Kate Nash used her acceptance speech at the Brit Awards to emphasise the importance of the arts in education (see link here).
It’s good to see someone not only supporting art in schools, but also reminding us that the arts are often valuable to people who don’t necessarily fit into a traditional academic pattern.
Coincidently, Culture Minister Andy Burnham has today announced plans for 5,000 arts and media apprenticeships to increase access to the creative industries. If the government’s rhetoric about excellence in the arts is to become a reality, the creative industries will play an important part, so this is a positive step. But when the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has a fraction of the budget of traditional education, there is clearly still a long way to go.
