Creative Youth – a Plan to Enable the Creative Potential of Every Young Person was launched on 7th December 2017. This Plan sets out a number of measures to deliver on one of the key goals of the Creative Ireland Programme: to ensure that every child in Ireland has practical access to tuition, experience and participation in music, drama, art and coding by 2022.
This Plan is being led by my Department, the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Arts Council, all working in partnership.
The Creative Schools pilot will be operating across 150 Schools and approximately 50 Creative Associates, a mix of artists and teachers are working with these schools. These schools have approximately 38,000 pupils. There are a diverse range of school types involved, in different parts of the country, rural and urban, primary and post primary, DEIS schools, special schools, and Youthreach centres. 2018/2019 is the pilot for Creative Schools and it is hoped to expand the programme in the coming years.
There are 73 schools participating in Creative Clusters and they have been grouped into 23 clusters and there are 17 facilitators working with these clusters, through the Education Centres. There are approximately 17,000 students, from a diverse range of school types, in these schools. These clusters have a budget to bring in local artists to facilitate their chosen creative projects and may choose to bring in more than one artist. It is also hoped to expand on this programme in future years.
The Teacher/Artist Partnership, for primary school teachers, has taken place over the last number of years and between the summers of 2017 and 2018, 469 teachers and 146 artists took part in this CPD course. These teachers, in collaboration with the artists took their expertise back to their respective schools, and the pupils in these schools have benefited from their partnerships. It is hoped to build on this over the coming years.
Many schools collaborate locally with artists, creative practitioners and others in various fields. Children and young people across the country benefit greatly from these collaborations. The local Arts Offices, and indeed the Creative Ireland Coordinators in each local authority, are integral to ensuring that these collaborations grow and continue and are allowed to flourish.
