AARE blog, Arts Education in Australia, Robyn Ewing May 2022
The Arts are imperative for making meaning in today’s world. They are core to our health, learning and wellbeing. While research has demonstrated that the transformative and educative benefits of the Arts in and through education is unequivocal, Australian education policymakers have taken a very limited view of Arts education for more than thirty years. Learners continue to be judged on performance in technical and reductive tests in literacy and numeracy. Arts companies, artists and arts educators remain severely underfunded and under-resourced. Despite policy rhetoric there is a lack of focus on the Arts as central to imagination and creativity in learning. This article asserts that arts education is in crisis and that State and Federal governments need to reimagine Arts Education policy as a matter of urgency.