Although further welcome funding increases this year contributed to the wellbeing of the arts, perhaps a far more subtle but significant underlying development was the decision to finally establish a committee to devise a strategy for closer links between education and the arts. That committee is due to deliver a report next May to the relevant Ministers, John O'Donoghue and Mary Hanafin, and it must be hoped that its recommendations will lead to a clear framework for future policy, as well as the provision of greater opportunity for our school children to share in this enriching aspect of learning.
Such a move has been long overdue. Early engagement with the art forms should be part of every schoolchild's experience and contribute to their self-development. Much lip service is paid to the importance of access to the arts but nowhere is it more important than during these formative years when young minds often pick up what will become the habits and interests of a lifetime.
Encouragement very often depends on the enthusiasm of individual teachers. And while there are many such educators in our classrooms committed to nurturing a love and appreciation of the arts, they often do so as an optional extra to the demands of teaching the curriculum. Many cultural institutions are already very involved in imaginative education schemes that contain the templates for what could be incorporated more formally into an arts-centred addition to the curriculum.
In setting out the key priority areas to be considered, the committee acknowledges the vital role that the arts can play in delivering a "more rounded and balanced educational experience". In this age of celebrity and virtual reality, there is a danger that the cultural values that will be passed on to future generations will emerge from a very narrow perspective; that the thrill of the live performance in the theatre and concert hall, or standing in front of the masterpiece, is perhaps losing its allure.
The benefits are not one way either - there is, too, the potential for the cultivation of new audiences. Proper investment is therefore necessary if the committee is to achieve success, but already - in a recent statement on its terms of reference - there is a sense of some negativity about what might be achievable. Caveats about "what additional sources of funding, if any, might be available" do not bode well for the outcome. In the Arts Council's 2005 document on partnership in the arts, there is a reminder that the Department of Education and Science has a statutory obligation to provide every child with an arts education. Perhaps it will need to be reminded of this as part of the forthcoming process.