ENCOUNTERING THE ARTS IRELAND LIMITED (ETAI) will use its combined strength ,resources and expertise to broaden and deepen children’s/young people’s access, creativity, participation and engagement in the arts and to increase and enrich encounters at the cross roads of education and the arts.

It will engage in strategic planning which will foster and promote progressive and sustainable partnership practice in arts and education potentially increasing personal and civic engagement.

ETAI came about as a spontaneous response from the arts and education sectors to the interdepartmental committee’s findings in Points of Alignment (2008) and the Arts In Education Charter (2013). The Arts in Education Charter, jointly launched and supported by Minister Jimmy Deenihan and Minister Ruairí Quinn, places new responsibilities on government departments, agencies cultural institutions and arts organisations in terms of providing education to children and young people.

Facilitated by a Steering Group drawn from representatives of those involved, ETAI is currently developing a structure developed the structure, which could represent the diversity of its “membership.” This process is on-going.

Statutory Bodies, Organisations, Agencies, Networks, Communities, Institutions and any individual, who expresses interest in and a commitment to the development, promotion and practice of arts and education in Ireland within the context of an alliance. Included, among others, in the current listing are

• Individuals
• School communities
• Third level Institutions
• Association of Teachers’/Education Centres in Ireland ( ATECI)
• The Association for Creativity in Arts Education
• National Association of Principals and Deputy principals (NAPD)
• Local Authorities
• Youth organisations
• Performing arts ,film, theatre, heritage and crafts associations
• Literary organisations
• Cultural institutions- museums, art galleries

If you have an interest in arts and education you will find that participation in ETAI offers you the opportunities to

• connect and engage with both the arts and education sectors in a variety of contexts
• share experience and expertise across the disciplines
• share and develop professional practice
• re-conceptualise approaches to current arts and education practices, which aim to broaden and deepen children’s/young people’s access, creativity, participation and engagement in the arts
• deepen individual and community understanding of arts and education
• to contribute to mutually beneficial developments in arts and education