Background

Arts education which aims of passing down cultural and artistic heritage to young people, giving them the means to create their own artistic language (in one of the various art disciplines) and contributing to their personality development both on an emotional and a cognitive level, has a positive influence on a child’s overall development, both academic and personal. Such education, when it makes use of a child’s creative potential, strengthens the acquisition of knowledge and life skills: creativity, imagination, oral expression, manual ability, concentration, memory, personal interest in others, etc.

UNESCO Member States adopted at the 32nd session of the General Conference in 2003 the proposal by the Portuguese authorities to organize a World Conference on arts education as a direct result of the recommendations of the World Congress on the Status of the Artist (Paris, 1997) and the Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for Development (Stockholm, 1998), recognizing among others that the cross-disciplinary role of arts teaching is a fundamental element in education, as well as in the strengthening of arts and promotion of cultural diversity.

Arts Education, which in this paper refers to the teaching of arts practices (visual arts, performing, dance, music, theatre, creative writing and poetry), is of crucial importance to the development of the child and requires awareness, creative thinking, and qualified teachers to challenge all students, not only those with ability and talent. Research studies have convincingly shown that arts education comprises more than the mere study of the arts and producing works of art, but that it has also been beneficial to students in stimulating their intellectual and personal interests, as well as their social development. It is for this reason that arts education could be particularly useful to students who are having difficulties in learning and concentrating and therefore are caught up in a cycle of failure, experiencing a lack of morale, as well as repeating classes and dropping out. Through the arts experience these students may find that learning is possible, which could turn their academic performance around as well as help them to overcome their low self-esteem and to find social and cultural inclusion.

Art activities and creative teaching methods play a role in reinforcing self-awareness, self-confidence and interest in others. Art teaching methods further demand personal and physical involvement through play and creativity, which makes the aesthetic experience a positive one for learners. Encouraging artistic activities at school fulfils several other important aims. The first is to promote access to the arts to the largest number of children. It is equally important to build cultural diversity and sustainable development on the basis of how art and culture are expressed locally and nationally. Moreover, by giving its rightful place to the teaching of arts in places where knowledge is transmitted (schools, cultural institutions and centres, training centres), this teaching, by its very nature, becomes a tool to strengthen ethics, social and aesthetic values.

For over a quarter of a century research and experiments in teaching world-wide have stressed the role of arts education not only as a study subject, but also as a learning tool and method.

On the one hand, the force of art teaching is the knowledge, know-how and techniques through which each discipline produces its own language and contributes to the learner’s cultural and artistic development. On the other hand, education by means of the arts equips a child or teenager with the kind of communication skills that reinforce her or his personality. Drama techniques, for example, help children improve their interpersonal skills such as the capacity for teamwork and the ability to communicate effectively. Traditional storytelling, narration and theatre, though they have a strong element of play, are also ways of learning how to construct a narrative, of diction and oratory.

This Conference is prepared in recognition of the sheer volume of documentation (research, studies, stories, experiments) that argues in favour of arts education as part of the overall education of young children. The Conference will aim to give an account of the main results of the work that research teams have been doing for over 25 years in different geo-cultural contexts.

In this way, the Conference intends to strongly affirm the role of play activities in the teaching of arts, as well as children and teenagers’ need for creativity. In order to reach a common understanding on quality arts education, it will seek to establish a theoretical and practical framework in which the pedagogical foundations of quality arts education, both in and outside of schools, can be formulated, indexed and recapped. In this respect, utmost attention should be given to the initial and in-job training of teachers in different art disciplines, to ensure that pedagogical practices taught to teachers take into account the creative aspects of the arts.

Secondly, the Conference will stress the role of cultural and administrative authorities, both national and local (Culture ministries, cultural institutions, municipalities), in implementing arts education programmes for children and teenagers, especially those from disadvantaged social backgrounds. The purpose of this particular focus is to give excluded children and adolescents the opportunity to find a way to improve academically through the arts experience, in spite of their under-performance at school. This effort should be undertaken within the framework of the Education for All movement.

Finally, it is expected that the recommendations from this Conference, be they in the form of plans of action or world charters, could serve as frames of reference for Member States as well as for teachers, researchers and anyone else involved in arts education, such as artists, producers, mediators, and technicians, for their future endeavours in teaching.

Since 2000 UNESCO has been in charge of a programme covering artistic education and creativity. This programme was developed following the World Forum on Education for all, and the report Education: the treasure within, prepared in 1996 by the International Commission on Education for the 21st Century under the direction of Jacques Delors and under the aegis of UNESCO. This report, which emphasises the urgent need for reform and reinforcement in school systems - especially primary education in developing countries, stresses the importance of education through art and creativity.

The main partners of UNESCO in the implementation of the first phase of this initiative (2000-2003) related to arts education are the following International NGOs: the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA), the International Society for Music Education (ISME), the International Music Council (IMC), the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA), Education International (EI).

Regional conferences on arts education were organised in the framework of this programme so that experts from various regions could exchange information, with the view to developing a new pedagogical approach to the teaching of artistic practices. These regional meetings led to the drawing up of a regional report on artistic education in school and extracurricular activities. Conferences have already been held in Africa (South Africa), Latin America and the Caribbean (Brazil), the Arab states (Jordan), Asia (China), the Pacific (Fiji), Europe and North America (Finland). The preliminary research and conclusions drawn from these conferences are available on the website of LEA International (Links to Education and Art), at the following URL: .

LEA International intends to create an international network of researchers and regional and national institutions involved in cultural and artistic education. Moreover, this site strives in due course to serve as a portal bringing together research, studies and experiments in the field of artistic and cultural education. UNESCO’s goal is to compile a register and to present the largest number possible of initiatives and research projects on arts education.

The site already contains a certain number of case studies, research papers and pilot projects on the teaching of dance, music, theatre, poetry and visual arts, as well as information on primary school teachers in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It also includes general bibliographies and links to the sites of the Education Ministries of UNESCO Member States.

Finally, a new collection of work documents on cultural and artistic education has been put together and five brochures have already been published. Other titles currently under preparation will be released between now and 2005. The second phase of activities also required UNESCO to call for the organisation of a World Conference on Art Education in view of the implementation of the Framework Agreement with the Portuguese authorities.

Preliminary regional conferences have been organised in 2005, bringing together national experts.

Common items discussed in the regional meetings:

Gap between planned policies and delivery in the fields of the arts education in the school environment.

Definition of what should be considered as quality artistic education in and out of the school curriculum.

Production of a set of guidelines that would help implementation of Quality Arts Education in and out of the school environment.

Definition of a strategy for teachers’ training related to arts practices

Building links between the educational sphere and local cultural institutions.

These meetings resulted in recommendations and publications to be presented at the World Conference of which the draft agenda is shown below.

Lisbon 2006 World Conference main topics for discussion

The Conference will set out to achieve feasible results by addressing the following four main themes, namely: Advocacy for arts education stressing the importance of cultural diversity in arts education and sustainable development, the Impact of Arts Education, Strategies for Promoting Arts Education Policies, and Teachers’ Training.

Through Advocacy, the Conference shall stress the value of cultural and artistic creativity in the post-industrial economy. Advocacy should further focus on themes related to the global context in which we are living and its need for the arts.

Through the Impact of Arts Education, the Conference should present research on those aspects of artistic education such as, best practices, case studies, and assessments in the field of arts education, which have a special impact on social cohesion and respect for cultural diversity, non-violence, cultural heritage appreciation, improve learning achievement, conflict resolution, team work, creative thinking and artistic creativity.

Through Strategies for Promoting Arts Education Policies, the Conference shall build on the need to narrow the gap between planned policies and delivery in Arts Education. The major goal being, to define the role of arts education as an instrument to prepare the child to take his/her place in a globalized environment without loosing his/her identity, and to link arts education efforts to UNESCO’s Education for all.

Through Teachers’ Training Policies in the domain of arts education, the Conference should reinforce a need for basic art teaching qualifications to teach arts subjects. It should further define and consider the role of community practitioners and artists in the educational process.

This Conference will place special emphasis on regional and international cooperation in order to create a world synergy on the importance of the arts and culture in children’s general education.