Decline in the Arts: lack of funding in schools
Setting the agenda: an eight-part weekly series by Jayden Singh Nandhra exploring the issues that matter to young people like him.
The arts have seen an overall decline in visibility and status, certainly during the time I have spent in foundational education in the UK. There are many possible reasons why this is the case, but my focus today is on why there is a lack of funding in schools and how this is damaging to the arts.
Primary and secondary level education (between the ages of 3 and 16) is where students will begin to widen their interests and figure out what they would like to do as they grow older. If the arts (visual, performance, design and other creative subjects) are not presented or taught to students at some level, they lose visibility as viable options for young people which ultimately results in what we currently have - a society that all too often sees the arts as a waste of time, or as hobbies and pastimes that are not to be pursued in a professional context. In an age where AI can create images, write scripts and conduct research, it is imperative that we do not lose the skills involved in creating for ourselves. As a young person, writing articles, curating events, producing ideas and interacting with real art are formative ways in which I experience life. Emotion that is explored in art cannot be explained in the same way by an algorithm, and even if it could, would you really want an algorithm explaining your existence? This is why funding for schools to teach the arts is so significant, as it gives the students who will enjoy those subjects the space they need to pursue their craft seriously, something that will benefit others who interact with their art, or needs their skillset.
In the last 15 years alone, there has been a 42% decline in entries to expressive arts based GCSE's, and a 27% decrease in the numbers of arts teachers in schools. In many places, this means that the arts are seen as optional and expendable. Schools are struggling fiscally, so many have decided to drop music and arts programmes to instead focus on subjects that are seen as more essential. This is dangerous as it removes spaces for people to enjoy and learn their chosen subject, in a place that they should feel the most capable of being themselves. The idea of other subjects being 'more essential' breaks apart when looking at private schools, where arts subjects are taught as part of a more holistic curriculum, due to their financial ability to invest in infrastructure that promotes learning the arts. This is more noticeable when seeing the disproportionate numbers of students from either higher income earning households or private schools in the Royal Academy of Music for example, or individuals who go on to have careers in television, theatre or film-making.
When the system blocks out the ability of the majority to engage with arts based subjects, they will be reliant on the higher classes or AI to provide them with art, and dominate one of the key gains from engaging in creative arts: perspective. It is seen as an issue, when there are disproportionate numbers of privately educated individuals in Government, in top universities, and in leadership positions at work, yet this outrage does not extend to areas like music, filmmaking and acting. For these subjects to begin to fade in the background, would be to allow a whole other level of hierarchy to be established years from now. We watch the MET Gala and praise representation on screen, for a supposedly charitable cause towards the arts, and yet are ignorant to the fact that so many of us refuse to engage with, or are unable to engage with, the arts outside of what is popular. Opinions are given to us through others. We are falling ignorant to the fact that the primary spaces in which future generations should begin their journey into the arts, will soon be devoid of them, and sadly it is not at the forefront of conversations when discussing schooling and funding.
Writing this, I am reminded of the speech given by Sir Ian McKellen, in which he advocates to the audience the same thing I am asking of readers now: to practice the arts authentically.
“Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.”