SPEECH - Opening address to the National Visual Art Education Conference
National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra
20 January 2016
9:00 am
E & OE
Subjects:
Opening address to the National Visual Art Education Conference
Well thanks
very much Gerard and at the outset can I thank Paul for just the most wonderful
welcome to us today. And what a magnificent visual presentation that
accompanied Paul’s welcome. So thank you very much indeed Paul. Gerard, the
Director of the Gallery, thank you and your team for hosting this conference
and for auspicing it, and for the great leadership that you provide to
Australia’s artistic community. And it’s a real honour and a real thrill for me
to be here at the third conference, so thank you indeed for the invitation.
As I look around the room and I’m not making any judgement here but I’m making
an assumption that there are a good number of people here that are about my
age, who like me have thought, what a shocking week, David Bowie, Alan Rickman
and last night Glenn Frey from The Eagles. We’re here for the visual arts but
just what a tragic week in terms of the broader artistic community for those of
us who grew up with those names and the work that they’ve undertaken.
I am only 4 months old as Arts Minister, so it’s fair to say that in this
incarnation as an Arts Minister I’m very much in my infancy. And the approach
that I take to the portfolio is recognizing that on the one hand in a sense I’m
a steward of the arts as Minister, but I’m also a student of the arts. And I
look to many people to help me in that capacity to help educate me as Arts
Minister. And I think ones effectiveness as a Minister is to a large extent
determined by their openness and their willingness to learn. So in a room full
of arts educators I really couldn’t be in a better place in that regard.
Can I start today with a thank you. A thank you to the arts educators who are
here. Primary, secondary, tertiary. What you do is incredibly important. The
arts is not some luxury. It’s not an add on. It’s not something that’s
extra-curricular in an educational sense. The arts is something that should be
core to primary and secondary school education. You, through what you do help
equip people in so many ways to interpret the world around them. So can I say
thank you for the work that you do.
Obviously there is inherent value in art. There is inherent value in the
creative process. But the arts does provide students with the capacity and the
tools and the mechanisms to understand the world around them. To interpret the
world around them. And to express what it is that they feel and what they see.
And these are skills for life. They’re skills for living. And that’s why when I
came into the Parliament about 12 years ago, although it relates to a different
medium, there was something that really shocked and surprised me, and that was
in relation to music. That only about 1 in 4 primary school kids receive any
music education. That surprised me because when I was at school, the arts were
everywhere. I went to 5 schools in 3 different states. The arts in visual form
and music were throughout my education. So it stunned me that only 1 in 4 kids
in primary school had any music education and that relates to and underpins
issues such as literacy and numeracy. We know that the arts does help with
literacy and numeracy and with behaviour as well. And that led me to become an
ambassador for a not-for-profit school music education organisation called The
Song Room that set about helping schools to have music education programmes
within their own budgets. As I look around the room, clearly it must be the
case that the visual arts is in better shape than music in schools, primary and
secondary. But we don’t want allow a situation where the arts in schools gets
neglected so this is a very important conference.
You will
have heard us as a Government talk a lot about innovation and agility. We had
the national innovation statement released in December. Which includes a
national approach to what we know as STEM education, Science, Technology,
Education and Maths. But if we want to have a real culture of innovation then
we need to have creativity at the heart of that agenda and what we need to do
is to put an A into STEM. We need to start talking about STEAM. Science,
Technology, Education, the Arts and Mathematics. Because if we want to have a
culture of innovation, a culture of creativity feeds directly into that. And
it’s good that as part of the national curriculum we have arts featured with 5
subjects. With a focus on dance, drama, media, arts, music and the visual arts.
The intention is that there will be a broad exposure to those areas in primary
school and then the opportunity for students to then specialise in secondary
school. But it’s important that we make sure the arts continues to be seen as a
core part of education and the national curriculum is an opportunity for us
collectively to make sure that’s the case.
One of the things that has struck me as I look at the education sector is how
we often, in some jurisdictions, have centres of excellence. You might have
James Ruse Agricultural High school, Newtown High for Performing Arts, or
Cherrybrook Technology High. These are schools that specialise in particular
disciplines which is a good thing. But I’m not aware of a secondary school, but
I stand to be corrected, that specialises in the visual arts, that has as one
of the stated key focuses as a centre of excellence with visual arts in the
title of the school. Maybe there should be. It’s something that I’ll put on the
table for discussion. But I think we need to have both broad education in
schools, but also not a bad thing to have centres of excellence in particular
disciplines. So something for discussion.
Gerard mentioned that the National Gallery does a lot for students. It’s
important to acknowledge the leadership that the National Gallery provides. 70
or 80,000 students and staff each year come to the National Gallery. Tremendous
resources that the National Gallery provides. There’s the digitisation of the
collection which makes it more accessible. There are resources provided to
schools. And its exhibitions such as the Tom Roberts, which is currently here,
have components which are designed for kids.
So this is a truly great
national institution and a truly great national resource for students and for
educators. It’s a great programme that you have before you. When I was looking
through covering some pretty confronting subjects such as why boys don’t
embrace the visual arts is readily as girls do. How young children make
meaning. And this one, where there may be a bit of debate, truth, beauty and
goodness reframed. So we’ll see if that leads to some spirited debate. And also
a session on gearing kids up for the creative economy, where many of the jobs
of the future will be.
This is an important conference. For the networking opportunity. I was chatting
to some primary school teachers before who said that the last national
conference, through talking amongst themselves, they realised that there was no
professional development association for primary teachers in visual arts. So as
a result of that we have The Early Childhood and Primary Visual Arts Network.
Make sure that you get your brochure downstairs if you’re in a primary school. Best
wishes for the days ahead. It’s a tremendous programme and I know that you will
draw energy, you will draw inspiration and you will be refreshed and ready to
tackle the year ahead. Thanks very
much.
[ends]
Media contact:
Justine Sywak | 0448
448 487 | justine.sywak@communications.gov.au