Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

vocal training. These are heavily subsidised. There are a smaller number of ‘private’ schools
offering visual arts, drama, dance, speech training, poetry, crafts or other art forms. The ‘private’
arts schools generally do not receive subsidies and are paid for by pupils’ fees. There are also a
wide range of voluntary arts education providers including youth clubs, the Red Cross, church
groups and others. These tend to be free of charge and cover a wide range of arts and cultural
activities. Amateur arts are a strong force within Icelandic Society and local amateur theatres,
choirs and bands are especially popular. These are spread across the country and even small
towns and villages are likely to have access to an arts school.
The majority of these schools are for music – primarily to learn an instrument and to study
musicology and musical theory. The most popular instruments appear to be the guitar and the
piano, but this can vary from one music school to the next. There is some indication that music
schools may restrict access to certain instrument tuition to promote a more ‘traditional’ mix of
instruments (or due to availability or shortage of teachers). Guitar and drums seem to be
particularly restricted, as the following comment from a music school director exemplifies; “Rock
music is able to attract more boys. We didn’t dare offer guitar as all the pupils would choose
that”.
The first music school in Iceland was in 1911. The 1963 the Law of Music Schools 13 was
enacted. In 1975, the law was changed in such a way that funding of teachers salaries was split
50/50 between the local authorities and the state. In 1989 the music schools became 100%
locally funded. While other arts schools are emerging they do not receive the prominence given
to music. The music schools have high status in the system and more broadly in the community.
There is an official curriculum for the music schools and an evaluation system, as can be seen in
Figure 1.12.1.
Figure 1.12.1 Does the music school have a school curriculum?
These curricula are widely accessible to parents and the community, generally via the music
school website (Figure 1.12.2).
13 This law was established by the Minister of Education who established the law [Gylfi Þ. Gíslason, minister of
education 1956-1971 ].
36