The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

their cultural identity'. Haley's book was chosen not just to providean anthropology lesson on Black America, nor just for its qualitiesas literature. It was chosen because the issues it explores and thequestions it seeks to answer are directly related to those which concernthe children. In understanding his exploration they begin their own.On the way they may learn a great deal, too, about Black America,something of the literature and the making of plays, and in this wayhelp to re-draw the cultural lines of the local community. Not one northe other but all of these. This is the power and value of the arts.The way in which participation and appreciation combine withincultural education is implied in the words of one of the teachers involvedin this project when he commented, 'Yes, we can explore Roots. Butwe share the experience of being here in Leeds now. Let us explore thatas well'.60 Raising Fostering the relationship between process and product instandards the arts can also help to improve the quality of all aspectsof the work. In a number of authorities there is a growingpractice of holding youth arts festivals. An important functionof these is to let children and young people see andrespond to each other's work and develop expectations ofwhat is possible. The annual festival of Young People'sTheatre held in Leeds for the past four years provides auseful example of this. The festival is organised by theLeeds Educational Drama Association. Here the Inspectorof Schools (Drama) describes the origins and functions ofthe festival.The festival evolved naturally as a result of work going on withineducation and within the professional theatre in Leeds. This is notintended to be a model, but simply to illustrate what seems appropriateto Leeds at the moment.OriginsThe Manager of the Grand Theatre, Leeds, went to see a schooldance production, and was impressed by the quality of the work andoffered his theatre to the educational establishments so that theywould try to reach a wider audience. This worried me and other colleaguesbecause, at that time, we felt that non-educational criteriawere being imposed on school work and he was trying to fill his theatreat a slack time of the year. We were wrong — he had, and has, a realinterest in the development of drama for learning, as well as dramafor future audiences. This festival has developed from this. The followingyear saw the establishment of the Leeds Educational Drama Association.Its executive committee includes teachers, advisers, electedmembers of the City Council, and managers and directors of all theprofessional theatres in the city. The representation on this committeeis deliberately political. It was felt that development of all aspects ofdrama would be best served by a composite body embracing education,local government and the professional theatre.The festival now takes place in July at the Grand Theatre, theFamous City Varieties, Leeds Playhouse, Leeds Civic Theatre, andthree of the local authority's community theatres. In 1979 the festival44