Shermaine Slocombe recently published a blog post on A New Direction's website, calling on schools and the cultural sector to work together to think of new models of interaction.
"As a cultural leader and AND Advocate, I regularly meet educators in London who are championing the arts at a very high level. We are devising creative lessons and projects, and designing project models for working with individual artists. We are busy raising standards, promoting and marketing our school in an increasingly competitive system, and seeking professional opportunities to showcase our pupils’ work. ... But in these austere times, both schools and the cultural sector also need to think of new models of interaction. It's a well known fact that diversity in the arts needs to be improved. Well, we have the pupils. We recognise the continual inequality in arts participation and those that enter the creative industries for employment. Working alongside the cultural sector schools have the power to change this."