Art and education: A human right not a commodiity unity of educational engagement in 'The Union of Creative Thinking'

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article describes a theatre in education (TIE) programme – a fusion of theatre and process led drama work, pedagogically informed – created by Theatr Powys, a theatre in education and community theatre company based in mid Wales. The programme, entitled 'The Union of Creative Thinking', engaged participating children, from small and isolated communities in rural Wales, in a process whereby they were furnished with imaginative tools that enabled them to conceptualise and concretise in profound ways, the complexity of relationships they experience within the self, between themselves, and within their communities and the wider world. To reference the context of this article is a huge undertaking. The art form of Theatre in Education was born, developed, hard fought for, and has now all but been lost, in a post war Britain wherein the ideological control and methodological strictures applied to the business of humanely and creatively educating the young of the species, has been a constant battle ground. This particular work, devised and produced by Theatr Powys under my direction, has been influenced by a socially developed drive to integrate the work of many theatre artists and pedagogues: crucially the theoretical writings and historical practice of Vygotsky, Bruner, Friere, Heathcote, Bolton and Gillham. Theatr Powys consistently fought to stand authentically on the shoulders of the above body of theoretical work, and of more, the collective practice of so many involved in the practice of theatre and educational drama in schools and the wider community. 'The Union of Creative Thinking' discussed in this article recognised education as a process of becoming and recognised children as active seekers after truth and justice. It was squarely founded on the knowledge that young people globally, intuitively understand their lives and the values they struggle to own as intrinsically linked to the experience of all children in other, seemingly far away, corners of the world.