We can do something about losing Art and Design Education. In fact, we must.
Hello.
About 24 hours ago I saw a post on Linked In that I now cannot find again. I might have liked it. I might not have. Frankly it has taken almost 24 hours to process it as it struck me firmly in the chest.
Beneath the screenshot of an article about how design and creativity are disappearing from UK education and the country, known for rich histories in creative industries, great designers and innovators, is facing a crisis were a number of replies and comments by some people I know and respect, about how they would like to tackle this or do something about it.
I have tagged Nils Leonard in here because his is the only name I remember from the replies and because I know personally that he knows and understands who Neville Brody is. I trust him more than anyone to swing a hammer at the obsidian monoliths erected and unveiled marking the End of Art in UK education. I could list a fair few people (British vernacular is deliberate here) who care about this sort of thing (again, deliberate British vernacular) but they did not comment on the post so I have left them alone. For now.?
We have all heard the anecdote about asking Primary school children which of them can paint and draw and think of themselves as an artist; and many if not all raise their hands enthusiastically.
We all know, possibly from experience, that the number of people who even think of themselves as creative dwindles exponentially as you ask older groups until finally no one at your dinner party thinks of themselves as creative. Creative people and people who work in creative jobs and creative industries know the waves and tides of this particular ocean. Every few years a CEO invites someone creative to look at their business and they are told they are not being brave enough. Suddenly share prices skyrockets because a ground breaking idea has rocked - insert name of industry here- and the idea of creativity in the workplace takes off again so that consultancies can get someone from accounting to loosen their tie and craft their idea in a workshop proving that ‘everyone is creative at heart’ and we simply lose this truth about ourselves along the way because, well, we have to study Maths, and Schopenauer and Waterloo and Stalingrad as these things are more important.?
Unfortunately yesterday’s post is another domino in a long line of dominoes that have been cascading for most of my life. You see, despite having no money and no connections, I pursued and eventually completed a Masters level programme in Fine Arts dubbed ‘useless’ and ‘a complete waste of time’ by adults in my family. Up until 1995 when my parents realized I was an ugly capitalist, employed by the largest bank in Canada at the time, being Fed-Exed to London as their youngest VP in history, they begged me to consider getting a PHD in Fine Art instead of becoming ‘a drone’.?
I laughed and went to London only to return as the youngest Hedge Fund manager in Julius Bar history. Why? I had had enough.
Now I know that winning a city wide Art competition in 1978 meant something. I remember asking my first teacher in the UK, Mrs. Riley, in 1980, when we ‘got to patient and draw’. She just looked at me, asked me about arts at my school in America and said ‘there is no money for it’. My Gran used to hiss when Margaret Thatcher came on the screen. Now, I know why I might have done the same. The Thatcher Government gutted both Social Services and Arts Funding. Of course the wave of brilliant and world changing talent in design and painting and theatre, and film, and industrial design and fashion and print and, and and.. That emerged is a list too long to list.?
In 1983, back in NYC with my mother, I was sent to The New York School of Visual Arts, the school, 11 years later where I would complete my studies, to learn and paint with adults because JHS 172, my school in Queens, did not have the scale of program I required to thrive. To paint images as large as doors or use all of the school’s annual resources in a semester, as I had the previous year. By September I was in Florida, my mother having taken a job, and without any resources because in Reagan’s America (especially his Florida) there was no money for paint. I convinced someone to give me a grant and was allowed to participate in a Portfolio class usually only for college students.?
My work was considered ‘obscene’ and I had to petition The Miami Dade County School Board to label my transcripts ‘incomplete’ and not as a failure so that my grade point average wasn't too deeply affected. I needed a certain grade level to compete in Drama competitions at a County and a State level because that was the only creative program that had any money in the 1980s. We still had to sell candy and tickets to performances to afford putting on shows and traveling to competitions.
I studied Mathematics and computers. I went to Wall Street. I worked in the City of London, too. One Saturday, as I wandered Lower Manhattan, I bought my first sketchbook in a decade, went to The New York School of Visual Arts, enrolled, and studied at night for 3.5 years to finish what I had started as a pre-teen with no idea that ‘Commercial Artist’ was a ‘real job’ as I was instructed to get at every family gathering.?
Sure, I had teachers that encouraged me. To keep writing. To keep painting. To somehow find a way to find a ‘creative career’.?
Strange, though. Until I worked at Grey in Hatton Garden I had always been referred to as ‘the creative hire’. At Orange, at MCBC, at Mondelez, I worked in innovation and strategy, and design, and even in printing and was always told that I saw the world in a? different way and with a unique perspective and blah, blah, blah…
The truth is that if I had been able to afford Art School after completing some A levels after finishing HIgh School in America, I would have gone and never known or understood what a Basis Swap was. But I could not afford Art School.
In the UK I could not get in. I did not have the pedigree, or the network, or even the father who would ‘allow’ his son to go to Newcastle Polytechnic and study. My heart sank when Universities interviewed me, without looking at my work, and told me I needed to go back and qualify as their system dictated. It was 1988. American Colleges were more than happy to accept me but would not offer financial aid or assistance or Sallie Mae support to someone only interested in Art (ie drawing and painting). So I went into banking to be able to pay my own way. Which I did.?
Now, I sold 3 paintings last year, which made my heart soar. But no one should have to do what I had to do.
We all know by now that it isn’t solely about paintings. No one needs a lecture on how so much of what we touch, eat, wear, see, hear, and feel is created and designed in some way by more people than we can imagine or count and while they all can’t be famous or newsworthy, some are. I remember the names of everyone that encouraged me and I think they should not have had to.?
EVERY form of creative expression must be fostered in schools at as early an age as possible and while STEM is critical it is fuelled by ideas and critical thinking and, and, and…All of the things we know are being lost.
Few will read Orwell anymore. I am writing this in a country that is actively banning and burning books. Creators are on strike for being underpaid and design is slipping away from the important place it holds. Who is the next Stella McCartney? The next Vivienne Westwood? Perhaps you already know Patrycja Pagas or follow Matthew Williams on Instagram. Perhaps you see someone close to you who asks about paintings and photographs. Perhaps there is a scale and perspective in what is on the fridge.?
When protestors storm wings of museums they make people think it is evil for them to support the Arts. well, frankly, few else do.
If you want to, then please do, but realize it means taking the petitions and the ideas for programs and the donations to every level. You must raise money, challenge your local Councillors and MPs, and write to both Miguel Cardona and Brigitte Phillipson as their offices are debating Arts funding now. Someone has to call James Dyson. Someone has to call Stella McCartney. Someone has to call Lorraine Candy.?
In 1999 my mentor told me that humans had abandoned the race for discovery. I wished he was alive when he was proven wrong.
?In 2014 a teacher near Manchester read a poem of mine to her class. They loved it. The students wrote letters to the subject of the poem and drew images that eventually populated a book, Dear Sun, still on sale on Amazon. A project like this was unheard of when I was their age. It was the most optimistic project I ever saw completed.?
News about declines in funding and Arts education and Design education and creativity has been trickling out for a while now. I have included 3 examples at the end of this post. I implore you to do something.?
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British arts education is in crisis, with the climate of opportunity it was known for in, say, the 90s having long since dissipated. In its place, we now see a hostile environment stoked by a conservative government that essentially perceives the pursuit of a creative education as a “low-value” pathway. With undergraduate degrees increasingly feeling like an endless debt subscription, masters barely financeable and the fierce competition for PhD funding increasingly limiting doctoral study to self-funded candidates, the grave situation at the UK’s arts education institutions is only worsening — all to the detriment of the country’s creative industries.?
The skills demanded in the jobs of today are critical thinking, problem-solving, communication skills, emotional intelligence, empathy and self-confidence. The case could not be clearer for the centrality of creativity in education. To adapt the great Labour MP Nye Bevan’s phrase, the pedagogy of turning out pupils who are “desiccated calculating-machines” is over.
Where are the champions of the arts? Who will stand up for culture?
That’s what I found myself wondering when deep cuts were announced to the budgets of opera companies and theatres in London. It was left to the dazed spokespeople of these outfits to gather their wits and express disappointment after Arts Council England (ACE) reduced its spending in the capital by ￡32 million
Ironically, I used an AI to capture and consolidate the following:
The creative industries contributed ￡109 billion to the UK economy in 2021, which is 5.6% of the UK economy that year.?
?The largest subsector within the creative industries was IT, software, and computer services, which accounted for 2.3% of the UK economy in 2021.?
The creative industries are a significant source of economic activity and employment in the UK.?
?In 2019, the creative industries directly created 2.1 million jobs and contributed ￡115.9 billion to UK GDP.?
The creative industries are among the fastest growing sectors in the world.?
?The creative economy contributes just over 6.1% to global gross domestic product (GDP).?
Anyone will point to these numbers and ask whether these numbers mean creative industries can afford to privatize Arts education and creative training.
I asked an AI about Advertising agencies too. It came back with:
The Advertising Association claims that advertising contributes ￡100 billion annually to the UK economy.?
?The UK advertising industry is one of the most lucrative and competitive markets in the world.
In 2022, the UK spent a total of 39.4 billion pounds on advertising, making it one of the highest-spending countries in Europe.?
?Ad spending in the UK amounted to 35 billion British pounds in 2022.?
?The UK advertising industry is projected to make a contribution of ￡4.7bn to national exports.?
The net earnings of UK agencies is about ￡1bn.?
?Advertising agencies revenue is expected to expand at a compound annual rate of 2.1% to ￡32.4 billion over the five years through 2023-24.?
So, in my experience, what you are up against, if you should choose to enter the fray and change the course of the UK culture and economy by becoming a champion of creativity, is the fact that it is taxpayer money at the centre of the debate.
The same AI tells me:
The UK spent approximately ￡105.5 billion on education in 2022/23.?
?This is the second-largest public service spending category in the UK, behind health.?
?In 2021/22, education spending was ￡116 billion, or 4.6% of national income.?
The UK allocated ￡57.3 billion to schools in 2023/24, which is a 64% increase from 2010/11. The 2022 Autumn Statement means funding will increase further in 2024/25.?
?Schools in England are set to receive their highest ever funding in real terms, totaling almost ￡60 billion for 2024/25.?
The UK education budget for 2023/24 was cut by ￡66.4m (2.5%) compared to last year. This is despite rising costs and increasing demands for services. The estimated funding gap is around ￡382m.?
So, while Arts supplies are not free it is more than that. I needed to travel into Manhattan everyday via Queens Boulevard to be able to pursue my creative education, which was paid for by the many jobs I did at 13 and 14.?
No one should have to do what I did.?