Dubai teacher prize winner rolls out art classes in London

Simon Schama and Naughty Boy. with Andria Zafirakou. - Supplied photo

Dubai - Art and textiles teacher Andria Zafirakou had bagged the Varkey Foundation prize earlier in March.

A British teacher who won $1million from the Dubai-based Global Teacher Prize is investing the money into her new art initiative that aims to help students in deprived communities across London.
Art and textiles teacher Andria Zafirakou had bagged the Varkey Foundation prize earlier in March during a star-studded ceremony. She was given the award by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, for the work in her Brent-based school.
Her students at the Alperton Community School come from poor backgrounds and are surrounded with gang violence. She managed to redesign the curriculum according to their needs and learned the basics in 35 different languages to resonate with her pupils who come from various backgrounds.
Now, Zafirakou has launched her 'Artists in Residence' campaign across London schools with a mission to help students who are from deprived communities. Artists such as Naughty Boy, Michael Craig-Martin and Jeremy Deller are volunteering their time in schools to help pupils with art as part of the campaign.
"As with all such schemes, we start small. My first move is a priority of targeting 30 schools in London from some of our most deprived communities," Zafirakou told Khaleej Times.
"We are aiming to get artists into every London school as the project gets up and running. In two or three years' time, we will be able to roll out the scheme nationally. The campaign becoming a national scheme to benefit children in every school in the country is my ultimate ambition for Artists in Residence."
The campaign has already received artists who are supporting the cause early on, some of which also includes historian Sir Simon Schama, author Melvyn Bragg, actress Meredith Ostrom and Turner prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger.
She said these artists can inspire students with their stories and can also offer them helpful tips and guidance in the art industry.
"Musician and producer Naughty Boy was at the launch of Artists in Residence. He spoke very movingly about how he grew up in a not well-off part of Watford and having the chance to work on music quietly and in peace at his school was a real refuge and inspiration for him," Zafirakou said.
"He totally gets what the power of a scheme like this is and how it can be liberating for so many young people, and what he said had a very noticeable effect on my students. They could really relate to his message. He also talked about this on the TV news that was covering the launch event, so that message will have gone out like a ripple effect in homes all over London and beyond, reaching thousands of young people and teachers, planting the idea in their minds."
Zafirakou said that she set up this specific initiative because of the "continuing crisis of arts education in the UK".
"Here it is seen as a soft option or something - that is not a priority subject on the curriculum. So it is often the first in line for funding cuts, is sidelined and viewed as being of lesser importance than other subjects in schools," she said.
"Although, we certainly need a focus on sciences, computing, maths and so on, as we enter Industrial Revolution 4.0, where automation will make many of today's jobs obsolete for future generations. The fact is those jobs that remain will need the skills that the arts best deliver.
overnments and other authorities, many employers, have not yet grasped this. Tomorrow's workforce will need just as much in the way of soft skills - intuition, empathy, teamwork, imagination, the ability to think 'outside the box' and be creative, resilience, adaptability - all the things that the arts bring to growing students, and which hard sciences alone cannot deliver."
The campaign is already having an effect in Zafirakou's own school. She said she has seen a "really vivid impact" on the children she teaches because of Artists in Residence.

Know the artists in residence drive