We must fight to preserve arts education
Do the arts need a political party all of their own? At the end of last year, artist Bob and …
Do the arts need a political party all of their own? At the end of last year, artist Bob and Roberta Smith threw the first Art Party conference in Scarborough, a riotous parody of the party political conference, complete with marches, speeches and banners.
And right at the top of the agenda was the erosion of arts education in what is increasingly being seen as a profoundly damaging attack.
In 2012, anticipating Michael Gove’s plans for an English Baccalaureate that would have marginalised arts subjects, 27% of schools abandoned arts subjects. Despite the subsequent retreat on the proposal, the fear is that few of these schools have since reinstated their arts provision.
Gove’s sidelining of the arts is already having an impact, a fact that was reinforced by news that in 2013, 14% fewer children opted for GCSE art and design than in 2000.
Collapsing arts provision in schools is worryingly compounded by the decline of arts education elsewhere in the food chain.
Who can blame young people for not taking up arts options at GCSE and A-Level when they are not included by the Russell Group universities as facilitating subjects – those subjects best placed to get you on to a BA degree course?
Once-essential foundation courses have been abandoned by many arts schools and colleges, meaning that students now get off to slow starts on their three-year BA programmes because of under-developed critical thinking and a lack of practical skills.
And since the introduction of fees, few students can justify continuing to MA level, especially those from less privileged backgrounds.
The merger of many arts schools with universities, which started in the 1970s, did bring benefits. However, the need for expensive studio space, technical support, workshop provision and one-to-one tutor time sits uncomfortably in financially pressed educational establishments.
The learning offer of galleries and museums is similarly threatened by cuts to Arts Council England and local council funding.
This cumulative impact doubtlessly risks crippling the arts and creativity in which the UK is a world leader. It is a huge concern that the government fails to acknowledge this and respond to it as a matter of urgency.
What there has been instead, thankfully, is a groundswell of people hitting back with innovative ideas to protect and maintain access to the arts.
Plymouth School of Creative Arts is a primary school sponsored by Plymouth College of Art (with a secondary school due to open next year) offering a curriculum focused on academic excellence and “rich in creativity”, a mix it regards as mutually supportive.
Through a programme of mentoring, networking and workshops, the Arts Emergency Service aims to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds access educational opportunities in the arts.
Organisations such as Spike Island in Bristol, Eastside Projects in Birmingham and G39 in Cardiff deliver peer-led learning opportunities for postgraduate-level artists, while free schools such as Islington Mill Art Academy and Open School East are being explored as potential new models for higher-level education.
These are wonderful and important initiatives, some of which offer sustainable models that are replicable. Yet what they can’t do is to provide structured access to the arts for all levels and all ages, across the whole of the country.
This is piecemeal, geographically dispersed response, not a blueprint for a national strategy. Years have been spent building such a system that has been proven to work.
It is essential that we fight to preserve our system of arts education if we believe in culture’s value to our society.
Helen Legg is director of Spike Island
And right at the top of the agenda was the erosion of arts education in what is increasingly being seen as a profoundly damaging attack.
In 2012, anticipating Michael Gove’s plans for an English Baccalaureate that would have marginalised arts subjects, 27% of schools abandoned arts subjects. Despite the subsequent retreat on the proposal, the fear is that few of these schools have since reinstated their arts provision.
Gove’s sidelining of the arts is already having an impact, a fact that was reinforced by news that in 2013, 14% fewer children opted for GCSE art and design than in 2000.
Collapsing arts provision in schools is worryingly compounded by the decline of arts education elsewhere in the food chain.
Who can blame young people for not taking up arts options at GCSE and A-Level when they are not included by the Russell Group universities as facilitating subjects – those subjects best placed to get you on to a BA degree course?
Once-essential foundation courses have been abandoned by many arts schools and colleges, meaning that students now get off to slow starts on their three-year BA programmes because of under-developed critical thinking and a lack of practical skills.
And since the introduction of fees, few students can justify continuing to MA level, especially those from less privileged backgrounds.
The merger of many arts schools with universities, which started in the 1970s, did bring benefits. However, the need for expensive studio space, technical support, workshop provision and one-to-one tutor time sits uncomfortably in financially pressed educational establishments.
The learning offer of galleries and museums is similarly threatened by cuts to Arts Council England and local council funding.
This cumulative impact doubtlessly risks crippling the arts and creativity in which the UK is a world leader. It is a huge concern that the government fails to acknowledge this and respond to it as a matter of urgency.
What there has been instead, thankfully, is a groundswell of people hitting back with innovative ideas to protect and maintain access to the arts.
Plymouth School of Creative Arts is a primary school sponsored by Plymouth College of Art (with a secondary school due to open next year) offering a curriculum focused on academic excellence and “rich in creativity”, a mix it regards as mutually supportive.
Through a programme of mentoring, networking and workshops, the Arts Emergency Service aims to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds access educational opportunities in the arts.
Organisations such as Spike Island in Bristol, Eastside Projects in Birmingham and G39 in Cardiff deliver peer-led learning opportunities for postgraduate-level artists, while free schools such as Islington Mill Art Academy and Open School East are being explored as potential new models for higher-level education.
These are wonderful and important initiatives, some of which offer sustainable models that are replicable. Yet what they can’t do is to provide structured access to the arts for all levels and all ages, across the whole of the country.
This is piecemeal, geographically dispersed response, not a blueprint for a national strategy. Years have been spent building such a system that has been proven to work.
It is essential that we fight to preserve our system of arts education if we believe in culture’s value to our society.
Helen Legg is director of Spike Island