Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

There is a lot of respect amongst parents for the music school. This is engendered through a strong sense of
community and also regular concerts. For example, one music school held more than 10 concerts a year for
parents.
It was perceived that the arts promoted broader parental involvement in schools, even
where there was a lack of general connection between parents and school learning, as the
following two quotes suggest:
Parents need to be more involved in education. They need to understand how their child functions at school.
Schools need to involve parents more systematically. For example teachers should visit every home and get to
really know the children. More education needs to connect with the arts and nature. There is a trend for more
outward facing schools that is developing.
Parents come to performances but don’t otherwise involve themselves in the school.
The value that parents place on the arts within education is effectively summarised in this
comment from a teenager who was interviewed; “My parents think I learn things from doing the
arts. My parents are happy to pay. ”
4.4 Youth centres and the views of children and young people
‣ Icelandic youth have an international outlook
‣ Icelandic youth show high degrees of initiative and leadership in setting up and
running youth led arts activities
Young people in Iceland are very proactive at establishing and sustaining a range of youth
led and focused arts opportunities. The most common of these is the locally based ‘youth
centres’. Youth centres provide an important venue for creative and artistic activity. It is
common that the youth centre is a place where children and young people sing, play guitar,
dance, watch movies and network. Some of these informal youth centres have gone on to
become an established part of the arts and cultural life of Iceland, as the following vignette
describes:
Vignette 4.4.1 Hitthúsið
Hitthúsið was opened 1991 by the City of Reykjavík as an activity centre for people age 16-25. The Centre has
initiated numerous successful projects that have contributed greatly to the culture. Hitthúsið aims at training children
and young adults by assisting them in organizing events and projects themselves. In general, arts teachers deserve a
credit, considering the situation they have to work with in the schools. Hithúsið is a project minded organization. For
example, kids can apply for summer work; we provide the salary, they finance their own projects. International
cooperation has been a regular part of Hitthúsið – first time this year that no international projects are on. The
Ministry of Education and Culture has not been helpful enough – the prevailing opinion there is that the City should
pay.
In the upper secondary school, pupils can gain credit for organising and participating in
youth generated arts and cultural activity. This leads to a number of extra curricula offers, such
as plays, choirs, bands, dance groups and others. This means that even in secondary schools
where children are not taking art electives, they are likely to be part of a richer cultural milieu, as
the following quote demonstrates:
Arts in the High School is all extra curricula (no art line), after school. Films and theatre also taught; courses go for
a semester (14 weeks). Students get credit for participating in plays. For the last 12-13 years (since 1996) plays
have been staged in co-operation with the Youth Association. All the schools participate, children did the
decoration. The play was “Fiddler on the Roof” last time.
Despite the evident ability of young people to organise and sustain youth-generated arts and
cultural activity, their ability in this area is rarely acknowledged within more mainstream arts
and cultural providers. For example, A focus group of cultural agencies was asked if there were
any young people on the management or advisory Boards of their institutions. None of the
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