Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

high school and with the various organisations engaged in higher and further
education
‣ With a few exceptions, the role of cultural institutions in promoting and expanding
arts education in schools is largely under developed.
Active partnership involves the direct inclusion of a range of cultural and artistic
organizations in the planning and delivery of arts education programmes in schools. The most
effective programmes have managed to build sustainable, long-term and reciprocal associations
with cultural agencies and industries.
Countries that have effective arts and cultural education generally have active partnerships
across sectors, disciplines and organisations. The notion of an active partnership involves the
direct inclusion of a range of cultural and artistic organizations in all aspects of the planning and
delivery. The best of these provide sustainable, long-term and reciprocal associations. These
sustained associations are centred on shared responsibility for planning, implementing and
evaluating programmes.
While the most common partnerships in a world context are between the cultural and
educational sectors, a number of countries have a range of agencies supporting arts education
including private individuals (the most common one), enterprise, the community, trade unions
and a number of other possible partnerships. These partnerships tend to encourage the pooling
of financial resources, human resources and expertise to produce substantial arts education
programmes.
The international research suggests that successful partnerships are sustained and involve
shared responsibility for planning and evaluation. This is generally not the case in Iceland, where
professional artists tend to come into the school for short-term ‘special projects’ or for schoolbased
performances rather than as a sustained part of curriculum implementation. This tends to
be an isolated experience, as this comment emphasises; “I have a background in theatre and I
work with a lot of schools in the area of drama, I travel between schools and I am completely
self-sufficient and stand alone, it really doesn’t connect with what’s happening in the schools”
(artist in school).
The exception to this was music, where some music schools worked actively within the
school. Also, by chance rather than planning, a shortage of teachers in textiles, design and
woodcraft mean that these areas may be taught by industry professionals. Special occasions,
such as festivals and performances also provided opportunities for partnership working. For
example several schools employed professional directors, composers and musicians to guide
preparations for school performances. This can be seen in Figure 3.2.1 where music schools are
the most common collaborator with the compulsory school.
54