Here at The Big Draw we strive to reinforce the importance of creativity in schools and in the workplace. Recent research and opinion pieces published by Forbes and The Washington Post suggest that creativity will be the most vital skill of the future; the DCMS revealed last year that the creative industries were worth £92bn to the UK economy, not to mention the countless non-economic benefits. Despite this, there has been a dramatic decline in the uptake of creative subjects in the UK as a result of the EBacc - with a 10.2% decline in the last year alone!
So is anybody doing it right? Why should Education Policy makers be investing more energy and resources into providing access to the arts for all?
Since 2001, Norway has implemented an incredibly successful national programme for arts and culture within primary and secondary schools, known as "Den kulturelle skolesekken", which translates to "The Cultural Rucksack". We were thrilled to catch up with Anne Mari Graver, Consultant for Visual Arts at the Department for Culture in Aust-Agder County, and find out more about the Cultural Rucksack, the County’s involvement with The Big Draw Festival, and her views on the importance of drawing and visual literacy in the education system!
Hello Anne Mari!
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to talk with us today. For those of our readers who may not be familiar with the Cultural Rucksack, can you offer a brief overview of the key goals and principles of the programme, and perhaps an explanation as to why it has been met with such enthusiasm and public acclaim?
One important objective of the Cultural Rucksack is to ensure that all children, independent of where they live or go to school, and irrelevant of their economic, ethnic, religious or social backgrounds, should have access to professional arts and culture of high quality during school hours. This is to be a supplement to the art subjects taught in the schools, not a substitute to them. The general idea is that this will enable students to develop an understanding of a variety of artistic and cultural expressions, and will help to integrate these into learning objectives of the schools.
The program has a national status and is part of the government’s cultural policy for all students aged 6- 19 years. In all counties, a new program is presented every school year to all schools, and it should consist of art productions that maintain high quality standards of high artistic quality. According to the program guidelines emphasis should also be placed on local responsibility and ownership. There is therefore room for local variations. In Aust-Agder we want to encourage productions by artist who themselves have grown up, or live, in Aust-Agder and neighbouring counties, to promote role models and give our students a sense of pride with increased knowledge of artists from their own region. It also gives an appreciation of their own local art and culture, and shows how they can make use of their own cultural resources. Therefore, our yearly Cultural Rucksack program can consist of national, international and local artists.
In Aust-Agder County we have organized it so the schools are informed about the next year’s Cultural Rucksack program every year in April. The schools receive a pamphlet with the productions presented in text and pictures. In addition, the school representatives are invited to a performance where some of the artists come and present their productions. The schools can then apply for the productions they want to have in their schools. Some of the productions are mandatory. These productions are distributed to schools according to an overall strategic plan to ensure that all pupils will experience art in all the different expressions during the 10 compulsory years in school, independent of the cultural profile the school has.
Can you tell us a little bit about your work as a Consultant for Visual Arts at the Department for Culture in Aust-Agder county?
Every year in autumn, we consider what productions by professional artists are to be part of the following school year program in the Cultural Rucksack. At the same time, we administer the productions in the ongoing school year in our county that are touring, or about to commence a tour, in all our primary schools, lower and upper secondary schools.
My main responsibility is the Visual Arts. My colleagues work with productions in different artistic expressions; theatre, dance, music, film, literature, and cultural heritage. We are a team of 12 persons with knowledge of, and in some cases with a background from, the arts and cultural heritage scene.
My own background as an artist gives me an understanding of both artistic quality, the importance of art in schools and the possibilities we have in realizing the objective of the Cultural Rucksack when we plan our programs.
It is both interesting and intensely meaningful to be able to work with this. I believe it is even more important to integrate Art in our lives today than it has ever been. To ensure that our new generation get these opportunities while attending school is very gratifying.
In the UK, young people are being increasingly dissuaded from embarking on creative careers. The EBacc has had a devastating impact on the uptake of creative subjects in schools; there is a significant focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in the curriculum, whilst the Arts are becoming increasingly neglected. Norway’s education system, by contrast, continues to stress the importance of creativity. A key aspect of the work that you do is the promotion of art in Schools within your county. In your own opinion, why is it so important to ensure that creativity, art and culture are well integrated into the education system?
We believe art and artistic expression helps schools to achieve the goals of the national curriculum. Not because artistic expression follows the school curriculum, but because art opens up for your own creativity which in itself enhances the learning processes. It is vital that our future generations believe in their ability to make a difference. It is important that they can recognize and appreciate the creative powers of others, and believe in and find their own creative powers. In our society today, we also increasingly depend on innovative ideas and the ability to discover new solutions to problems that are becoming increasingly complex and global in character. Art and creativity brings the ability to see things in a new way, discover connections we are not conscious of, and by the help of the Cultural Rucksack, we bring this into the arena of learning, into the schools. These elements are vital for our future ability to adjust, develop, and in the end, essential for our survival. Our aim is not to create more artists or to get more students to embark on artistic careers, but for our coming generation to appreciate their own creative powers and use them in the pursuing of their own professional careers, whatever that may be.
This year, The Big Draw Festival is celebrating the power of Play in the creative process. We hope that this theme will encourage people to have fun and let loose. Your Big Draw event this year involved creative workshops for pupils from 5th to 7th grades in 37 different schools across your county; do you believe that a playful approach was key to these workshops?
To encourage creativity it is important to have a playful approach. Too many children think they cannot draw, because they have too high ambitions concerning the end product. When you play, you focus on the process itself. Playing and drawing are actions, and shouldn’t be defined by the end result. That aspect is important to stress when we introduce drawing to the classrooms. You can draw, even if you are not an artist yourself. Drawing is an approach, a tool that enhances thinking. When the workshop focuses on Play, it invites the pupils to open up for the experience, and for it to be fun. This is the common denominator in all our workshops.
One of the main components of our work here at the Big Draw is promoting the influence of visual literacy. We believe that it underpins not only the visual arts, but all forms of subjects and professions from Science to Engineering. Can you share your views on the benefits of a visual eye in one’s everyday life?
What The Big Draw promotes through drawing, with emphasis on the importance of visual literacy and highlighting the role of creativity in education, is very close to everything the Cultural Rucksack stands for. In addition, The Cultural Rucksack also includes all different artistic expressions, and the right for every child to experience professional cultural and artistic productions.
We believe that through these cultural experiences, pupils learn to recognize and appreciate the creativity in others and in themselves, which enhances their ability to learn all forms of subjects and professions from Science to Engineering, Humanities and Social Studies.
Can you tell us a little more about the workshops that you organised for The Big Draw Festival, and what they achieved?
We engaged 5 professional artists whose main tool is drawing. The five artists are: Lene Ask, Geir Moen, Chris Stonehill, Linda Sætre, and Terje Vestervik.
We are very proud to present these talents to our 37 schools in the county. Some of them have been professionals for some years already with several productions, books and illustrations behind them, and one, Terje Vestervik, is a new-comer, just recently finished his professional training. They all have very different approaches to their workshops, which we see as a strength. It underlines the fact that there is no right or wrong way, there are just different paths, and all bring forth wonder and surprise – and PLAY.
The artists visit the classrooms and have two workshops every day. The number of pupils does not exceed 25. If a class is bigger than that, the class is divided into two different workshops. Every school gets promotional material from The Big Draw, and the artists coach the school teachers, who are interested, in how to access the sources available on The Big Draw website.
Thank you, Anne Mari!
Interview by: Matilda Barratt
There were lots of great Big Draw events in Norway this year! Read out all about them here.
Interested in The Big Draw's work in making the case for creativity in schools? You can find out more here.
Click here to go to The Big Draw CPD page, for all upcoming symposiums, talks, and events for all educators interested in the transformative power of visual literacy and drawing in learning across all fields and subjects.