Government promises works of art for schools

A GROUP of artists has sent a letter to the Ombudswoman claiming there are not enough works of art in public schools and that the Ministry of Education has failed to uphold the law that states at least one per cent of the amount of money spent on a public building must be invested in works of art.

According to the artists, the lack of artwork in schools results in a shortage of creativity and deprives the public of the chance to have contact with modern creativity.

After an investigation into the matter, Ombudswoman Eliana Nicolaou released a report stating that the Special Committee was responsible for choosing what artwork would be placed in each public building built since 1992.

The Ombudswoman said her response from the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education was that the Special Committee was not functioning to its best ability.

He said the reason for this was that the previous government had decided that schools should not be considered as public buildings, resulting in the Ministry not granting the schools allowances for art.

The Ombudswoman’s report states that the Cabinet will discuss the function of the Special Committee and that new members will be appointed.

Artist Nicos Kourousis yesterday told the Cyprus Mail that the Education Ministry had explained the problem to them and admitted that schools were public buildings and promising they would now be given artwork to display on their grounds.

“We as artists could not understand why schools did not have a certain amount of paintings or sculptures, considering they are public buildings. We sent a letter to the Ombudswoman to investigate and we have been reassured by the Ministry of Education that the problem will be solved and more artwork will be on display at schools,” Kourousis said.

“The previous government had ignored the law passed in 1992 that includes schools in public buildings, but the new government promises to re-instate the law,” said Kourousis.