Our Artistic Director, Gregory Doran and Jacqui O’Hanlon, Director of Education are taking part in a debate at the Royal Albert Hall today (Wednesday) on the importance of arts and culture in young people's lives.

They are joined by our President, HRH The Prince of Wales and many people from the creative industries and Government policy makers to look at how we can encourage more young people to engage in the creative, arts and design subjects and address the way arts subjects are perceived.

The discussion also looked at how these subjects can be strengthened in schools. We know that there is a thriving creative industries job market, and there’s lots of evidence to demonstrate that engaging with arts and culture in school plays an invaluable part of every child’s education. 

Talking about the Children in the Arts and Prince’s Teaching Institute event, our Director of Education Jacqui O’Hanlon said: “Today we were part of an important opportunity to debate and discuss the part that arts and cultural education play in the lives of young people. It was a rare chance to bring together influential decision-makers and policy-makers to explore how we can more effectively promote high quality arts and cultural education in schools.

"We continue to see evidence of the study of arts subjects being downgraded and undervalued yet we know they can have a profoundly positive impact on individual young people and whole schools. In October we will launch the findings of research involving 6,000 young people across the country – ensuring that their voices drive the debate about arts experiences and arts study in schools. Let’s not deny students the opportunity to develop and extend their creativity and expression; if we do, we risk denying them a firm foundation from which to enter adulthood and an unknown future."