Arts Council England (ACE) has announced a new museums and schools programme designed to increase the number of educational visits by schools to museums (yippee!). The £3.6m programme, funded by the Department for Education, is not apparently open to applications. Instead 10 regional museums will be commissioned to work with clusters of local schools. The funding will go to areas identified as having low levels of cultural engagement.
Another conundrum: if there is a low level of cultural engagement then museums are usually accused of having failed in their task. If this is the case, then why is the new money going to museums in these areas? Do we not usually reinforce success?
Is it facile to ask exactly what the process for choosing the areas will be?
