It will be hard indeed for the arts and culture in 2007 to match the sheer exuberance that has been on show in the past year. With giddy records set for the sale of art and a proliferation of feelgood musicals in London’s West End and on Broadway, there was a swagger in the step of cultural institutions that reflected a newfound confidence in their role.

Quite apart from the fun on offer, many of the world’s most pressing debates are now played out on stages and in galleries, whether through the polemical plays of David Hare or the brash irreverence of contemporary artists competing for Britain’s Turner Prize. There is the feeling that the arts matter again and that they can fill up some of that spare leisure time we were promised all those years ago, to entertaining and educational effect.