Tate director Nicholas Serota has written to the Department of Education pledging support for a free school focusing on the creative arts.
The scheme, put forward by Plymouth College of Art, offers provision for children aged from four to 16, with an emphasis on art and design.
The proposed school, called the Plymouth School of Creative Arts, is to open in September 2013.
“The creative industry continues to be one of the few growing industries in this country and such a school will help nurture skills and aptitudes that may be declining elsewhere, enabling a new young workforce to thrive in the area,” said Serota.
Organisations such as charities and universities can set up free schools that are state funded but not under local authority control, although the programme has proved controversial.
Nick Winterbotham, chair of the Group for Education in Museums, said: “I’ve no doubt that the Plymouth School of Creative Arts will make a good case for how it will deliver excellence, especially if Serota is there to see it maintains its focus.
“My worry is the way in which these oasis-like centres of excellence, by implication, will generate deserts of mediocrity around them. The neighbouring schools will find it all the harder to make the case for creative arts in their own ill-defined syllabi.”
The college’s principal, Andrew Brewerton, said creative subjects had been marginalised in schools.
The scheme, put forward by Plymouth College of Art, offers provision for children aged from four to 16, with an emphasis on art and design.
The proposed school, called the Plymouth School of Creative Arts, is to open in September 2013.
“The creative industry continues to be one of the few growing industries in this country and such a school will help nurture skills and aptitudes that may be declining elsewhere, enabling a new young workforce to thrive in the area,” said Serota.
Organisations such as charities and universities can set up free schools that are state funded but not under local authority control, although the programme has proved controversial.
Nick Winterbotham, chair of the Group for Education in Museums, said: “I’ve no doubt that the Plymouth School of Creative Arts will make a good case for how it will deliver excellence, especially if Serota is there to see it maintains its focus.
“My worry is the way in which these oasis-like centres of excellence, by implication, will generate deserts of mediocrity around them. The neighbouring schools will find it all the harder to make the case for creative arts in their own ill-defined syllabi.”
The college’s principal, Andrew Brewerton, said creative subjects had been marginalised in schools.