Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

in theatre. The students really love what they get here; we almost feel we have to throw them out as they do not
want to go home. They really want creative work.”
“We have tried to work in teacher education. I said I would go in and help with teacher education as I think this is
the weakest point and something has to be done here. We have been trying to go in but they have been cutting that
out of the programme. For example we used to do a five week workshop once a year but they have stopped this now
they just do folk dance and cha cha cha.”
“Really we need education to do a lot more but all the creative thinking is dead, dead, dead. The old teachers are
actually more creative than the young teachers and the young teachers say “wow you can do this?!”
“We tried to run a four day summer school for teachers to bring teachers from abroad to work with teachers in
Iceland music movement teachers, abstract teachers, writers, play directors and so on. Every year we get 30 teachers
half of them are form the pre-primary school. It is really interesting as we get more interest from the younger years.
Pre-primary school teachers are much more connected to the value of the arts than the elementary school teachers. It
is really funny though because the schools have money for professional development and they are looking for things,
looking for inspiration but then it is hard for teachers to get funding. It is ironic we get more teachers from abroad
coming to these workshops than we get Icelandic teachers especially with practical courses like ORFF. We had 60
teachers and we could not fit them all in. We did it over the weekend and it was fantastic. We had workshops with
100 people in it.”
1.13 Art and dance schools
‣ A number of private options are also available for after school visual arts, craft and
dance activities
‣ Other activities operate at the local level including amateur theatre groups, bands and
choirs
‣ Other art forms do not receive the same degree of support as music, at the local
government level
‣ Some music schools could consider widening their offer to include other art forms
Despite the overwhelming quantity of music schools, there are also visual arts schools,
drama schools and dance schools that operate after classes for children. The majority of dance
and visual arts schools are privately run and do not receive direct government subsidy.
There are also a few examples of music schools who have expanded their offerings to
include visual arts, drama and dance. Once again though, while this expansion seems popular
with parents (“All children want to perform. We should be able to offer other art forms”) and
children, patterns of funding have not kept pace with these changes. Only music teachers are
paid from local government funding (as per the law) while any offerings in the other art forms
need to be fully paid for by the parents. Some music school directors have expressed a desire to
provide a broader cultural offer as is the case in other Nordic countries:
I would recommend that there should be more general arts and cultural schools – like in Finland – not just music
school. There needs to be a general arts school at least one in every region. There should be equal funding for
the art forms – not just funding for music. There is really very little funding for the other art forms. Children are
not getting enough of all the art forms in general school. High quality teachers don’t want to teach music or
dance in the general school.
My vision of the school is to give a broad education; we need to emphasis more for students about valuing the
art. We’re on the committee for the music school. I’d like to turn it into an art school, to have an arts
department, a dance department and a theatre department, but I do not think that will happen.
The Icelandic Musicians’ Union (FIH) is against the formation of broader arts schools
covering a wider range of arts disciplines. They argue:
Children would end up doing too many things. Music is complicated and difficult. To achieve you have to concentrate on that.
From the social perspective it might be good, but the quality of music will go down. All the teachers in music schools are well
educated. They might not have an education qualification but they are musicians and have often studied abroad. Multidisciplinary
arts learning is a fashion or a fad passing through. Music is a specialised field and we are very old fashioned and
sceptical. Music is not for everyone. It is like a mountain: if you want a pinnacle you have to have a very big and broad base.
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