Thank You and A Special End to 2014 for our Blogger in Residence Series

“To neglect the contribution of the arts in education, either through inadequate time, resources or poorly trained teachers, is to deny children access to one of the most stunning aspects of their culture and one of the most potent means for developing their minds”  Eliot Eisner

I’m sure you all share our disbelief and shock that 2014 is almost over!  We are closing our blog series for 2014 with a very special suite of blogs which draw together some of the meaningful educational experiences, highlighted across the series this year, provided by opportunity to participate in the arts.

Eliot Eisner died at the beginning of this year.  Throughout my career, when reading international research on the impact of the arts on children and young people, it would be unusual not to find Eliot Eisner’s name among the contributor, leaders or references of that piece of work.

We therefore begin our special closing series with Eliot Eisner’s ’10 Lessons The Arts Teach’ and we gratefully acknowledge the National Arts Education Association’s kind permission for use.

The remainder of this closing suite, equally exciting, will be responses over the coming weeks, to these ’10 Lessons’ from an Irish perspective, contributed by two acknowledged Irish experts in this field – John McArdle and Ciaran Benson. Keep an eye on the blog between now and Christmas!

As we close our Blogger In Residence Series for the year, I want to thank all those working in this field, in arts organisations and youth services and as solo professionals, who shared their expertise and wisdom with us via the blog project this year.  We hope that there are things about their ways of working and their advice which you find useful for your own practice.  I want to thank our strategic partners, The Arts Council and The Dept of Children and Youth Affairs for their continued support.  Lastly, I want to thank most sincerely, Irma Grothuis, who has curated and edited this blog series so expertly and with such insight and wisdom in addition to hard and careful work.  Thank you Irma!

Happy Christmas Everyone from NYCI and we look forward to working with you in 2015.

Anne O’ Gorman