Issues of Global and Local Quality in Arts Education

Abstract

Quality is not a random occurrence in arts and creativity partnerships. The achievement of quality must be planned. Any arts partnership requires both quality assurance and quality control components. Quality assurance manages quality of processes, while quality control measures deliverables - ‘products’ - against standards. This paper looks at quality from a global and local perspective and argues that arts experiences from children and young people need to be: • "Fit for purpose": i.e. The arts education experience should be suitable and relevant for the intended purpose and the intended participants/audience. • "Right first time": i.e. There are certain sets of attributes that are generally associated with quality arts engagement and arts partnerships within education and these can become ‘prerequisites’ for a programme, there by mistakes should be eliminated, or at least reduced. This paper outlines the key components of quality arts education and suggests that the focus of research needs to move forward from a impact of the arts to quality of the arts.