BELGIUM 2015

Arts for all?

The role of arts schools in current society

Arts4all meeting: 8th November –10th November 2015, Diest, Belgium &
Pre-Opening: 7th â€“ 8th November 2015, Mons, European Capital of Culture, Belgium

The last EU youth report has come to many positive results. The rate of youngsters between 15 and 29 years who reached higher education degrees, for example increased from 33.8% to 37.9%. Also are 82% taking part in social networks, 50% are members of organisations, 25% are engaged in voluntary work. On the other hand there are 13.7 Mio. youngsters in Europe who are neither in education nor in work. The risk of being unemployed for youngsters with migration backgrounds, health problems and lower education is 50% higher than it is for others in the same ages. The report states that those youngsters are also participating less in politics, culture and voluntary activities. It describes an increasing gap, which is connected with the European crises. There are well-educated youngsters, taking part in society on the one hand and on the other, there are young people with less chance to participate and to live the life they want to. Those young people are threated to be discriminated and marginalized.
Arts education strengthens the subject and helps children to find their own talents. Arts schools and centers of creativity as part of the infrastructure of arts education in Europe ensure cultural education for young people beside the formal school sectors. The societal changes stated above influence questions of participation, accessibility, educational goals, content, diversity politics, learning methods, cooperation partners and digital strategies of arts schools. Remembering the UNESCO development goals on arts education, we will ask, if our institutions are fit for contemporary challenges. What frame conditions do we need to support the right to learn arts for and with everybody on high levels of quality? What are good concepts and examples that might be able to be models for other art schools in Europe?
The voluntary pre-opening meeting in Mons, capital of culture 2015 will be connected with the youth exchange “I is another”, that had been developed within the Arts4all network. Youngsters from Mons, Brugge, Riga, Aachen and Munster will present their results after one week of art workshops. There will also be time to explore the Capital of Culture together.

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SLOVENIA 2012

COMING CLOSER!

HIGH QUALITY IN ARTS EDUCATION
Participation, strategies, discussion & ART KAMP!

Arts4all Meeting: 4th-7th July 2012

Arts Education has gained recognizable attention during the last 10 years. It no longer is a concept discussed only by a small number of experts (See UNESCO Development Goals on Arts Education, 2010). Festival agendas of the European City of Culture also content arts education programmes. On the one hand that is a great benefit and chance to find broader recognition for our work and concepts within main stream societies. On the other hand in some countries new “experts” and providers of arts education services arise from different backgrounds and with different qualities. Since the first arts4all meeting in 2005, we continually reckon that arts schools work quite different within European countries. That concerns financial, pedagogical and structural matters as well as political strategies. However, all art schools and art school associations claim high quality. How can we ensure quality in arts education and communicate that we are providers of high quality arts education? How can our concepts and projects provide access to quality arts education for all young people in Europe? How can popularity of arts education help to sustainable finance extracurricular arts education? How do we deal with our differences?

Arts4all meeting goal in 2012 is to come closer, to learn more about art school practice and politics within Europe and in a second step to discuss our common strategic interests. The three day meeting is not only linked to “TURNING POINT” – The Programme of the European Capital of Culture at Maribor and to the FESTIVAL LENT, but deeply integrated in the “ART KAMP” - the festival part of arts education programme run by our hosts of Centre of Arts Education (Kulturno izobraževalno središče - KIS) at Narodni dom Maribor.

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Programme Arts4all Meeting 2012: 4th-7th July 2012, Maribor, Slovenia

Perspectives of Riga 2014
by Alina Plorina, Mara Muizniece Riga School of Art

Coming closer: art schools in Europe and best practice examples: Flanders
by Joost Goethals, Stedelijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten Brugge

Discussing UNESCO Development Goals: Political approaches on quality,
access and culture as social tool
by Christian Cession, Fédération Pluraliste des Centres d'Expression et de
Créativité

Arts Education – a topic in European networks ?! What is going on in the fields of youth-, education- and culture-policy?
by Rolf Witte, International Relations Officer of BKJ, the German Federation for Arts Education and Cultural Learning, and Vice-President of Culture Action Europe, the European Political Platform for Arts and Culture

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ESTONIA 2011

THE VALUE OF ARTS EDUCATION

Why do youngsters like art schools?

Arts4all meeting: 26th-28th April 2011, Tallinn, Estonia

Two videos made by arts4all members from Belgium (M. Wieczerniak, OVSG) and The Netherlands (M. Hermsen/Scholen in de Kunst) present strong arguments for cultural activities in art schools - coming from the youngsters themselves:

• Answer from Genk, BELGIUM 
• Answer from Amersfoort, Scholen in de Kunst, NETHERLANDS

Linked to the Cultural Capital of Europe 2011 the recent Arts4all meeting took place in Tallinn. Host of the meeting was the local artschool - Sally Stuudio - with its European Youth Art Triennal Eksperimenta! wich was opened during the meeting. About 30 participants from 11 European countries met and discussed the "value of arts edcuation" by giving examples of how they tackle social, financial and political challenges of the present. One of the concrete results: Plans for a common digital art project based on the idea of the German LKD NRW-association called "face to face - faces of Europe". Art schools in Europe shall exchange by pictures or impressions of their region taken by youngsters of their art schools. All participants agreed upon the important meaning of the network to support their local, regional and national work and to develop quality and access to cultural education in Europe referring the UNESCO development goals on arts education.