Through the innovative programmes of Ireland’s national cultural institutions large number of people participate in the making and sharing of arts, culture and heritage every year. Extensive bodies of research exist that show the benefits of arts education to the child, the school and the broader society. From a range of scientific and cultural fields, there has emerged a clear understanding of the characteristics needed within creative and cultural endeavours and the conditions that support favourable growth of knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions in these fields. Despite this, the gulf between policy and practice or lip service and action, have remained large. Having just completed a review of creative arts education within higher education in Dublin, it is clear that there is a gap between the aspirations of policy and of the people and the practices within the formal and informal educational world. It is time to re-think in educational structures in a way that reflects the latest research and the drivers within current and future society.

1. TREAD SOFTLY BECAUSE YOU TREAD
ON MY DREAMS: CLOSING THE GAP
BETWEEN ASPIRATION AND PRACTICE
IN IRISH ARTS EDUCATION
PROFESSOR DR ANNE BAMFORD
ANNE@ANNEBAMFORD.COM
2013

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. NOW LET US EXAMINE...
• Merit
• Worth
• Value
• Effect
• Impact

6. MERIT
INTRINSIC BEAUTY OR ARTISTRY

7. WORTH
APPLICABILITY, USEFULNESS, CONTRIBUTION,
DESIRABILITY

8. RELEVANCE
HIGH
HIGH
LOW
LOW
PARTICIPATION
VALUE IS COMPRISED OF BOTH MERIT AND WORTH

9. 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)

10. 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

11. 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)

12. IMPACT TRACKING FRAMEWORK

13. PERSONAL

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. SOCIAL

19. 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

20. 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

21. CULTURAL

22. 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

23. INNOVATION

24. 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

25. 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

28. ECONOMIC

31. 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

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. EDUCATIONAL

36. PORTRAIT OF AN ARTS-RICH 20 YEAR
OLD
CATTERALL 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.

37. 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.)

38. 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.

39. 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?”

40. 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.

41. ETHICAL

42. 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?

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

44. CATALYTIC

46. 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

47. 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

48. PROGRESSION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
CREATIVE 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.

50. NEGATIVE LOSS

51. 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

53. 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.

54. REPORT ON ARTS EDUCATION IN THE DUBLIN
AREA, 2013.
•http://www.hea.ie/files/DublinC

55. QUALITY? OR…

56. RECOMMENDATIONS
1) Greater focus of learning rather than on courses
2) Robust quality assurance and accountability
3) Remove the separation between the various tiers (levels) of
the system
4) Greater coherence and consolidation in creative arts offers
5) Removing the barriers that prevent flexibility
6) Better partnerships with industry
7) Graduate tracking
8) Coherence and consolidation

57. 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

58. THE CLOTHS OF HEAVEN
Had 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