Birmingham Repertory Theatre's Steve Ball And Carl Woodward Discuss Future Of Arts Education In Next Art School Event

Art School, the new company being set up to support the education sector and arts industry to work together to improve and protect arts education, has announced its next event in its year-long series focusing on bringing leaders in the arts industry and education sector together to share work, advice and recommendations on how to improve and protect arts education.

Taking place on April 12th at 6 - 7pm in London, the next Art School event will explore the forthcoming The Big Arts & Education Debate at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, one of the UK's leading theatres.

The Birmingham Repertory Theatre's Associate Director Steve Ball and media and learning specialist Carl Woodward will discuss why they are organising event, their other work in arts education, and offer advice on how to improve and protect arts education.

Dr Steve Ball is the Associate Director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He trained as a teacher before training as an actor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama. Prior to coming to Birmingham in 1986, he founded two of the region's leading educational theatre companies and worked as a writer and producer for BBC Education. Mr Ball has contributed to a number of journals and books, and has an MA in Arts Management and a doctorate in Arts Education. He was Executive Producer of the World Festival of Theatre for Young Audiences held in Birmingham in 2016.

Carl Woodward has an established history of working in youth theatre and education settings delivering inclusive creative learning for all ages. Over the years his writing has appeared in publications like Arts Professional, The Stage, The Big Issue, UK Theatre Magazine and The Independent. He is a lecturer in theatre at University of Chichester and teaches in media and community theatre studies.

Previous speakers in the Art School series include John Tiffany, Director of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" and Associate Director at The Royal Court Theatre, film producer and former Head of Film at Creative England Caroline Cooper Charles, Henry Vann, Head of External Affairs at ISM, which runs "Bacc for the Future", the influential campaign for EBacc to include creative subjects, Daniel Harrison from the Young Vic Theatre and Chair of What Next? Generation, Steven Kavuma, founder of The Diversity School Initiative, which campaigns for greater diversity in drama schools, Tom Stocks, founder of Actor Awareness, Amanda Kipling, Chair of London Drama and PGCE Programme Leader for Drama at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Titilola Dawudu, currently selected for the Artistic Director Leadership Programme's "Leaders of Tomorrow" scheme and Learning and Participation Manager at the Ovalhouse Theatre.

Jennifer Tuckett, Director of Art School, said: "We are delighted to be discussing The Big Arts and Education Debate as part of our year long series sharing leading work going on in arts education, advice and recommendations from the arts industry and education sector. With EBacc not including creative subjects, decreased uptake in arts subjects at school and university level, and the end of arts courses such as the A Level in Creative Writing which is being stopped this year, now more than ever it feels important to work together to share best practice and advice on how we can best improve and protect arts education in the UK".

Carl Woodward, co-organiser of The Big Arts and Education Debate, said: "The Big Arts and Education Debate is a prophetic and practical opportunity to come together to address the very serious situation of a creative curriculum being eroded within our state schools. We very much look forward to seeing what recommendations and solutions we can achieve together in Birmingham."

Free tickets can be booked at: https://artschool-carlwoodwardandsteveball.eventbrite.co.uk

The free event is open to the arts industry, education sector, those who teach at school, college or university level, those who would like to teach, policymakers and anyone interested in arts education.

Art School is also currently offering paid training to four trainee producers as part of its first initiative - the trainee producers are Dan Horrigan, Victoria Jones, Rachel Coombe and Margaret Perry and the scheme aims to help improve the transition from studying to working in the arts as part of the year long series of events.

For more information about Art School and to sign up to the mailing list pleas go www.artschool.space

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