What is the future for Arts Education Amid a Global Crisis?

By: Ann Kipling Brown*

As we all celebrate the UNESCO-designated International Arts Education Week 2020, we must consider perspectives of where we are today. I am writing this message during the global crisis, COVID-19 pandemic and, like everyone else, trying to deal with the restrictions that find us connecting virtually with family and friends, conducting work tasks and meetings via Zoom, and following and participating in arts activities through websites and on line classes. 

Engagement in the Arts

At this time it is appropriate to consider the role of arts education in educational and community contexts and consider whether our children and youth are engaged in the arts in meaningful and exciting ways. I am cognizant that many young people do not have access to any arts involvement in their school day or extracurricular programs. Lack of arts participation in everyday contexts happens for many different reasons: parental role models, financial resources, socioeconomic status, degree of participation in leisure activities, and lack of education in the arts. 

However, every child and youth should have access in the school day. Despite the fact that many national or regional Ministries of Education have created and implemented arts curricula  arts programs are often relegated to occasional times in the school year or not at all. During this pandemic time my frustration was intensified when I heard that yet again lessons created by arts educators did not have to be completed because they were not as important as other subjects!

Regardless of barriers to arts activities I have been excited by the innovation and creativity of teachers to engage their students via on line arts projects. I have also been impressed by young students who have connected with friends and created arts expressions about their life in isolation.  For instance, among many on line resources, Tik Tok has presented an exciting possibility for students to share their innovations from learning and performing a new dance with mum or dad, developing new arts skills, making a statement through the arts, and above all having fun.  Companies and galleries have been generous and imaginative in providing access to arts exhibitions and performances so that young students can engage with professional artists’ expressions. 

The Future

These experiences lead me to consider what will access and participation in the arts look like in the future. Physical distancing is so unusual for those involved in the arts, whether as artists, educators or students. Will artists, companies and galleries create different ways of providing access to their work? And, in turn, will this inspire educators and students to think creatively and freely? Will students forget the creative skills they used to share their ideas virtually and return to the sometimes restrictive and formulaic tasks of the traditional arts programs created by teachers who are equally constrained by bureaucratic requirements? 

My wish is that we look critically at why we teach the arts and most importantly return to the recommendations of the Road Map for Arts Education (2006) which highlights the importance of the arts in young people’s lives, helping them to make sense of the world and express their ideas and feelings, developing social and cognitive skills as as well as creative and aesthetic sensibilities and understanding and celebrating cultural diversity. 

Let us also look at how inventive young people have been in this challenging time and reflect on what we can do to include and make exciting arts education in our schools and communities.

Perhaps our answer to solving the problems of the future is looking to our past and considering the inventiveness of our present. 

*Ann Kipling Brown

Ann Kipling Brown, Ph.D. is Professor Emerita of the University of Regina having worked for many years in the Arts Education program in the Faculty of Education. She works extensively in dance education focusing on assisting children, youth and adults find the passion and personal expression in dance. Her research and teaching include dance pedagogy, curriculum development, dance creation, and movement notation.