The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

ackground of earlier systems of physics — the Newtonian,in particular. Historically speaking, it is beyond disputethat, along with science and religion, the arts have beenamong the most potent forces in the development andshaping of our culture and its traditions. Examples abound ofthe interplay of all three: Chartres Cathedral might stand forthem all. This is as true of the classical world, of mediaevaltimes, of the recent cultural history of Europe, as of thewhole spectrum of movements that are fundamental elementsof our present civilisation. Not to take account of the creationsof the past would be to fail to understand some of themore powerful forces that have shaped it and added richnessand quality to an existence that would otherwise have beenas pitiable as Hobbes projected it. To have an informed andappreciative grasp of the growth and tenor of our civilisation,our children must have some awareness and understanding ofone of the principal forms of creation and communication inwhich its development may be most sharply discerned — theworld of the arts.18 Partici- This does not mean merely teaching about the arts. Thatpating in and would be teaching history or cultural anthropology. Itappreciating means enabling children to 'get their coats off and to 'do'the arts the arts themselves: using the arts to formulate and clarifytheir own ideas and feelings, while developing their personalpowers of creative thought and action. But there is morethan this: for among the finest creations of the eyes andears, hands and mouths of men and women are those worksof art that have proved to be of enduring worth — in architecture,in drama, in poetry and literature, in painting andstatuary, in music and in dance. If the aims of educationare in part to give pupils a sense of excellence and quality inhuman achievement, then clearly arts teaching will have acentral part to play in this.19 'High art' We shall have more to say on the relationship of participationand and appreciation in arts education in Chapter 3. Neithercontemporary here nor there do we accept the pre-eminence of classicalculture ' models or of 'high art' or 'high culture' in education. Theidea of excellence with which we are concerned does notrequire that, to be artistically educated, people must havea preference for a particular type of art or culture. Similarly,there is nothing in the idea of excellence that confines it tothe past. The arts are dynamic modes of creation and communication.Their literatures are constantly being added to.There is as much to value in some contemporary work as insome of two hundred or two thousand years ago. To thinkotherwise is to betray a predilection, possibly a prejudice,21