Reimagining Arts Education
- Cat Cookman
- Jan 13
- 1 min read
Updated: Jan 27
FOTF Director, and Senior Lecturer at the University of Worcester, Dr John Cussans gave a fascinating talk at this year's Northern School of Contemporary Dance one day annual conference.
The presentation gave an overview of the current arts education landscape and explored a transition from the arts purely as an "education of the senses" to a move towards creative health.
His talk explored some eye-opening facts that bring to light the fact that despite creative arts degrees predicting poorer economic outcomes - young people continue to choose to do them.
The values that bring young people into arts education - improving mental health, meaning, non-conformity, play, self-expression, social critique, social justice – have all been embedded in the arts since the beginning of 20th century, but they fall outside accountable metrics of the socio-economic good.
Paradoxically, as regional arts programs struggle to survive, the government’s Creative Health agenda is gaining national momentum.
Is there a way for us to revitalise the 19th century ideal of art as an “education of the senses”, and reconnect it to the broader project of improving individual and social wellbeing though increased sensory awareness and embodied cognition, and align it more closely with Creative Health?
Click here to view the full presentation slides.
