‘Deterring pupils from the arts will hurt Britain’

BRITAIN must stop sending the message to its schoolchildren that taking arts subjects is pointless, or it risks falling behind in industry and the tech revolution, the director of the National Theatre has said.

Rufus Norris, who has been artistic director of the theatre since 2015, said the radical drop in the take-up of arts subjects would have far more serious repercussions than a lack of future actors, musicians or artists.

He warned the creativity of the next generation of scientists, inventors and technology giants is in danger.

Mr Norris, who will this week take part in a conference about children and the arts attended by the Prince of Wales, said he planned to make a strong economic argument for the benefits of the arts, as well as highlighting the “growing groundswell of dismay” about its diminishing prestige.

Last year, The Daily Telegraph reported the number of pupils taking arts subjects at GCSE had fallen to the lowest level in a decade, as schools encourage bright students to shun “soft” subjects, according to the Education Policy Institute.

The conference on Wednesday will see Mr Norris join the giants of the British art world to discuss solutions, with Benedict Cumberbatch, Lord Lloyd Webber and Lord Hall, the BBC director-general, due to make speeches.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Norris said ministers only needed to look at the central role of creativity in technology companies such as Apple or Pixar to understand its importance. “This is not about a bunch of moaning luvvies. The arts and education is being stripped away radically at the moment and the impact of that is twofold. One is that it threatens to severely diminish the pipeline of creative thinking that’s coming through.

“The other is that it’s really tightening the bottleneck so the only places that are delivering young people who are encouraged and skilled in the arts, and whose confidence and self-expression have been honed and developed and supported, will be coming from private education.” He added: “I would like to make sure that every child has access to an arts subject for the whole of their education.”

Sir Nicholas Serota, head of the Arts Council, Gabriele Finaldi, director of the National Gallery, Sir Nicholas Hytner, former National Theatre director, and Jackie O’Hanlon, from the Royal Shakespeare Company, are expected to attend the conference.

The Prince of Wales, who is patron of Children & the Arts, will attend the Royal Albert Hall event.