As part of a new five-year, all-of-government initiative launched today, titled Creative Ireland, a national plan to provide every child in Ireland with ‘access to tuition and participation in art, music, drama and coding’ will be in place by the end of 2017.

The plan will be rolled out by 2022. This is a ‘key objective’ of the new initiative.

The Charter for Arts in Education, which was published by the Department of Education and Skills in 2012, will be ‘fast-tracked and resourced’ and the Department will be ‘a key partner in implementing this pillar.’ Music Generation is cited as one of several ‘important expressions of creativity that are relevant to this pillar of Creative Ireland’. 

Creative Ireland is the Government’s legacy programme for the Ireland 2016 programme of commemorations. It includes five main pillars. Key initiatives to be delivered in 2017 include:

– The publication of a five year ‘Creative Children’ plan which will enable every child to access tuition in music, drama, art and coding;
– Each Local Authority will appoint a Culture Team  to drive local needs and will publish a Culture Plan for their own county;
– A new annual cultural day, ‘Cruinniú na Cásca’ to be held nationwide on Easter Monday each year, replicating the Reflecting the Rising event, which was held in Dublin this year;
– The Departments of Arts and Social Protection will devise a mechanism to assist self-employed artists who have applied for Jobseekers Allowance – this would be a pilot scheme;
– A planned investment programme for Ireland’s cultural and heritage infrastructure, including national cultural institutions;
– An industry wide, long term plan to develop Ireland as a global hub for film, TV drama and animation.

Speaking at the launch at the National Gallery, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD, said:

Together we can do extraordinary things: we can make Ireland the first country in the world to guarantee access for every child to tuition and participation in art, music, drama and coding.  We can make every local authority a dynamic hub of cultural creativity.  We can unlock the huge potential of our people in the creative industries.  And we can make an important statement to ourselves and to the world about the interdependency of culture, identity and citizenship.

Minster for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Heather Humphreys TD commented:

We… want to build on the success of the commemorations and plan ambitiously for our arts and culture sectors for the years ahead…. Creative Ireland puts culture and creativity at the centre of public policy, which will benefit artists and citizens nationwide This is a very ambitious public policy initiative; possibly the most significant for the arts and cultural sectors in a generation.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Paschal Donohoe TD added that, ’When we talk about capital investment we must think beyond buildings. We must think, primarily, about investment in human capital and human creativity.’ 

For further details on the full programme, visit http://creative.ireland.ie/