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Mr. Peter Ainsworth: May I take this opportunity to endorse what the Secretary of State has just said? When he attends the royal gala next week, will he be wearing black tie? I understand that he has some reservations about the dress code for that occasion.
Mr. Smith: The hon. Gentleman should not believe everything that he reads in the newspapers. I will indeed be wearing my dinner jacket and, for a gala occasion, I see no reason why not.
I want the Royal Opera house to stand for the highest standards of excellence, with access for the widest possible audience. It should be a central part of--and not apart from--the artistic community. The open building, which the general public will be able to walk through; free chamber concerts at lunchtime; lower ticket prices; a much-expanded education programme; free events generally; improved access for people with disabilities;
the elimination of the deficit and the introduction of proper financial planning all point to a healthy future. The opera house will be a place where world-class opera and ballet will be accessible by everyone.
Lyric theatre in London can now face the future with optimism, with strong performances at Covent Garden joining those at the Coliseum and Sadler's Wells. With all three houses pursuing the key objectives of excellence, access and education, the prospects for lyric theatre in London have never been better.
Nationally, the picture is equally strong, with Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Ballet taking first-class opera and ballet across the entire country.
I said earlier that I would refer to the importance of the arts in education. I have mentioned some measures that we have taken to ensure that young people have access to music tuition and training in dance and drama. We are gradually reversing the decline of the past 18 years and ensuring an entitlement to participation in the arts for young people. However, we also need to ensure that children are equipped with the skills to understand, appreciate and analyse the arts. It is a process of participation, along with understanding and enjoyment.
Recently I was at Millbank primary school for the launch of Vivien Duffield's innovative Artworks scheme and I was struck--as I always am on such occasions--by the joy that the pupils got from art. Every child loves drawing, painting, music, dancing and acting. Those art forms define the nature of children's play, and children engage in them without inhibition, freely and openly, on a pure aesthetic level, free from anxiety about how they are perceived and from peer pressure.
What happens to those uninhibited, open children? What does society do--or not do--to make them feel more embarrassed about the arts as they get older? When does the creativity begin to hide itself? Can we ensure that participation in and appreciation of the arts can survive and be enjoyed again openly and in an unembarrassed fashion as children grow older and become adults? Research evidence suggests that those who acquire the habit of attending arts events as children are more likely to continue as adults. Such people know how to find out about the arts; they know where to go and what they like and do not like. They feel comfortable with the arts and they go with their friends. They know what to expect for their investment of money and time and they know the language. In other words, they are culturally literate.
I want everyone to be culturally literate. That does not mean compelling people to "do culture", but as the Government are spending taxpayers' and lottery players' money on the arts, they are morally obliged to ensure that everyone can make an informed choice. If people decide, in a hugely competitive leisure market, that the arts are not for them, that is their choice, but we must try to ensure that no one rejects the arts through lack of understanding or opportunity. Addressing human physical needs is one of the primary responsibilities of government, but we must not ignore the needs of the human spirit, especially in young people as they grow to maturity.
There are a number of ways in which we can help. I am delighted that the revised national curriculum has strengthened the position of the arts, with the
reinstatement of programmes of study for all subjects in the primary curriculum, including arts subjects. The requirements for teaching the arts have been clarified. For example, in English the place of drama and of media and moving image texts is stronger than ever.
The revised national curriculum underlines a commitment to engaging children with artistic excellence, from Shakespeare to Seamus Heaney and from Jane Austen to Derek Walcott. There is provision to ensure that children are exposed to a breadth of artistic traditions and that they study works of other cultures. Teachers are being given greater flexibility to teach the arts creatively and explore ways of bringing the arts alive for children. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is preparing guidance and materials to help teachers to deliver arts subjects with greater confidence.
Teachers need to feel supported in their efforts to encourage cultural literacy. Next year the Teacher Training Agency will review the initial teacher training curriculum and look at ways to support continuous professional development.
The report of the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education has contributed substantially to the debate and the Secretary of State for Education and Employment and I will be issuing a detailed response to its report. I pay particular tribute to Ken Robinson, who chaired the committee, and his team. A key element of our response will be the announcement of a further review of creativity and the arts in schools that the Government have asked the QCA to undertake. It will consider, among other things, the question of how we promote cultural literacy in schools.
The Government are encouraging partnerships between schools and the wider community to improve study support, including investing £205 million from the new opportunities fund and £78.5 million from the standards fund to promote imaginative and effective programmes in schools and in out-of-hours activities, from film clubs to pop bands.
All cultural organisations funded by my Department have educational aims. Arts organisations in receipt of public subsidy are required to contribute to the achievement of those aims in making use of the extra £125 million over three years that we are providing for the arts. They will be required to deliver a minimum of 200,000 additional education sessions.
I have already mentioned the fact that, since April, entry to our national museums and galleries has been free for children. I am pleased to say that, since May, the number of children visiting participating museums and galleries has risen by 22 per cent. In the same period, visits by children to the national maritime museum increased by 37 per cent. The figure for the museum of science and industry in Manchester was 28 per cent; for the Duxford air museum it was 14 per cent.; for the national railway museum in York it was 19 per cent; and this August the figure for children's visits to the science museum was 40 per cent. higher than it was at the same time last year. That is a clear demonstration of the success of our policy.
Two months ago I announced the forthcoming a national roll-out of an exciting new project called new generation audiences. The project links arts organisations and schools through the internet, giving schoolchildren the chance to interact with artists and others before and after they attend arts events, museums or sports events.
The project combines the best of traditional practice--visits by artists, or the holding of education sessions--with the best of new technology to enable schools to download and research information about productions; it is encouraging as much involvement as possible. Arts organisations that join promise to make blocks of unsold seats available at a discount, or for free. The project has been piloted to date in five boroughs, and the aim is to roll it out nationally from January next year.
That is just one of the many creative ways in which we are encouraging arts organisations and schools to work together. The new generation audiences project is part-funded by the new audiences fund set up by my Department and administered by the Arts Council. The fund supports numerous new and experimental ways of bringing people to the arts for the first time, or enriching their involvement with the arts.
Working with the Arts Council, I will aim to ensure that all subsidised arts bodies have an access policy for young people. That policy should concentrate on those children least likely otherwise to engage with the arts. It should always include some free or concessionary tickets, as part of a range of ways of attracting young people.
Children should not just be dropping into a theatre or a gallery for a one-off visit. They need to be encouraged to do so again and again, in childhood and in adult life. Their visits need to be enriched by educational material at the theatre or gallery, by specialist animators holding education sessions and by material they study before and afterwards.
We have made available £2.5 million to develop partnerships between schools and museums and galleries. Forty projects will be supported over the next three years to share good practice and to help develop innovation. A further £500,000 is to be spent on projects to be taken forward by area museums councils, working together with smaller museums to help them develop the educational services they can offer. We will shortly be publishing a strategy for education in museums and galleries.
That is just a flavour of the wide range of measures that the Government and their partners are driving forward to ensure that the present generation of children get the opportunities that others have missed. It is just a start on which we will continue to build, and we know that this is a long-term investment which may not bear fruit overnight.
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