Danish Government to Unemployed Artists: Teach

COPENHAGEN—The Danish ministries of culture and education have proposed a solution to two of the countries unemployment issues, reports the Art Newspaper: With so many unemployed artists and a severe lack of educators, perhaps graduates from art schools should become teachers.

At 2.7 percent, Denmark has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union. Yet in 2006, an average of 11 percent of graduates from art schools — including those who studied music, theater, and film — were jobless. Mikkel Bogh, director of the Danish Royal Academy, commented, "We have always had an unemployment rate higher than average, and if politicians want to employ arts graduates as teachers, they should do so. But they should not ask us to train students as teachers. That is not our task."