Design Manchester: The Great Debate: All Schools Should Be Art Schools?

18:00 - 20:30

Design and the creative industries are key drivers of growth, innovation and exports. We are on the brink of an artificial intelligence revolution, where skills in immersion and AR/VR will be at a premium in industry’s quest to develop new products and services. But the education system is ill-equipped to provide the talent and skills at the rate they will be needed. In fact, entry to GCSE Design and Technology fell by 18,800 last year, and by 47,000 for creative GCSEs overall.

How can we improve our educational policies to meet the needs of tomorrow’s economy, and how can we create the pathways so that all young people of talent can succeed?

The APDIG is organising this debate - in collaboration with Design Manchester - the largest festival of its type in the North of England. 

The panel includes:

  • Kasper de Graaf, Design Manchester (chair)
  • Ellie Runcie, Director of Growth & Innovation at the Design Council
  • Joanne Roney OBE, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council
  • Lou Cordwell OBE, CEO of magneticNorth
  • Jack Tindale, Manager of the All-Party Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group
  • Lisa O’Loughlin, Principal of The Manchester College

For more information into how to attend - please contact jack.tindale [at] policyconnect.org.uk (subject: Design%20Manchester) (Jack Tindale), or visit Design Manchester.

Image: ‘All Schools Should Be Art Schools’ – this large-scale installation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park was created by Bob and Roberta Smith in April 2017, as part of YSP’s 40th anniversary celebrations. It expresses Smith’s ongoing concern with the diminishing role of the arts in schools, since the Michael Gove-initiated removal of Art from the GCSE core curriculum in England.