The Industrialisation of Arts Education

‘In what ways have the demands of industry helped to shape the course of arts education to date, and has industrialisation of the arts been beneficial towards the student experience as we march through the fourth industrial revolution? Academics and practitioners offer important insight into relationships between arts education and the creative industries through discussion of the past, the present and the potential futures. This book opens a dialogue which could help to define a new concord between arts education and industry for the fifth industrial revolution.’

—Matthew Clark, Lecturer in Digital Media, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

This book comprises the responses of a group of multi-disciplinary writers/researchers/practitioners to the proposition that arts education in the twenty-first century has become industrialised. Historical and contemporary examples of how arts education prepares students for working in industry are discussed to show how theexpectations of educators, students and industry representatives do not always concur. The extent to which arts pedagogies have been informed by the agendas of the cultural industries as well as wider neoliberal ideologies are also considered. This leads to questions about the function and value of arts education. The debates expose tensions of producing students who are ‘industry-ready’ in an educational context that must, at the same time, consider other issues such as sustainability and widening participation. Writers, educators and researchers in vocational education, creative writing, jewellery design, animation, fashion branding and popular music investigate the complexities relating to this topic from their own diverse points of view. 

Samantha Broadhead is Head of Research at Leeds Arts University, UK. She serves on the Journal of Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning editorial board. Broadhead has co-authored Practical Wisdom and DemocraticEducation (with Gregson, 2018), Palgrave Macmillan, as well as Perspectives on Access (with Davies and Hudson, 2019).