TREAD SOFTLY BECAUSE YOU TREAD ON MY DREAMS: CLOSING THE GAP BETWEEN ASPIRATION AND PRACTICE IN IRISH ARTS EDUCATION

PROFESSOR DR ANNE BAMFORDANNE@ANNEBAMFORD.COM2013

Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts

United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948. United Nations, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966 and entry into force 3 January 1976. UNESCO, Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, adopted on 20 November 2001. See www.unesco.org, legal instruments. UNESCO, Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, adopted on 20 October 2005. UNESCO, Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted on 16 November 1972. UNESCO, Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, adopted on 27 October 2003.Council of Europe treaty series, no. 199, Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society, Faro, 27 October 2005. United Nations, Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, 92nd plenary meeting, 18 December 1992

DEFINITIONS OF THE ARTS IN IRELAND• Visual Arts: including fine art, decorative arts• Film & Media: including broadcasting and animation• Design: including fashion, craft, architecture, built environment, spatial,

product, fashion and graphic design, design for stage and screen• Performing Arts: including acting, dance, drama, music• Literature and Languages; including creative writing, cultural criticism• Creative Technologies: including communication technologies, gaming

and applied technical arts• Cultural and Heritage: including curatorial practice, tourism, arts

management, culinary arts and enterprise

NOW LET US EXAMINE...

• Merit

• Worth

• Value

• Effect

• Impact

MERIT INTRINSIC BEAUTY OR ARTISTRY

WORTH APPLICABILITY, USEFULNESS, CONTRIBUTION, DESIRABILITY

RELEVANCE

HIGH

HIGH

LOW

LOW

PARTICIPATION

VALUE IS COMPRISED OF BOTH MERIT AND WORTH

IMPACT

Impact falls under some generic areas

• Social Impact: Impact on human welfare such as health, education, or social exclusion (Jermyn 2001; Matarasso 1997; Mills and Brown 2004; Reeves 2002)

• Economic impact: Impact on the individual or community economies such as effects on employment or contribution to Gross Domestic Product (Kalvina 2004; Reeves 2002; Scott 2005; Throsby 2004)

• Intrinsic impact: internal impact inherent within an experience such as joy, imagination, captivation, pleasure, imagination, meaning-making, social bonds or empathy (Mc Carthy et al 2004)

TEN ASPECTS OF QUALITY:• Levels of risk taking • Partnerships • Flexibility of organisational structures • Permeable personal and organisational boundaries • Shared and collaborative planning • Detailed reflection and evaluation practices• Accessibility• Utilization of local contexts • Opportunities for presentation/publication• Professional development

WHERE?

• Private (at home); • Populist (movie theatre), • Virtual (i-pod), • Institutionalised (e.g.

schools,galleries/theatres)• Non-designated (e.g. disco,

church),• The everyday (e.g. urban

space)

IMPACT TRACKING FRAMEWORK

PERSONAL

CURIOSITY• Observing a task

• Investigating

• Asking questions

• Seeking related materials

• Demonstrating levels of interest

• Extending the nature of his/her involvement with people/activities/the provision

• Initiating involvement and interaction

• Extending the length of time he/she remains interested in an activity

• Interacting and communicating

CONFIDENCE• Level of talking during activities• When they approach and ask questions• Initiation of talk with different people• Trying new things – “having a go”• Showing another how to do something• Willingness to interact• If they asked for materials to make/do something• The ease with which relationships are formed and who they are formed

with• The extent to which they use the provision independently

INDEPENDENCE• Carry on doing things by themselves• Select activities by themselves • Patterns of play and interaction

• Links made between activities and how these are discussed• Initiated planning

• Self direction and independent repetition

• Cooperative learning and helping one another• Physical bearing and presence• Taking risks

• Initiating new ideas• Imaginative use of resources and space

CONCENTRATION

• Length of time taken at any one activity

• Body language in group activities

• The degree of interest in an activity

• Ability to question or add to discussions

• Involvement

• Nature of activities undertaken and any changes

SOCIAL

AN INCREASING ‘SENSE OF COMMUNITY’

• Work and play cooperatively

• Get involved in group activities

• Make connections between events in their lives and at home and at the cultural space

• Make connections between what has happened and what is going to happen

PARTNERSHIPS

• Partnerships between differing levels of educational provision – e.g. greater coordination between schools, FE, institutes of technology and universities

• Partnerships between differing sectors – e.g. better connections between the industrial, cultural and educational sectors

• Partnerships between institutions in the same sector and at the same level – e.g. consolidation of undergraduate and post-graduate offers and/or merging of institutions

• Partnerships internationally – e.g. consolidation of undergraduate and post-graduate offers and/or amalgamations of institutions across national borders

CULTURAL

SENSE OF IDENTITY AND CULTURE

• Observations of what they wear and the roles they play• Discussion e.g. How they talk about their home/lives and

the connections they make between their lives and experiences

• The connections that they make between their own beliefs and culture and those of others

• Listening e.g. How they speak with each other / staff regarding what they do

INNOVATION

PILLARS OF INNOVATION THE EUROPEAN INNOVATION SCOREBOARD (EIS) BASED ON 29 INDICATORS OF INNOVATION

• Human capital

• Openness and diversity

• Cultural environment

• Technology

• Institutional and regulatory environment

• Creative outputs

HUMAN CAPITAL

• Hours on arts and cultural education in schools

• Number of arts schools per million people

• Tertiary students studying in the field of culture

• Cultural employment as a % of overall employment

ECONOMIC

EMPLOYABILITY

Surveys show that soft skills such as adaptability were more valuable to employers than education or qualifications

NESTA have received evidence that suggests the soft skills employers are looking for are (in order of stated importance):

• Communication skills• Team working skills• Confidence

CONTEXT

• In 2011, the ‘wider arts sector (the arts plus film and video, publishing and libraries, museums and archives) were reported to employ 13,000 persons. A broader delineation of creative industries that includes advertising, radio and television and software in addition to the ‘wider arts’ classification employed 48,000, representing around 7% of total employment in Ireland.

• A further study reported that the creative industries (including the ‘wider arts’) contributed 2.8% to Irish Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011. Of this, software constitutes 62% of the Gross Value Added.

• In any one year, more than 3300 students participate in programmes that are uniquely practice or performance-based, creative arts courses.

ECONOMIC CONTEXT• A study by McAndrew and McKimm (2010) estimated that there were nearly 5,000

professional artists in the Republic of Ireland (ROI), 1,688 librarians, archivists and curators and 11,180 software engineers.

• The survey showed that half were female, over 40% worked in more than one art form, 30% were born outside ROI and half lived in Dublin.

• In terms of education and training, 70% were graduates, of whom 40% had a postgraduate or professional qualification (approximately three times more than in the ROI labour force); 70% had received specific education or training as an artist. In terms of earnings, average income from work as an artist was €20,501 for males and €9,789 for females. Both earned a further average €10,000 from non-arts work, mostly teaching. These earnings (with notable exceptions in the ICT design and media sectors) are considerably lower than for other professional occupations for males and females, taking age and educational qualifications into account The survey did not include craftspeople.

• The median is regarded as the better measure as it reflects ‘typical’ earnings: the average is raised by the very uneven distribution of the few high fliers. Median earnings for male artists was €11,148 and for females, €5,952.

EMPLOYMENT

• The report Economic Significance and Potential of the Crafts Sector in Ireland (Indecon, 2010) estimated that in 2009, there were over 10,000 craftspeople (makers) in ROI working in 1,700 craft enterprises, of which 20% were in Dublin. GVA from craft enterprises with more than 3 employees (the way the statistics are collected) was just under €179 million. The report showed that there had been a fall in craft employment over the previous few years.

EDUCATIONAL

PORTRAIT OF AN ARTS-RICH 20 YEAR OLDCATTERALL 2009 USA

• More likely to enrol in college/higher education (> 17.6%)

• More likely to volunteer (15.4%)

• More likely to have strong friendships (8.6%)

• More likely to vote (20%)

• 10% less likely to not be in either employment or education at aged 20.

PORTRAIT OF AN ARTS-RICH 26 YEAR OLD CATTERALL 2009 USA,

• Continue to do better than people who attended non-arts-rich schools.

• Found better jobs

(Arts poor students were 5 times as likely to report dependence on public assistance at age 26.)

EDUCATION OUT OF STEP…

• Increased effort has to be made to establish synergies between knowledge, skills and creativity. With few exceptions educational politics gets no further than paying lip service to these ideas.

SCHOOL ARTS EDUCATION• “The second level curriculum is 40 years old. There is a lack of synchronisation between

school art and the level needed for entrance to Art College.”

• A lack of creative education especially at the second level has a particularly negative impact on excellence at the third level and beyond. Too much time is spent at the third level catching up on things that should have been done at the second level. Better arts education in schools would also free up more expensive resources at the third level so there is significant value-added economic benefit for good early arts education. Visual education in the school is almost non-existent so later education has to start from scratch. While it was suggested that there is an imaginative primary curriculum, it was noted that for the most part the teachers are not confident to teach it. For example; “There are no drama teachers in Irish schools. So where would children learn the basic skills they need and know if they have a talent or an interest?”

SCHOOL ARTS EDUCATION• Ireland also needs to invest more in the continuous improvement of the quality of teaching, the

role of research in teacher education, and international cooperation in all of its teacher education institutions.

• Currently, one-year postgraduate programmes for teachers of Art and Design are provided by the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, by Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork (CIT), and by the College of Art and Design in Limerick (LIT). A one-year programme for Wood Technology teachers is provided by Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). A recent review of teacher education has suggested that ‘with regard to Art, the Panel recognises the distinctive Art elements of teacher education programmes for Art. However, based on the principle that a common programme should be followed by all post-primary teacher education students in each consortium, the Panel recommends that ITE programmes for Art should be university-accredited and university-based. This means that teacher education courses in Art should be planned and delivered jointly by personnel from a university and the art institute.

ETHICAL

CHANGES IN THE ARTS

• Few of privilege to few of privilege

• Few of privilege to many

• Many to many

• Is there still a place for privilege?

Figure 3.8.4.1 Non-Norwegian-speaking background in the culture schools

CATALYTIC

BRAIN ACTIVATION• Highly creative individuals had significantly higher

activation in both the left and right cerebral hemispheres, specifically in the areas associated with fluency, originality and flexibility

• Higher activation in these areas could be related to the vivid experience of insight, emotions and perceptions present in highly creative individuals.

• These combined with higher symbolic abilities possessed mainly in the activated frontal lobes might enable highly creative individual to translate their experiences into creative works.

Rosa Aurora Chavez-Eakle 2009

When I make art I feel alive. It is SO good. It is good to show what you can do. I feel like I have a lot to give. I can sing. It is vital to me. I really wish I could give you the words for your report about just how important the arts are to me, but it is not just about the English. I have the same problem in Norwegian. I really can't say what it means. The arts are beyond words. When I am on stage it comes out through my singing and through my dancing. Then you can see what I mean, but I really want you to capture that thing you can't describe in your report.Pupil comment made during the study, January 2011

PROGRESSION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENTCREATIVE ARTS LEARNING IS A CONTINUUM BUT… • School arts education

• Informal provisions

• Further education

• Apprenticeships

• Graduates

• Post graduates

• Research

There has been inadequate acknowledgement of the needs for arts learning to build upon the learning that has occurred before it. Excellence in the creative arts is only achieved through a continued process of consolidation of concepts and skills and by revisiting past learning with greater levels of analysis and reflection.

NEGATIVE LOSS

There seemed to be between 17-28% (averaged at

around 22%) negative impacts of poor quality

programmes. Put crudely, this meant that in a global sense about ¼ of all the

arts and cultural education a child receives is likely to

have a negative impact

THE UNCREATIVE ARTS?• In European culture, certain activities are

assumed to be more creative or artistic than others. Painting a picture, writing a poem, or creating a sculpture is often deemed creative, even when performed in an ordinary or mediocre manner. Mathematics, science, or engineering are rarely classed as creative or artistic, unless they are done exceptionally well.

REPORT ON ARTS EDUCATION IN THE DUBLIN AREA, 2013.

•http://www.hea.ie/files/DublinCreativeArtsReviewReport.pdf

QUALITY? OR…

RECOMMENDATIONS1) Greater focus of learning rather than on courses2) Robust quality assurance and accountability3) Remove the separation between the various tiers (levels) of the system 4) Greater coherence and consolidation in creative arts offers5) Removing the barriers that prevent flexibility 6) Better partnerships with industry7) Graduate tracking8) Coherence and consolidation

THINGS TO BE DONE….

• Immediately improve collaboration across the arts and media education sector

• Develop access transfer and progression agreements between different levels of education

• Examine arts offerings, avoid duplication and develop synergies among staff/actors

• Conduct more robust workforce and employability analyses

• Students in the arts should receive greater education in business and marketing skills.

• Collaborations with industry are required to build integrated approaches to learning within the creative industries

THE CLOTHS OF HEAVENHad I the heaven's embroidered cloths,Enwrought with golden and silver light,The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light;I would spread the cloths under your feet:But I, being poor, have only my dreams;I have spread my dreams under your feet;Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

W. B. Yeats