Diversity in the Primary Art Curriculum

Hello Colleague

Art and Design provide brilliant opportunities to share the richness of the world with our pupils.

Adele Darlington is an art consultant and former primary teacher who believes it’s essential to provide children with diverse, rich, high quality art experiences.

This is what she has to say:

‘It’s so much more than a box-ticking exercise where you are checking that you have included artists from around the world. It’s also about your community and making sure that they are reflected in the curriculum.’

Adele talks about how it is important to open pupils’ eyes to the wider world, to develop understanding and empathy. And this needs to happen alongside all pupils, from every background, feeling that they belong.

It’s also important to remember that diversity includes the protected characteristics such as disability which opens up opportunities in the curriculum for sharing insights, perspectives and creative endeavour.

Michelle Gregson CEO of NSEAD makes the case that art demands that pupils create from their own experience, ‘If we don’t take the time to honour that, and give our pupils the opportunity to do that, then we are locking them out of the subject.’

If children don’t see themselves in the subject, they are less likely to consider art and design as a career option.

It is in our gift to shift this!

We need to provide pupils with opportunities to be free to experiment, to express themselves and one of the best ways is to use sketchbooks where there are no judgements, supporting pupils to believe they can create in safety.

There’s also a brilliant resource called ‘The Superpower of Looking’ from ArtUk which develops pupils’ visual literacy and helps them to appreciate diversity both of subject matter and of creators.

Adele shares the ‘Togetherness Project’ from her former primary school where pupils in early years learn about Benode Behari Mukherjee, Banksy, Stephen Wiltshire, Georgia O’Keefe, Henry Fraser and Kehinde Wiley.

You can watch Adele, Michele and Rachel discussing Diversity in the Primary Art curriculum here and also listen on the app!

Until next time

Mary