BERMUDA's art institutions have come together in a major initiative to develop education in the visual arts.

In an historic , the Bermuda National Gallery (BNG) and Masterworks Foundation are joining forces in support of the Bermuda Visual Arts Education Initiative (BVAEI), a collaboration intended to strengthen and enrich art education and appreciation for the whole population of Bermuda.

With the support of the Bermuda Society of Arts and the Ministry of Education, the initiative will maximise existing resources in the visual arts in Bermuda, encourage and foster participation and skills development, and provide schools and community outreach programmes with opportunities for creative expression.

A nine-person task force has been formed to oversee the first stage of the initiative, and the chair of the task force is Mary Winchell, a career educator and former education officer at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo.

"The initiative grew out of some conversations that took place about a year ago," explained Mrs. Winchell. "Members of the Donors' Forum, a group representing Bermuda's corporate philanthropic organisations, including Ace, XL, and the Bank of Bermuda, noted that they saw requests for support from the BNG and Masterworks for projects that had some similar characteristics, and they felt that it was an opportune time for the organisations to develop a project together."

While both organisations believe that the visual arts fill vital and important societal needs, they take different if sometimes complementary approaches to fostering appreciation of art in Bermuda. The BNG sees its role as bringing art to Bermuda from all parts of the world, whereas Masterworks' mission is to place art in the context of the Bermuda environment. Its works of art were all created in Bermuda and provide artistic interpretation's of Bermuda's culture and natural and built environment.

Mary Winchell continued: "At the first meeting, which included members of both boards, there was a general consensus that education was a good way for both institutions to collaborate. While the two organisations do have different visions, there are some aspects of their programmes that overlap. The details haven't been worked out yet.

After a number of meetings over the last year, it was decided that the first tangible step would be a needs assessment survey. Donors' Forum members are sponsoring a detailed survey by Bercon Ltd., a Bermuda-based educational consulting company, which will ask 26 questions of respondents ().

In an explanatory panel on the front of the survey form, the organisers introduce the BVAEI and note that "the future development of our island's art programmes will be affected by your responses to this survey".

Prospective respondents are assured that "to participate, you do not need to have any 'technical expertise' in the Visual Arts. Our objective is to identify what visual arts programmes are offered on the island and obtain the opinion of the regarding Visual Arts and Visual Arts Education in Bermuda."

"After we get the results of the survey, we will sit down and plan the next move," explained Mrs. Winchell. "The purpose of this national arts education collaborative is the enhancement of art education and appreciation in all schools and the wider community in Bermuda.

"There is a need for quantitative answers to questions. There is a need to examine what programmes already exist, the requirements of the various schools arts curricula and teacher needs, and we should be able to see where the gaps are in general educational programming.

"We don't want the focus to be entirely on schools. It's a community education programme we are looking to develop. We will analyse the results and make appropriate proposals. We may need to bring more educational staff on board, at least one extra person who will help carry the initiative through to completion. How we will do that, we haven't yet decided. There is a very positive atmosphere at the task force meetings. Everyone works very well together."

The task force believes that "it is an opportune moment to be looking at collaboration on education programming as the Ministry of Education is reaching out to the community through its BEST (Bermuda Education Strategic Team) initiative for public participation in helping to improve and promote public education.

There is also an opportunity presented by the advent of teacher licensing to help with teacher education in the visual arts."

In addition to chair Mary Winchell, the task force members are Lady Swan, representing Masterworks, Ruth Thomas and Patricia Pettit of BNG, Judy Wong, education officer of BNG, Karen Dyer, programme co-ordinator of Masterworks, Peter Lapsley of the Bermuda Society of Arts, and two representatives of the Ministry of Education: Wendell (Shine) Hayward, acting education officer for the Visual Arts, and Maxine Esdaille, senior education officer, curriculum and development.

Having written a description of the project, organised the needs assessment survey, and written a proposal to three Donors' Forum members for the funding of the survey, the task force members will interpret the findings of the survey, prepare a proposal for funding of any target project, set strategic priorities ? core values, goals and objectives, and identify the skills and expertise needed and write a job description for the co-ordinator of the initiative.

Patricia Pettit, a trustee of the BNG, described her involvement with the task force.

"The concept grew out of suggestions from the Donors' Forum, the corporate philanthropy group, that we find a project where the art institutions all speak with one voice, and put funds where they are most needed, at least for one goal shared by the institutions.

"Their idea was that Masterworks and the BNG work on a project together so that there was no risk of duplication, and where the three principal players, the Ace, XL, and Bank of Bermuda foundations, shared the vision. They have been very encouraging and enthusiastic about what we are doing, which is such a positive endorsement.

"After some discussion, we decided to undertake an education initiative together, and really find out where the need is for visual arts education in this island. Out of a very large group, this small task force was formed. We zeroed in on education very early on."

The task force looked at what BNG and Masterworks were doing in education, but realised that it was important to look at the curricula in the public and private schools, and to find out what was happening in visual arts throughout the community.

Ms. Pettit concluded: "When you think of the extraordinary talent of Bermudians in the visual arts, it is crying out to be developed, to expand the audience base. That's where the idea of the needs assessment survey came from.

"Let's discover what exists on the island, and where we can make it better. We have very open minds about what the survey will tell us. Individuals may have a feeling about what needs to be done, but we have no preconceived notions about what our next step will be after the survey is completed."

Judy Wong, with BNG for less than a year after teaching art and technology at Saltus, was very optimistic about the prospective results of the survey and the project.

"I think that it is a very positive thing. The point is to find out the needs of the community, what is lacking and what we need to improve on. The effort was under way before I came in, but it is a very important survey we're doing. It is so important for us to find out first what people know. There's no point in having an excellent educational programme if no one knows it exists."

Ms Wong saw the prospect of further collaboration among the art institutions, a view echoed by Karen Dyer of Masterworks.

"The feedback from the needs assessment survey will tell us what's available in the community for visual arts, and where the needs are. Do we need more programmes for children, or more for adults, or both? What is the general level of interest in the visual arts across the broad population? We want to know if the interest is cross-cultural, or if not, what is the mix? We need the answers to a lot of questions.

"Depending on the outcome, we may decide if we need to hire a co-ordinator for the arts in Bermuda. A co-ordinator would work with the established institutions and Government to make sure that we are working sensibly together where we can, complementing each other rather than competing, and not replicating programmes.

"That's something the Donors' Forum would like to see. Let's work together and make the visual arts in Bermuda available to everybody. We have a broadly diverse membership, but there's a perception out there that both organisations are elitist, when the reality is that we are certainly not."