Viewpoints

Are you new to AccessArt? Or would like to catch up with our latest thinking, news and opportunities?

The Viewpoints section shares articles to introduce you to our ethos and philosophy, and helps you dip your toes into the AccessArt resources, whoever and wherever you are. 

Piet Mondrian's Victory Boogie Woogie (1944) famous painting. Original from Wikimedia Commons. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.

“Everyone has the right to freedom of expression”

“The government should not make the mistake of thinking that everyone is able to express themselves, and that it is “good enough” to protect that expression. The ability to express ourselves, through the myriad of forms of expression open to us (the visual arts, dance, music, drama and the written and spoken word, to name a few), is something to be nurtured, encouraged and enabled. Humans also need to be supported in discovering, through safe ways, what it is they want to express, as well as how they might want to express it.” Read more

Art Education in Crisis

A collection of evidence-based reports which help map the changes to the art education (and wider arts) landscape over the past few years, and a collection of articles to help share solutions to the issues raised. Read more

Why We Need Artist Educators To Take Centre Stage

Many people think of AccessArt as being predominantly focused upon Primary education, but in reality, AccessArt represents and serves a far wider community. In this post, Paula Briggs, CEO & Creative Director of AccessArt shares why AccessArt believes artist educators are vital to helping us redefine, as a society, the role we need art to play in making all our lives better. Read more

Can Labour Show It Really Understands The Power Of The Arts To Transform Lives?

Paula Briggs, CEO & Creative Director of AccessArt asks is it brave of a government to acknowledge what art can do for us, or foolish to ignore it? Read more

The Current Education System: Too Much Beta, Not Enough Alpha

Paula Briggs, CEO & Creative Director of AccessArt explores how awareness of brain states could help us create a more balanced curriculum. Read more

The Language We Use Defines The Society We Create: Taking Control of the Narrative

Paula Briggs, CEO & Creative Director of AccessArt explores how the language we use to describe art education is vital in moving forward with strength and integrity. Read more

The Art & Design Curriculum & Oak National Academy

Paula Briggs, CEO & Creative Director of AccessArt shares AccessArt’s statement about Oak National Academy. Read more

Urgent Reform Needed in 11-16 Education

In December 2023 The Education for 11–16 Year Olds Committee published its report Requires improvement: urgent change for 11–16 education.

The report delves into the impact that a ‘knowledge rich’ approach has had on the educational system, which increased both curriculum content and exam-based testing. Read more

The AccessArt Primary Art Curriculum – Impact & Evidence Autumn 2023

In the summer of 2023 we invited users to complete a survey to feedback their experience of using our Primary Art Curriculum in their school. We would like to thank the 447 teachers who responded on behalf of their school.

We are pleased to share the results of the survey. Read more

The Art Now Report

The Art Now Inquiry commissioned by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Art, Craft and Design Education explores the current state of art and design education across the four nations. It was created in response to concerns about the reduction in opportunities for children and young people to access high quality art and design education across the primary and secondary phases of schooling. Read more

AccessArt Response to the Ofsted Curriculum Review in Art & Design

Paula Briggs and Trevor Horsewood from AccessArt attended the launch of the Ofsted Curriculum Review in Art & Design. Read more

Returning to Our Bodies – Poised between the Slip and the Grub

What does AI mean for visual arts education (and our wellbeing)? Paula Briggs explores… Read more

Thinking About Art Education? Think Again…

On the 22nd February 2023 the long awaited Curriculum Research Review into Art & Design will be published. Before that day, and before we all embark on a discussion about its pedological intricacies, I wanted to take the opportunity to do what AccessArt always tries to do, namely to help us “open up and out” our thinking about art education and how we might best enable a rich creative experience for all. Read more

What Does Success Look Like?

Why do we teach art? What do pupils get from making art? In this post, Paula Briggs challenges us to think more openly about how we monitor art in the classroom. Through making no assumptions about what art can offer us, we might be surprised by what we find… Read more

An Introduction into the New AccessArt Primary Art Curriculum

Find out what AccessArt’s new Primary Art Curriculum has to offer in this recorded Zoom Session – we discuss the aims of the curriculum and explain how the pathways can inspire your curriculum offering. Read more

AccessArt & 2023

As the days slowly lengthen, we can let ourselves feel a sense of opening outwards once again, and it is with that mindset that we’d like to share AccessArt’s aims and intents for 2023. Read more

Taking Stock: What a Game of Snakes and Ladders Made Me think About Art Education

How can we all learn from each other? Here’s what the snakes and ladders board made me think. Read more

Searching for the Opposite or Fragmentation and Contraction

What happens when we contract and fragment, and how do we make ourselves and society whole again?

Can we re-imagine a society in which the notion that humans are inherently creative beings is accepted so readily that we do not need to defend the value or worth of creative thought and action? Read more

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