Culture and Learning: a New Agenda for Advocacy and Action is a call to arms to the education, learning and cultural sectors - a manifesto arguing for greater respect for and more collaboration between the often distinct worlds of education and culture.
Crucially, the report, published at the end of last year by the Culture and Learning Consortium, is based on consultation with practitioners.
The report describes a mixed state of affairs: schools that experience real or imagined barriers to greater participation in culture; cultural organisations undervaluing education; patchy provision; and a lack of strategic thinking by policy makers and funders. All this results in cultural education programmes that aren't innovative or sustainable.
Yet cultural organisations have embraced learning since the late 1970s and schools have been required to provide pupils with cultural development since 1988. And there is inspiring practice taking place.
The report proposes setting up an independent Culture and Learning Alliance to develop ideas. These would include things such as more support from funders and policy makers for sustainable work that focuses on quality and innovation rather than participant numbers; support for learner involvement in cultural organisations; the need for robust evaluation and research to measure impact; putting education and learning at the heart of cultural organisations' missions; and collaborative work in regions to address gaps in provision.
As director of an organisation committed to increasing access to the visual arts and supporting the professional development of those involved in education in the visual arts, I want such change. The implementation of even a few of these ambitions will strengthen practice and could transform provision. However, I sound three notes of caution.
Embracing education and the views of learners within cultural organisations could be a challenge for organisations that may see their role as supporting artistic innovation rather than engagement and outreach. I don't think these areas are mutually exclusive, but colleagues whose practice I do respect sometimes struggle to reconcile the challenge of artistic innovation with accessibility.
Teachers and cultural practitioners can seem to inhabit different worlds, making collaboration a challenge. Cultural education can feel anarchic to teachers, but this can be the catalyst for forming creative partnerships.
Lastly, if the sector is to thrive in this economic downturn, resources for education and cultural practice need to be ringfenced.
In an increasingly competitive environment, unless educational and cultural organisations are required to collaborate to secure resources from funders and policy makers, how willing will they be to go down this route?
Jane Sillis is director of Engage, the national association for gallery education
Crucially, the report, published at the end of last year by the Culture and Learning Consortium, is based on consultation with practitioners.
The report describes a mixed state of affairs: schools that experience real or imagined barriers to greater participation in culture; cultural organisations undervaluing education; patchy provision; and a lack of strategic thinking by policy makers and funders. All this results in cultural education programmes that aren't innovative or sustainable.
Yet cultural organisations have embraced learning since the late 1970s and schools have been required to provide pupils with cultural development since 1988. And there is inspiring practice taking place.
The report proposes setting up an independent Culture and Learning Alliance to develop ideas. These would include things such as more support from funders and policy makers for sustainable work that focuses on quality and innovation rather than participant numbers; support for learner involvement in cultural organisations; the need for robust evaluation and research to measure impact; putting education and learning at the heart of cultural organisations' missions; and collaborative work in regions to address gaps in provision.
As director of an organisation committed to increasing access to the visual arts and supporting the professional development of those involved in education in the visual arts, I want such change. The implementation of even a few of these ambitions will strengthen practice and could transform provision. However, I sound three notes of caution.
Embracing education and the views of learners within cultural organisations could be a challenge for organisations that may see their role as supporting artistic innovation rather than engagement and outreach. I don't think these areas are mutually exclusive, but colleagues whose practice I do respect sometimes struggle to reconcile the challenge of artistic innovation with accessibility.
Teachers and cultural practitioners can seem to inhabit different worlds, making collaboration a challenge. Cultural education can feel anarchic to teachers, but this can be the catalyst for forming creative partnerships.
Lastly, if the sector is to thrive in this economic downturn, resources for education and cultural practice need to be ringfenced.
In an increasingly competitive environment, unless educational and cultural organisations are required to collaborate to secure resources from funders and policy makers, how willing will they be to go down this route?
Jane Sillis is director of Engage, the national association for gallery education
