Press statement
The goal of the Cultural Education Plan is to guarantee that all children and adolescents have access to a variety of cultural education and activities.
Baroness Bull will utilize her extensive experience in the arts and higher education to gather and lead an expert council that will oversee the creation of the new strategy.
First as a dancer in The Royal Ballet, then as a creative leader at the Royal Opera House, and also having served on the boards of the South Bank Centre and Arts Council England, she brings a wealth of experience.
The Minister of Education, Will Quince, and the Minister of the Arts, Lord Parkinson, have nominated Baroness Bull as the Chair of the Expert Advisory Panel for the forthcoming Cultural Education Plan.
The idea was announced in the March 2022 Schools White Paper, Opportunity for All, and would be released the following year. The whole panel membership will be disclosed later this year, and will include of school and cultural sector officials as well as other cultural education specialists.
The plan intends to articulate and highlight the significance of high-quality cultural education in schools, to promote the social benefit of cultural and creative education, to identify and support career progression routes, to address skills gaps and to address disparities in opportunity and outcome.
On this project, the government will collaborate closely with Arts Council England, the British Film Institute, Historic England, and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
As a member of the Royal Ballet, as a member of the Royal Opera House’s artistic leadership, and as a member of the boards of the South Bank Centre and Arts Council England, Baroness Bull has amassed a wealth of experience in the arts. She has also worked in higher education during the past decade, fostering relationships between the university sector and arts and cultural organizations. She co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Creative Diversity.
Baroness Bull has also served on the boards of the South Bank Centre and Arts Council England, as a BBC governor, as a judge for the 2010 Booker Prize, and as a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s governing body.
The members of the Cultural Education Plan Expert Panel will be appointed in the fall of 2022.
Baroness Bull, chair of the Expert Advisory Panel, stated:
Through high-quality cultural education, every child should have the opportunity to explore their individual and creative potential.
I am ecstatic to be appointed to this position and look forward to collaborating with the panel to produce a Cultural Education Plan that will benefit children across the nation.
This is a volunteer position for which no compensation will be provided.
The Minister of School Standards and the Minister of the Arts will choose the expert advisory panel for the Cultural Education Plan.
As a crossbench lord in the House of Lords, Baroness Bull serves in an apolitical position.