Cavan and Monaghan Education and Training Board held their inaugural ‘Local Arts in Education Partnership’ meeting in the Garage Theatre on Thursday last with special guest Dr. Katie Sweeney, National Director for the Integration for the Arts in Education, from the Department of Education and Skills addressing the meeting. The meeting was chaired by the Chairman of the ETB Joe McGrath and Dr. Sweeney opened the meeting by congratulating the ETB as the first in the country to be up and running with a shared sense of duty from Cavan County Council and Monaghan County Council. She was hugely impressed by the collaborative approach taken by both local authorities.
With Eugene Cummins, Chief Executive in Monaghan County Council and Catriona O’Reilly Arts Officer with Cavan County Council in attendance there was a great sense of opportunity and endless possibility with all three stakeholders playing an important role in achieving the goals and aspirations of the Arts in Education Charter which was published in 2013 by the Department of the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Department of Education and Skills.
There was a busy agenda set out by the Arts Education Officer, Niamh Smyth, which covered a huge range of arts disciplines from the visual to performing and the literary arts. There was some discussion around the definition of the arts-in-education and the key characteristics. Niamh Smyth identified, ‘Arts-in-education practice involving skilled, professional artists of all disciplines working for and with schools in the making, receiving and interpreting of a wide range of arts experiences. Arts-in-education practice can happen within or outside the school. It ranges from once-off visits, through more extended programmes, to intensive, collaborative projects’.
She outlined that, ‘Artists, arts organisations, pupils, teachers, and sometimes, primary carers, work together to create arts experiences that enrich the curriculum and support the core educational mission of the school. Arts-in-education practice enriches the lives of all involved, particularly in nurturing the developing the minds and imaginations of the pupils’. Presentations were made to the committee by Tenderfoot Theatre Company, Monaghan Youth Dance Company, Flickershift – Creative Digital Media and Cavan Arts Office on their experience with a schools project in the visual arts.
The meeting concluded with a presentation to the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Competition Committee who are extending their schools poetry competition nationally and with the professional expertise of Noel Monahan it is expected that the competition will attract thousands of entries from all across Ireland. This competition will have its official launch at the end of March in the Garage Theatre and details will follow shortly. Cllr PJ O’Hanlon stated he was, ‘delighted with the backing of ETB to this important competition which was of huge significance to the Patrick Kavanagh Centre. He continued to say that it is his ‘desire to see more schools taking part in this literary arts project and visiting the Patrick Kavanagh Centre that is now a centre of excellence and an international tourist attraction’
10 March 2015
Cllr Niamh Smyth, Adelaide, Row, Bailieborough, Co. Cavan
t: 042 966 66 66 m: 087 998 22 22 e: nsmyth@cavancoco.ie