The Wow Factor
Her 2006 UNESCO study compared arts education in more than 60 countries and became a reference for national policy, from the Netherlands and Denmark to Korea and South Africa.
Professor Dr Anne Bamford OBE
Arts educator, researcher and educational futurist
Director of the International Research Agency and President of the Education Inspiring Peace Laboratory. Anne’s work asks how arts and culture help people learn, and how schools and governments can make that learning real.
Highlights
The How Factor
Twenty years on, the 2026 book turns from why the arts matter to how culture and arts education can work across 220 countries and territories.
OBE, 2018
Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, for services to education.
Fusion skills
She coined “fusion skills” for the mix of creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking that learning and work now demand.
Recent Focus Areas
International Research Agency
An independent base for comparative research on arts education, skills and talent. From here she advises governments and cultural bodies on what quality looks like in practice.
Education Inspiring Peace Laboratory
A European laboratory linking education, citizenship and peace. In 2025 it convened a Brussels policy lab on how young people learn to take part in democratic life.
University teaching and public lectures
Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney, and in 2026 a visiting professor at the University of Iceland’s School of Education, lecturing on the state of the arts and creative futures.