Every teenager to have night at opera in new culture drive

Every teenager is to get a night at the opera under government plans to offer schoolchildren five hours of culture a week.

Ministers today launched the £25 million drive to "unlock the creative talent of all young people", but especially those from lowincome families, to theatre, dance and drama.

Speaking at London's Young Vic theatre, Schools Secretary Ed Balls and Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said a new quango, the Youth Culture Trust, would be set up to administer the cultural diet.

A series of pilots will buildtoward all schoolchildren getting to do at least five hours a week of culturalandartisticpursuits, including school visits by operaandballetcompanies.

Teenagers will also be taken to art galleries and given the chance to learn a musical instrument. A spokesman for theDepartment for Children, Schools and Families said pupils would "learn through culture using engagement with the arts and other activities to boost attainment, other skills and personal development".

Keith Tyson, the Turner Prize-winning artist, cautiously welcomed the proposals: "My feeling is that the Government has not, until now, done a lot about culture but these plans sound positive."

But shadow arts minister Ed Vaizey said: "This reads more like a Stalinist five-year plan than a vision for creative industries."