The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

cation and community work following such an appointment.Their activities now include practical workshops at theGallery; the use of teacher-guides for specific exhibitions;and the mounting of exhibitions which are of particularinterest to the local community, for example, the recentArts of Bengal exhibition. The Gallery also arranges meetingswith teachers to discuss how it can best be used as aresource.189 Arts There has been a remarkable proliferation of arts centrescentres throughout Britain. According to one estimate 8 there arenow over 150 of these ranging from custom-built suitesof studios and galleries to converted premises comprisingperhaps a small theatre and exhibition space. Arts centresvary enormously in size and also in funding, organisation andpolicy. The Cockpit in London, for example, is fundedentirely by the ILEA and employs four education teams whowork, through different art forms, in local schools, at theCockpit, in local institutions and in youth centres. Hampshirehas a network of local drama centres which are maintainedby the local education authority, and so on. All thecentres aim to provide a focus and a resource for local artsactivities, through space and facilities for practical work andmeetings, as well as to attract artists to perform and exhibittheir work.190 Other There are many other schemes, often organised by regionalschemes arts associations, involving painters, video artists, sculptors,photographers and film-makers. In Devon, for example,through consultations with the Visual Arts Officer forSouth-West Arts, a number of artists have been placed indifferent schools for a year at a time. These have included:'— a designer of musical instruments to work in a secondarymodern school where musical input was urgentlyrequired— an intellectual 'systems' painter to a grammar schoolwhere he made particular contact with staff in the scienceand mathematics departments— a printmaker to a school attempting to develop newareas of work in printmaking— a painter to a school where work is based on similarsource material to that used by the artist— three craftsmen in wood — including a wood-turner andtoymaker — to tour and provide demonstrations to threedifferent craft departments'In theory, there is no limit to the variations in these115