In this interview, Floris Solleveld talks about the network artesnet Europe and the position and role of art education in the contemporary society.

The network artesnet Europe is led by the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts, Bulgaria, in collaboration with the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA) and four major Higher Arts Education Institutions: Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tallinn; Institute of Art & Design University of Central England Birmingham; the Utrecht School of the Arts, Netherlands; and the Dublin Institute of Technology, with the active commitment of 68 partner institutions.

What is the main idea of the project/network artesnet Europe?

It may sound pretentious, but our concern is the future of Higher Arts Education in Europe. We bring together a group of people from art schools around Europe, as well as from other institutions and organisations, to share ideas and keep track of new developments. The thematic networks go back to 1996, when the Bologna Process was yet to start, and there was a great need for sharing knowledge to shape the curriculum reforms. artesnet is the fourth network now. Through these years, a lot has changed: artists have become entrepreneurs, schools offer MAs and PhDs, student mobility has exploded, and the EU has doubled in size. So we have had to develop new tools for analysis and evaluation, new insights on the role of art schools and the demands on students and teaching. A lot of this expertise has gone into the handbook Tapping into the potential of Higher Arts Education in Europe, which was produced by the previous network, Inter}artes.


How do you see the role of higher arts education and its future development in European societies? Also, what is your vision of the future for students and teachers?

What we are seeing now is that art schools are opening up in various directions. There are new groups in society that were not represented in traditional arts education but are now claiming their place in the cultural scene. Art schools are taking a more active role in their environment. They are entering into new partnerships, not just with cultural institutions but also with commercial partners, to prepare their students for the professional field. We live in a knowledge society and artists have to take a role in that. So we are seeing an increase in lectorates at art schools, and an even greater increase in research-oriented (graduate) programmes and approaches.


artesnet Europe sees itself as a Europe-wide 'community of practice’. Can you explain us this phrase, its meaning in the context of your work?

The great value of artesnet is in bringing together people from all around Europe, from all disciplines, teachers, researchers, and experts from the cultural sector. With a few exceptions they are artists themselves, and many have been working together for years now. So we are not imposing or observing something, but rather exchanging. This is a unique pool of knowledge that teachers, researchers and decision makers can profit from. Our group of experts on quality assurance and enhancement calls itself a group of ‘critical friends’, and this could go for artesnet at large.


What kind of new approaches in learning, teaching and researching in the arts you aim to develop by this project?

Well, it’s not that we as artesnet develop new approaches – schools, teachers and researchers do that. What artesnet does is rather to bring people together at workshops and conferences, and in groups of experts. For instance, we have just held the Teachers’ Academy in Sofia where art teachers learned from each other through presentations and workshops (here you can find the conference blogging). To reach the wider public, we are working toward a final publication.


artesnet Europe has organised its work in three strands. Please can you present us all of them?

Strand 1, Creative Partnerships, maps existing and builds new creative partnerships between arts institutions and the creative industry/cultural sector. It does so by forming knowledge circles of people involved in partnership projects in three sectors: social/intercultural, industrial, educational.

Strand 2, Qualifications Frameworks, develops new approaches and guidelines for quality assurance. It has been very active in Turkey giving workshops and doing peer visits.

Strand 3, New Strategies, New Programmes, has a double focus on artistic research and educational experiment. It will develop databases for both, and organise a summer school for artistic researchers.


What were the reactions of teachers and all other stakeholders who are involved in this project?

For teachers, working with artesnet is a mutual learning experience.


What effects do you expect this to provoke?

We expect schools to develop more projects in partnership in the coming years, and the work of strand one can bring some of them about and help them to set them up and assess them. With the ongoing internationalisation, schools will increasingly require quality assurance to meet international standards, and the work of Strand 2 can help them to do it themselves. We have already given an impulse to the modernisation of arts education in Turkey, and continue to do so for Eastern Europe at large. But we don’t want to promote European standardisation. Rather, through artesnet schools and teachers can discover different models and ways of working. And through defining standards we want to enhance transparency and comparability in order do profit from our process of sharing best practice. That way it becomes a real mutual learning experience.

As for artistic research, nobody knows where it is going. Providing an overview can help towards creating a research culture and infrastructure at art academies.


What are the main challenges for education in contemporary arts?

Determining its position in contemporary society.