The Arts in Schools - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

embraced the National Festival of Youth Theatres when 14 YouthTheatre Groups from all over Britain joined the Leeds Festival andperformed in the city's major theatres and participated in a week ofworkshop sessions led by national figures such as Henry Livings, CicelyBerry, Willie Hobbs, Sue Little and others. In 1981, 56 groups participated,including four who will offer street theatre in shopping precinctsin the centre of town. 3,000 youngsters, approximately, will participateand audiences are likely to run at around 15,000, most of whomwill be young people.Why a Festival?The reason for the festival remains as originally envisaged by theManager of the Grand Theatre, that is, to provide a showcase to awider audience of the type of performance work that can be seen inschools and Youth Theatre Groups. The work varies from establishedto original (improvisation-based) pieces, from opera, rock shows andmusicals, to anthology (art, poetry, dance, text, improvisation) programmesfrom primary and middle schools. Through this we aim todevelop and heighten the drama experience of youngsters within theeducation service, to link the curriculum work with performance ina professional theatre and the experience which this brings to youngsters,and for groups to share their work with others, often from differentbackgrounds and cultures.AchievementsThese are difficult to assess. As a public relations exercise thefestival is clearly a success and is now an official part of the civiccalendar. The youngsters clearly learn much from working with professionalsin professional theatres and in workshops with tutors fromthe professional theatre. However, one still feels that the processes ofpreparation within the schools and youth theatre groups are the mostvaluable learning areas, yet, these areas must be heightened by theyoungsters' realisation that they will eventually perform in a wellequipped,professional space.In conclusionMany people have reservations about festivals of drama for youngpeople, even of non-competitive ones such as this in Leeds. At onestage I had the same reservations, but in the light of the experienceof the last six years and the credibility that the festival has given todrama with elected members, headteachers, and officers of the Authority,I am convinced that, at any rate for Leeds, this annual festival is helpingto develop the quality of drama in the Authority.61 Applied It is important to see the arts, not as separate and differentstudies from children's other experiences inside and outside schools,but as emerging from them and as providing a means ofenriching and making sense of them. If this approach isadopted the arts will be found to have two kinds of valuein their curriculum. First, they are valuable in their ownright, as we have shown. Second, they have a range of explicitapplications across the curriculum. This is the caseparticularly in the areas of cultural studies and, in the visualarts, in media studies. The influence of the media on modern45