Although we have positively framed our work around green issues in the past, we don’t normally give links to campaigning. However, we feel the Royal Academy campaign is well worth sharing to bring attention to people as it is about our future and the UK going forward. Creativity is really important to our lives and we feel will be to others if they had the opportunity to open this in their early development at school.
“The value of art in our schools is immeasurable. Urgently, we need to bring it back.
Yes, times are hard and budgets are tight. But that’s not why art is drying up in our schools. The truth is more complicated.
Over time, our school curriculum (both primary and secondary) has been re-structured to focus on core subjects and tests at the expense of everything else. The knock-on effects of these changes are damaging art education in the UK.
Schools are measured – and judged – on what’s tested, so teachers have to focus their time and energy on those subjects. On top of that, teachers don’t get proper training in art education, while those who are trained are leaving the profession.
No art teachers. No art rooms. No art lessons. And none of the mind-expanding, question-prompting, wild creativity and confidence art brings to the classroom. It’s all going, going…
Each one of these changes is hard to reverse. You can’t magic up art teachers and art rooms once they’re gone. It’s time to fight for them.”
Lance has also been reading Tori Amos‘s book ‘Resistance: A songwriters story of hope, change and courage’ – and found this section that resonates with this issue so powerfully:
“Over the years, Russians have confided in me how they defend themselves against this dark art of information warfare and one of its deadly symptoms demotivation. Literally, the Russian people defend and armor themselves with art. The art they collect becomes part of their arsenal. It could be a passage in a novel they have memorized, one they have hard-wired in their mind. It could be the pattern in a painting that gives them a new vision. It may be that a poet has been able to reclaim words that have been infected by those who are weaponizing language and this poem has redeemed the words and transmuted them safe and sound back to the listener’s arsenal. It might be a piece of music that resurrects an emotion the listener thought had been killed off. Any of the artistic disciplines could bring protection and resurrection. But the key was that they understood this and they believed it with every cell of their being. And that is what kept their hearts and minds free from imprisonment by tyrants.”
Mike really connected with opportunities at school with arts teachers really being supportive, particularly after some tricky times through primary school, and as a result he did very well connecting with all opportunities, and excelling in science and taking on a quiet leadership role eventually, university in economics and social sciences, and an impressive career in senior health care management. He did an MBA and revelled in one of the major subjects creative management and strategic innovation. It has always been the arts and creativity that gave him confidence and carried him through life’s development challenges. His most inspiring A level was Art and Art History amongst 3 other maths and science subjects he was also good at. His parents didn’t support taking an art degree journey so his art practice that has been with him his whole life has fitted in between the other demands of life. He doesn’t think that we should dwell on regret but not developing himself more fully in art has been a disappointment and frustration in his life, and he thrives now in our partnership.
Unlike Mike Lance didn’t have the best school opportunities, dodged bullies, and as a quiet thoughtful caring child he was overlooked and unsupported academically. So he found solace by retreating into his small bedroom which become a hub of rampant creativity, expressions of his hidden, inner life. Later, he broke out to start a degree in film and animation in Wales; unfortunately, it was poorly organised and taught, inspiring nothing that he hadn’t already discovered previously. Instead, he completed a broader arts degree through the Open University and, like all of us, had to just got on with earning a living not having the post-graduate opportunities he had hoped for. However, his love for the subjects of film and sound transcended any academic underpinnings, and his creative output is mainly self-taught. He considers this no bad thing; instead of being moulded into industry-fodder, tied to the demands of corporate-owned studios, he has the freedom to follow his own creative impulses, as bizarre and esoteric as they may sometimes be.
We both know how much art and creativity keep your wellbeing and mental health in a good place, and how our art practice opens our thinking and enjoyment of life in a way nothing else does. If we have any regrets its that we didn’t allow more time for our creative practice and perhaps less time supporting other people. But that is the past. Our driving aim for the future is to continually push forward with our creativity, constantly evolving and incorporating new and innovative ideas; as we are continually reminded by the Moonology oracle cards, “life evolves every single day”.