The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

in two ways: by demystifying them and by emphasising theirbasic seriousness. The arts, like many other things in schools,can seem to pupils to be remote from the concerns andinterests of everyday life. This remoteness can be re-inforcedwhere they are taught only about particular works of art andgain no understanding of the personal processes — of commitment,effort, and achievement — by which men andwomen have created them.Meeting and working with living artists can give childrenvaluable insights into the nature of these processes and intothe interests and motivations which drive them. There is afurther point here. One effect of vocational pressures inschools is for the arts to be considered as leisure activities,not essential — c.f. our correspondent above — and not asserious as 'real work'. We have argued against this attitudethroughout this report. One way of combating it in schoolsis for pupils to work with those who have actually made thearts their occupation — to see the commitment and applicationthis involves and demands. This can do much to raisethe status of the arts for children and young people.194 Under- The arts are not only to do with the development of practicalstanding skills. They are to do with exploring ideas and feelings, issuesand events that concern artists both as individuals andas members of society. Contact with practising artists canhelp to deepen children's understanding of the issues whichconcern them and to appreciate more fully the forms ofwork through which they seek to understand them. Thiscan help to counter the feeling that the arts are somethingentombed in books and also help children towards a furtherunderstanding of contemporary life in general.195 Benefits There are two main ways in which these schemes can be offor teachers: benefit to teachers: by broadening their range of personalcontact and professional contacts and by providing valuable materialfor their own work in schools.Teachers themselves may be accomplished artists in theirown field. The heavy demands of curriculum work oftenmean, however, that it is difficult for them to devote asmuch time as they would like either to their own work orto keeping abreast of contemporary developments in theirspecialist area. Arts teachers may be more or less hardpressedthan their colleagues in this respect. Nevertheless:'Contact with the contemporary arts, or with the livingworld of the art of the past would seem to be an indispensablesource of personal stimulus and nourishment. Ateacher's personal involvement in the processes of art117