This article examines how "resilience" appeared and became embedded as a keyword in Arts Council England's (ACE) policy discourse from 2010, initially in response to the financial crisis in Britain and the government's call for austerity. The general dynamic of what we call policy keywords here is thereby exemplified, while throwing light on Arts policy making at a specific historical juncture in Britain. Some of the features of such policy keywords are considered here: in terms of connotative ambiguities and associations, definitions, and naming or branding practices. Their distinctive purchase in ACE's "resilience" policies is analysed in the process. The policies were designed to reduce public spending by appealing to normative agendas which, in this instance, seemed contingent on a larger and immediate impetus and were derived from the field of "ecological economics". of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government from 2010. In the Conservative Party Conference of April 2009, David Cameron had launched their election campaign by declaring, "The age of irresponsibility is giving way to the age of austerity" (Cameron 2009)it was to prove a successful slogan and Cameron took office as Prime Minister from May 2010.The phrase just quoted, "instant austerity budget", was used by Alan Davey, Chief Executive of the Arts Council England, in a speech of November 2011 to explain why policy changes in the arts and culture sector had been necessary. By then, "resilience" had already surfaced as a keyword in British Arts policy, ostensibly in response to "austerity" (itself a keyword now, for a discussion see Gupta 2017, 232-36).This article analyses the advent and career of the term "resilience" in British Arts policy circles from, mainly, 2010 to 2017. Those circles are naturally manifold; as a firm anchor therein, the focus here is on policy enacted by one significant government institution, the Arts Council England (ACE). The use of the term in various ACE policy documents (strategy statements, reports, notices, etc.) occupies the latter part of this article. Some conceptual clarifications are presented first. The policies in question concern the public funding and topdown management of, specifically, the Arts in regions within England (the Arts Council for UK was devolved into the four constituent nations in 1994, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). The remit of "the Arts" is indicated below. This analysis is undertaken with two interwoven aims. At a general level, the examination of "resilience" thus exemplifies what we think of as policy keywords. We argue that such keywords do not merely state and actuate a definite policy direction, they are also used rhetorically to persuade of the policy and shroud its less savoury implications, and enable policy to be massaged and altered in seemingly consistent ways. At a specific level, the following analysis clarifies the underpinning principles of Arts policy making in Britain at a specific historical juncture, from 2010 to 2017. The policy direction ...
