Arts in schools and colleges gets expert planning

A PLAN to promote the arts in schools and colleges is to be drawn up by a group of experts announced by the Government yesterday.

Arts Minister John O’Donoghue and Education Minister Mary Hanafin have tasked the five-member committee with producing a plan covering a three to five-year period by next May.

The group is chaired by choreographer Mary Nunan, one of two Arts Council members on the committee along with Orlaith McBride, director of the National Association for Youth Drama. The other members are National Council for Technology in Education director Jerome Morrissey, Department of Education assistant chief inspector Padraig MacSitric, and former school principal Derek West who chairs the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) arts and culture committee.

They will advise the Arts Council on how best to align its strategies for the promotion and encouragement of the arts within the formal education system.

While the arts have a defined place in the primary curriculum and are also catered for at second level, a key challenge for the committee is likely to be the provision of arts education at third level.

Their work has been in Government plans since 2003, when a proposed €44 million Irish Academy for Performing Arts was shelved four years after being announced by Síle de Valera and Micheál Martin as arts and education minister, respectively.

It was to have been based at Dublin City University, with campuses at the University of Limerick’s World Music Centre and the Firkin Crane dance institute in Cork.

When Mr O’Donoghue was given responsibility for re-assessing the project three years ago, he decided it should be considered as part of an overall review of arts education.

The minister said yesterday that it is vital for the arts to be integrated into the education system.

“The benefits of the arts for the individual are greatly increased if exposure to the arts takes place during their most formative years,” he said.

Ms Hanafin said setting up the committee will explore a new vision of how a love of the arts can be encouraged in schools.