Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

the museum. Similarly, schools see the museum as being a very marginal resource within their
general curriculum. Additionally, the museums should be viewed as existing in the context of the
broader arts and cultural education resources, including other after schools provisions. The size
of the museum sector means that they often share collections. National cultural institutions are
required to cooperate with schools and have developed projects to try and reach out to children
and schools:
The opera is a small company and does not have an education department. The Operastudio is a project where
student instrumentalists and singers have a chance to participate in staging an opera and work with
professionals. Periodically through the years an opera for children has been commissioned and staged in cooperation
with a composer.
The National Gallery of Iceland has about 40.000 guests annually and 8.000 young people. The Gallery is required
by law to serve the schools. We cooperate with schools on exhibitions – teachers might call us with a specific
agenda (e.g. for specific age group); there are theme days too. We tend to have the same teachers come again
and again. Visits are most common in 4-8 grades. We run a new education project related to each new exhibit.
The following two vignettes show the way arts organisations can work with schools to
introduce the children to wider experiences in the arts.
Vignette 3.2.5 Schools pull me in with clawed sticks
Schools pull me in with clawed sticks (artist). Real artists should be in schools. Schools should be more open. Teacher
education is quite boxed. The schools don't have qualified people... Tóney is offering schools projects in music. This is
the future and schools are opening up for this. We can serve 4-5 schools in this manner. People were suspicious at
first but now the co-operation is good. This is how film photography, etc. should be taught. That is way it is so
important that artists be active in the educational system. Introduce to the kids, open doors, and then it's up to them
to take things up and do something with them. We [Tóney] are teaching in Fella neighbourhood [a less well off
neighbourhood in Reykjavik], and also in Grafarholt [a newly developed neighbourhood]. Both of these areas will
experience tough times in the coming months [referring to the economic situation]. Our aim should be to create with
the children, to make their minds occupied; make the school attractive to them, a nice place to be.
Vignette 3.2.6 Maximus Musicus is an example of a recent successful project
The Iceland Symphony Orchestra plays five concerts annually especially for children and three aimed at young people.
About 10-15% of the workload goes towards young people. Most of the musicians are teachers, so to work with
young people is natural to them. Maximus Musicus 17 is an example of a recent successful project. In a popular quiz
competition among secondary school students, they usually do poorly on questions concerning the arts. I'm
frightened that education will suffer in the worsening economic climate. The Orchestra would like to do more
collaboration especially with the music schools. We do a number of projects organized through Music for All where
four musicians work with the kids for one week – composing. It would be great for the Orchestra to work more with
schools. Iceland needs a youth orchestra. In Venezuela there is an incredibly successful programme where young
people practice classical music. The project has created an amazing new culture. Children from outside of Reykjavik
have to pay for the children’s' program – as Reykjavik supports the Symphony Orchestra financially.
The “Music for All” programme (described in vignette 3.2.6) has successfully bridged the gap
between the educational and creative workforce by bringing professional musicians and
performances to schools and villages around Iceland. On average, schools would have 1-2 visits
per year. While these encounters tended to be ‘one-off’ experiences where a performance or
other arts group will come into the school for a single performance, they were widely
remembered by children and commended by parents and teachers. At other times, local
amateur theatre groups may visit a local community centre and perform a very short season
(between 1 day and 5 days) in that venue, and local pupils would be brought to see the play by
their school teachers. Once again, smaller more isolated communities tended to have stronger
links with teachers and pupils likely to have direct connections with the local amateur groups.
These encounters between professional artists and schools seemed to be well-received by the
schools:
17 http://www.maximusmusicus.com
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