Arts Council when it was still a UK-wide organisation. He retired in 1983 having weathered a turbulent period of politics and funding cuts, while establishing vital, long-lasting pillars of arts and education policy.
Born in Sheffield to a working-class family, Shaw experienced acute poverty and educational precarity in the late 1930s due to a combination of severe ill health, the absence of employment protections, and his public affirmation of conscientious objection to war.
After taking a degree in Philosophy and Modern Languages (German) at the University of Manchester, he worked for the Workers’ Education Association (WEA) in Yorkshire’s East Riding, moving to the University of Leeds, Department of Extra Mural Studies, renowned for its progressive work in adult education where he worked with E.P. Thompson, and J.F.C. Harrison.
Roy Shaw moved to Keele in 1962 to direct the department of Adult Education, a key department for the University because of its links to towering luminaries in the adult education world such as Lord Lindsay (founding Principal of Keele), and R.H. Tawney who had famously pioneered workers’ education in Longton, from 1904. Adult education was crucial to Keele because of the continued importance of organisations such as the WEA in the industrial Potteries.
The exhibition and lecture will focus on key aspects of Sir Roy Shaw’s legacy, which always affirmed the principle of ‘the best for the most’: that is to say, the commitment to educational excellence made available to all – particularly those majority social groups (workers, older learners, women and ethnic groups) systematically excluded from educational opportunity. With a focus on his active leadership of both national and local trends: he played a role in developing Jennie Lee’s ‘A Policy for the Arts: the First Steps’, a seminal policy document for Harold Wilson’s Labour Government, and his work for Peter Cheeseman’s innovative Victoria Theatre helped to bring Jennie Lee to the Potteries.
Featuring Roy Shaw’s personal academic archive, treasured family photographs and artefacts to illuminate key aspects of his work, developed in a university setting, then transferred to public policy and national, civic organisations such as Arts Council: on popularisation, the importance of arts reinforced by education, the importance of regional provision, politics and the arts, Christianity and ethics, broadcasting and media, the challenge of sponsorship.
PARKING & HOW TO FIND US: Parking is free on campus after 5pm on a weekday and during the weekend. During a week day parking is limited on campus and restricted to P&D parking located outside the Student Union building during the daytime (until 5pm).
Campus map here: https://www.keele.ac.uk/about/howtofindus/maps/keele-campus-map.pdf
The gallery is located in Building 54 on this map, the car park is C3 during the evening and at weekends and and P&D during weekdays.
ACCESS: Chancellor's Building is fully accessible. There are a number of disabled parking bays in close proximity on C3 car park. There is ramped and flat access from the car park. Chancellor's Building is busy teaching building on campus during a weekday; if you prefer a quieter time to visit we suggest after 5pm on a weekday or going along on the weekend.
