On 2 April 2014, Action for Children’s Arts and Theatre for Young Audiences UK sent an open letter to Alan Davey, Chief Executive at Arts Council England, raising the collective concerns about the positioning of the arts for young people in their recent This England Report, which responds to the significant debate on regional funding that has been taking place in the sector over the past months.
The original letter can be found on the Action for Children's Arts Blog.
To:
Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England
Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England
From:Action for Children’s Arts
Theatre for Young Audiences UK
Theatre for Young Audiences UK
Dear Alan Davey,
We are writing on behalf of the membership organisations, Theatre for Young Audiences UK (TYA UK) a member of Global Association ASSITEJ and Action for Children’s Arts (ACA), who between them represent more than 400 independent artists and organisations committed to the arts for children and young people.
We are writing to raise our collective concerns about the positioning of the arts for young people in the recent This England report.
As an artistic community dedicated to developing the arts for, by and with children and young people, we welcome the centrality of Goal 5 in the Arts Council’s 10 year Strategic Framework. We share your belief that every child and young person should have the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts. We also share your concerns about the provision of non-core arts subjects in the curriculum, as drama and theatre particularly, become increasingly marginalised within schools.
In Great Art and Culture for Everyone, Goal 5 is defined in terms of actions and outcomes focused on the ambition that children and young people have the best current and future artistic lives they can have and that ‘they are able to develop their artistic capabilities and engage with, and shape, the arts’.
We support the view that the arts should be a holistic and enriching part of childhood, not just skewed to educational and participatory activities. There is no doubt that the centrality of children and young people’s entitlement to culture within the strategy is a significant move forwards.
However, the opening statement under Goal 5 of the This England report reads as follows:
“Children and young people represent both the creative talent of tomorrow, and our future audiences”(pg 29)
Whilst this statement is true, the fact that no other entitlement of children is outlined, which recognises children as creative beings; as participants, as artists, as decision makers as well as audiences, now, is hugely problematic.
Fundamentally, as you know, arts experiences at their best are a way of investigating and understanding our world and our feelings and children and young people’s engagement is no less important, we would argue more so, than that of those older than them.
For those of us who are fortunate enough to work in this field, there is little doubt that quality early arts experiences inspire hearts, challenge minds and awaken imaginations in a profound way. The role of young people as ‘future audiences and future talent’ is disappointingly regressive and significantly out of kilter with ACE’S own Great Art for Everyone and with the artistic community who know and understand the value of work for, by and with children and young people.
Documents such as This England are important statements about the role of culture in our national life and influence the policies that will shape our cultural diet in the future. We therefore ask you to review this articulation of policy and recognise that our shared primary objective should be to provide children and young people with art of the highest quality because it should be a crucial and enriching part of everyone’s childhood.
We look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
David Wood OBE, Chair, ACASteve Ball, Chair, TYA England
Nina Hajiyianni, Chair, TYA UK
Nina Hajiyianni, Chair, TYA UK
On behalf of the membership of TYA UK and ACA.
Please see below for our open response to the letter above.
ReplyDeleteDear Steve Ball,
Thank you for your letter dated the 31st March regarding your concerns about our recent This England report.
Don’t worry, I can reassure you that we are in agreement. Like you, we believe that children and young people should have the opportunity to experience art of the highest quality, and that this should be a crucial and enriching part of everyone’s childhood. Our policy on this remains the same, and we are clear that we want culture to enrich children’s lives in their ‘here and now’, and not just in order that they should become audiences and practitioners of the future. An expressive and creative life is something that children should have as a right, not a privilege. I was implicitly making that point in the introduction. It’s something I am passionate about.
Our 10 year strategic framework, Great art and culture for everyone, is still the roadmap that informs all the investments and policy decisions that we make. It was recently updated to take account of our new remit for libraries and museums, and this gave us the opportunity to re-state our belief that every child and young person should have the opportunity to experience the richness of culture.
Our intention with This England was to look at our strategy in the context of the debate that has opened around the geography of cultural investment, not to restate our policy in full. Its aim is to show how our money is working with other partners’ investments across the country. From time to time we have to make arguments from particular points of view – but that doesn’t mean those we deal with less fully are not important.
Over the life of our strategy we will continue to focus on the partnerships and investments that will create a coherent, national approach to the provision of high quality cultural experiences for children and young people. Because that’s what really matters.
I hope I have answered your concerns, and thanks for being in touch.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Davey