The Arts Council and the BBC have signed a partnership agreement to exchange and give access to archive material, and to share campaigns to develop new audiences for the arts.

The BBC’s new arts commissioning editor, Mark Bell, said the details of the agreement – signed by BBC chief Mark Thompson and ACE’s Alan Davey last week – were still being worked out, but the new deal would take the relationship to new areas of co-operation between the two institutions.

It follows the “memorandum of understanding” exchanged four years ago and drafted by Kim Evans, then ACE’s deputy chief executive and a former BBC producer.