Arts to be made accessible to all

NEW Arts Council chairperson Olive Braiden said yesterday she hopes to see the arts made more accessible especially to children and local communities, despite the 20% budget cut imposed by the Government at the start of this year.

“I have a great broad interest in the arts myself, but I’m not an artist,” said Ms Braiden, first woman chairperson since the council was established in 1951.

“I really feel strongly that schools should spend more time on artistic endeavour to find the talents of pupils, because I believe everybody has artistic talent but very often it’s not found. I’m also very interested in community arts.”