MONOGRAP H TING CITIES OF EDUCA 2020 TION NAL ASSOCIA INTERNATIO ble without its ever be sustaina d operational. city will n explicit an “A nto de being nsformed i cultural si y needs to be tra tecting ure urgentl licies, pro ban po diversity Cult of ur ring a key dimension vity, foste o all.” supporting creati le t is accessib heritage, that knowledge ring a Vaz Pinto, and ensu Catarin l City Counci ulture at Lisbon C Councillor for CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 7 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION · 2020 Monograph collection City, Living Together City, Social Inclusion and Education and Education Nº6 Nº5 City, Environment and City, Youth and Education Education Nº4 Nº3 City, Sport and City, Urban Planning Education and Education Nº2 Nº1 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION Index CULTURE AND EDUCATION CITY, MONOGRAPH 4 Prologue Joan Subirats 6 Editorial Committee on Culture of United Cities and Local Governments and International Association of Educating Cities 8 Letter to councillors about City, Culture and Education Carlos Giménez Romero 16 Arts and Culture in Education. Searching for a New Land of Cooperation Michael Wimmer 24 Cultural Institutions as Platforms for Lifelong Learning, Creativity and Intercultural Dialogue Jenny Siung 32 Linking Education and Culture to build Sustainable Cities Jordi Baltà Portolés Catarina Leonardo Michel Ernst Vaz Pinto Garzón Vallée Wagner 38 46 54 62 71 Gunsan: A City of Modern Cultural Heritage and Lifelong Learning Yang Keonseung and Yungjae Jang, Gunsan City Council 75 Helsinki City Library, a Cornucopia of Urban Culture and Learning Tuula Haavisto, Helsinki City Council 80 EN RESiDÈNCiA. Creators at Barcelona’s secondary schools. “We have found a space here for thinking” Carles Giner i Camprubí, Barcelona Institute of Culture 85 Music as a driver and an enabler of Sustainable Development Dagmara Szastak, the City of Gardens of Katowice 89 Arena da Cultura Free School of Arts. Accessibility, citizen engagement and training Barbara Bof, Belo Horizonte City Council Experiences Interviews Articles Prologue © Thomas Vilhelm ATION CITY, CULTURE AND EDUC MONOGRAPH This monograph sets out to show that cities in Cities and the UCLG Committee on Culture, we’re convinced themselves are educating agents and that this that these inequalities could be better addressed if educational and culturally diverse environment affects the educational and cultural institutions shared strategies and personal and collective development of citizens. Access to languages, that they were given a global approach and, at and active engagement in cultural life is also part of each the same time, if community practices were encouraged. person’s learning process and boasts a privileged scenario This monograph includes several in-depth articles, in cities and local territories. interviews and a selection of diverse experiences that In our cities, there are many agents active in the area of highlight the value of cultural and educational action. education and culture that develop significant experiences The aim is to introduce a paradigm shift and greater in their respective fields. They share values and goals, collaboration between educational and cultural agents but they are often two segmented worlds, with few so that educational institutions become hubs of cultural intersections and connections in practice. However, the creation, engagement and production, that is to say, perspectives and experiences included in this monograph that they are integrated into the city’s cultural system show that there are numerous reflections and projects alongside cultural centres and programmes (of museums, carried out in collaboration or which simultaneously art galleries, community centres, creative spaces, theatres, influence both spaces. cinemas, auditoriums, festivals, etc.). This paradigm shift The problems facing cities today are complex and also involves cultural centres promoting their role as often stem from inequalities between people, groups or educational spaces and being recognised as such, whereby neighbourhoods. Some of these inequalities are defined in they develop a lifelong educational function not just aimed terms of training opportunities, but they are also related at children and young people, but also at the general to cultural and artistic practice and the enjoyment of the public, regardless of age. Beyond fostering specific actions, city’s cultural life. In this context, family and territorial our proposal here is to launch sustainable collaboration environments are decisive in terms of these opportunities, processes, based on reciprocal contributions between so the role of local governments is crucial to guarantee cultural and educational institutions. This collaboration equal and lifelong opportunities in access to education will make it easier to face the challenge of reaching out to and culture. Meanwhile, when talking about culture, we’re groups that have traditionally been excluded from these not referring solely to accessing it as passive spectators, opportunities. but also to the possibility of everyone developing their I hope that you find this monograph interesting and that potential and contributing to the city’s cultural life. Feeling it triggers an internal reflection in your cities about praxis involved in the city’s cultural development also fosters and working methodologies, while also generating new social cohesion and harmonious living. ideas for fostering partnerships between the educational There’s no single intervention model when designing and cultural agents of your cities. or implementing these programmes, due to the varied characteristics and needs of the environment or the Joan Subirats communities with which we work. However, here at the Deputy Mayor for the Area of Culture, Education, Science and Presidency of the International Association of Educating Community, Barcelona City Council © Thomas Vilhelm Editorial Education and culture are two areas of public interest human rights perspective, the dignity of people requires that share many goals and values, but whose guaranteeing the ability to exercise the right to education implementation tends to be channelled through different and the right to participate in cultural life, while exploring institutions and mechanisms. Existing connections have their interdependence. This entails working in both formal been revealed in international documents such as the and non-formal education settings, as well as in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, environments of the arts and culture, and integrating the which in its Target 4.7 underlines the aim to promote understanding of the importance of creativity, diversity, education that values cultural diversity and acknowledges memory and heritage as key elements of learning and culture’s contribution to sustainable development. building oneself as a person. The importance of addressing this relationship in the As a result, this monograph on the relationship between local context is also reflected in the Road Map for Arts “city, culture and education” stems from the conviction Education adopted by UNESCO in 2006, which highlights of the IAEC and UCLG that life in cities will be better if the need to adapt education to the characteristics of the policies and programmes regarding culture and education environment and to foster educational strategies that are brought together. In fact, there are already numerous enhance local initiatives and work together with cultural initiatives that demonstrate this and we can find a lot of organisations. knowledge accumulated from reflection, research and From their respective fields of influence, the International practice that provides guidance to continue fostering Association of Educating Cities (IAEC) and the Committee this integration. Therefore, and with the same structure on Culture of the world organisation of United Cities as the previous issues in the collection, this monograph and Local Governments (UCLG) also promote an includes in-depth articles, interviews and experiences, integrated vision of education and culture. It should be combining academic, institutional, cultural and educational remembered that the Charter of Educating Cities (1990, contributions from different countries and regions. updated in 2004) sets forth that the educating city will The articles at the beginning set out to pinpoint some of promote education within diversity, combat any form of the key issues of the relationship between “city, culture discrimination and play host to innovative and popular and education”, exploring its various aspects and its most culture initiatives, regardless of their origin, while sensitive facets. The professor from the Autonomous also contributing to correcting inequalities in cultural University of Madrid, Carlos Giménez Romero, does so promotion. Meanwhile, the need to generate examples of through a “letter to councillors”, which seeks to encourage coordination between cultural and educational policies, dialogue and focuses its attention on issues such as the thereby fostering creativity and sensitivity, is present in centrality of the community-based and participatory Agenda 21 for Culture (2004), UCLG’s guiding document process, the promotion of harmonious living, mediation on cultural matters, and also in Culture 21 Actions (2015), and culture of peace in environments marked by diversity, a guide complementary to the Agenda 21, which dedicates and the links between local action and international a specific chapter to the relationship between culture and agendas. Next, Michael Wimmer, Chairman of the EDUCULT education, recalling the role of lifelong education, learning Centre in Austria, analyses different approaches to the and training for the exercise of cultural rights. inclusion of arts and culture in educational strategies Exploring the relationship between culture and education and reviews several international initiatives and local and in cities involves, among other things: encouraging national projects in this area. He then addresses present- more flexible and regulated spaces for dialogue and day challenges, such as the rise of populism and climate work that favour partnerships; diversifying cultural transition, underlining the importance of public action education programmes to serve different age groups, in this context. The educational role of institutions such environments, aesthetics and languages; guaranteeing as museums, galleries or libraries is the core argument cultural agents’ understanding of their educational role of the article by Jenny Siung, Head of Education at the and their actual capacity to deploy it, offering training and Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, who draws on numerous support resources when necessary; addressing obstacles studies and projects to highlight the existing potential to access both education and culture, including those in terms of lifelong learning, the promotion of creativity affecting disadvantaged sectors and minority groups; and intercultural dialogue, while also pointing out the and developing policies and strategies that combine current challenges and providing recommendations for languages, goals and participation mechanisms. From a improvement. This section closes with a contribution from UCATION CITY, CULTURE AND ED MONOGRAPH Jordi Baltà Portolés, expert from the UCLG Committee conservation as an element of continuity and social on Culture, who analyses the difficulties for a better cohesion, within the framework of urban transformation integration of education and culture in cities. He presents a processes and of new economic models. One of the most brief categorisation of models and suggests some cross- innovative initiatives of recent times is the new Oodi Central cutting elements to encourage quality, such as the diversity Library in Helsinki, which revives the traditional integration of content and expressions, the plurality of agents or the of education and culture in libraries, reinforcing links with attention to accessibility and inclusion. the promotion of active citizenship, social cohesion and In the interview section, Catarina Vaz Pinto, Councillor digital literacy, while acting as a hub for a much wider for Culture at Lisbon City Council and Co-Chair of the library network. Another renowned and exemplary project UCLG Committee on Culture, underlines the importance is “EN RESIDÈNCIA”, a Barcelona-based initiative that of bolstering the attention given to culture in order to takes professional artists to secondary schools to mentor help build sustainable cities, and reveals the progressive long-lasting creative processes that foster learning, development in Lisbon of an “ecosystem” of formal and experimentation, collaboration between young people and informal relations between educational and cultural agents. between schools and cultural organisations, and public The experience in this area in Bogotá is reflected in the dissemination of a diverse range of styles and aesthetics. interview with Leonardo Garzón Ortiz, former Coordinator Meanwhile, the city of Katowice has been using music as of the Crea programme of the District Institute of the Arts an identity and development factor for several years now, (Idartes), a far-reaching initiative aimed at girls and boys, ultimately joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network young people and adults that provides opportunities for in 2015. The current policies in this area also incorporate developing sensitivity, symbolic and artistic expression an educational aspect, which is reflected in initiatives for and creative thinking, with the engagement of professional access to music education, promotion of the training and artists in educational tasks. Another exemplary case is professional development of bands and the exploration of that of the Québec city of Vaudreuil-Dorion, recognised intersections with other dimensions of local development. in 2016 with the UCLG International Award - Mexico City Last but not least, the Arena da Cultura Free School of - Culture 21 for its excellent work in education, culture Arts is a successful programme from Belo Horizonte, also and social cohesion in an environment characterised by recognised in 2014 with the UCLG International Award - a diversity of origins and ages. In an interview, the head Mexico City - Culture 21, for having developed a wide range of the Department of Culture, Michel Vallée, states the of arts education available to the entire population, based goals, methodology and results of a process that has on the principles and objectives of human rights, social gained ground over the years. Meanwhile, Ernst Wagner, inclusion, cultural diversity, lifelong education and the Executive Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair in Arts transformation of the city. and Culture in Education at the University of Erlangen- By means of this publication and the wide collection of Nuremberg (Germany), uses several international studies perspectives and experiences which it includes, the IAEC to analyse various approaches and strategies regarding the and the UCLG Committee on Culture hope to contribute to a relationship between education and culture, emphasising better understanding of the multiple intersections between the potential to influence life forms, the approach to education and culture and the specific formulas to reflect diversity and the links with the Sustainable Development them in practice. Although fostering collaboration between Goals (SDGs), among other aspects. institutional areas and professional sectors is not always The experiences included in the final section of the easy, this monograph underlines the sense of doing so and publication also respond to different approaches and provides illustrative cases that we hope will inspire many realities. The regeneration of the historic quarter of new initiatives. Gunsan (South Korea), initiative recognised in 2018 with the Educating Cities’ Award, highlights the importance of Committee on Culture of United Cities and Local Governments lifelong learning policies and the role of cultural heritage and International Association of Educating Cities 8 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 cillors about City, Letter to coun ation Culture and Educ ero ty of Madrid (UAM) énez Rom Universi Carlos Gim Anthropology. Autonomous d l and Applied d Culture of Peace an Professor of Socia uman Rights, Democracy an irector of the Institute of H D OSPAZ) Nonviolence (DEM Friendship Park, Montevideo 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 9 ARTICLE This text uses the format of an open and public letter to address the municipal and local challenges related to the ever-growing processes of sociocultural diversification and their connection with educational actions. Questions are posed and reflection is then made in five steps: conceptual, political and ethical approach; expansion of the city/culture/education triangle; exploration of the connections between them; answers to the questions; and, finally, suggestions and proposals. Introduction suggest dealing with three steps in advance. When I was kindly invited to take part in this monograph, 1. Let’s begin, as step one, by giving a detailed explanation I was told that “it would be particularly relevant if I could of what perspective and which approach we are taking contribute elements of reflection on the role of local when it comes to the urban, cultural and educational governments as agents of liaison, inclusion and education realities that we’re addressing in the monograph. I in the promotion of all their inhabitants”. As I didn’t want propose doing so from three interlinked categories: to write a theoretical article full of references, I decided to Harmonious Living, Citizenship and Interculturality. formulate this text as a letter to local governments, and We will all agree that Harmonious Living is the core more specifically to councillors, both to public officers and point of our theme, and from many points of view. That’s representatives and to professionals, civil servants and why I would like to underline the absolute necessity payrolled employees who work in town and city councils. that municipal leaders, officials and employees have a This format away from the “classic” article has helped notion of harmonious living that is as discerning as it me give it a more approachable and conversational tone. is functional. For many years, and in various projects Although it has this format, it may also interest members undertaken – especially in the Intercultural Community of the local society who promote community projects. Intervention Project1 – we have focused on proposing and developing a theoretical and practical model of three Dear councillors, types of sociability: harmonious living, coexistence and You are tasked with using local competencies and hostility. resources to tackle the very diverse challenges of the If you don’t know it, I encourage you to take a look at city and local life. We are aware of the strategic place the references2. Here I can only say that this framework that local affairs hold in the creation, promotion and can guide you on two important issues: the priority of expansion of harmonious living and social cohesion. You overcoming hostilities of all kinds that inevitably exist in know your city and its idiosyncrasies well, along with the city (marginalisation; ghettos; direct, structural and the complex framework of the local administration. Of ideological violence, etc.) and, secondly, the fact that course, much better than me truly. However, I’d like to the mere idea of coexistence in your city is not enough take advantage of the invitation to participate in this new (everyone lives in their own world although there is International Association of Educating Cities monograph, hardly any aggression, in simple words), as coexistence coordinated by the Committee on Culture of United Cities is positive (at least better than hostility) but still isn’t and Local Governments (UCLG). And I’m doing this for enough. As I’ve said on other occasions, coexistence is two reasons: on the one hand, due to the relevance of short-term gain, long-term pain. Or also: if coexistence is the subject addressed in this volume and, on the other dry grassland and therefore easy to burn by political or hand, as I feel committed and motivated to share studies media pyromaniacs, harmonious living – on the contrary and experiences after years working with these local – is a fertile and well-irrigated orchard where the above is stakeholders. much more difficult. If you agree, let’s first look at the reflection below. The term, category and ideal of Citizenship is key to We’re interested in focusing on what to do and how to systematise, evaluate and improve what we are doing. Given the limited space we have, I suggest looking at three questions: How can diversity be adequately addressed in 1. Promoted since 2010 by Obra Social la Caixa, it counts on more than thirty cities and municipalities? How does education contribute cities and entities involved. 2. AAVV (2015) Juntos por la Convivencia (Residents’ Associations Working to this? What is the specific role of local governments? Together for Harmonious Living). Keys of the Intercultural Community Before answering the core issue and the questions, I Intervention Project. Obra Social La Caixa/Autonomous University of Madrid. Friendship Park, Montevideo 10 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 Buntkicktgut. Intercultural street football league, Munich democratic society as a whole, while it also acquires However, guaranteeing rights and publicly and its own features when we associate it with cities and democratically demanding responsibilities calls for, urban affairs. As this letter is brief, I’ll head directly to and this is the third cornerstone of the citizen issue, its application to urban affairs3. Citizenship refers to four legitimate and legitimated public institutions. And here, interlinked aspects that I’ll explain to you from a city and in democratic institutionality, the role of the municipal municipality slant. First of all, it refers, as you know, to corporation and public officials and civil servants is having rights and obligations. Practical outcomes, for absolutely crucial. Of course, together with the other institutional action, are to strengthen the rights approach authorities, but as we mentioned at the start, given and propose municipal policies and schemes based on the its proximity and its strategic location with respect to ethics of co-responsibility of all the city’s stakeholders. everyday life and social cohesion, the municipal institution The first can be done by grouping all municipal actions plays a decisive role – for better and/or for worse – in its under the perspective and commitment of Human Rights4, proximity, honesty, transparency and efficiency. as well as giving all its importance to proximity as social, Finally, as a fourth element, the notion, ideal and praxis civic or residential citizenship. of democratic citizenship requires participation as an Citizenship – and citizen-oriented commitment – also indispensable condition. Staying with the issue at hand, implies belonging and being members of the sociopolitical this entails the actual participation in municipal and local community where these rights are exercised and life of all the ethnocultural expressions i.e. minorities obligations are fulfilled. This leads us to emphasise (gypsies, etc.), foreigners, ethno-religious communities, identification and belonging along with all things local and subcultures of gender, age, functional diversity, etc. and shared, as well as welcoming immigrants as fellow And it also entails taking educational experiences in citizens, supporting them so that they aren’t just of a participation methodologies to local schools, and not just foreign origin but new citizens. within the school itself, but also towards its surroundings. Therefore, harmonious living calls for citizen orientation, as well as a good intercultural approach. By no means is it enough to have statements saying that diversity 3. See Buades J. and C. Giménez (dir.) (2013) Hagamos de nuestro barrio un lugar habitable (Let’s make our neighbourhood a habitable place). Manual for enriches, or organise intercultural parties, or show passive community intervention in neighbourhoods. Valencia, CEIMIGRA/IMEDES/ respect to those seen as different, etc. This is all welcome, Generalitat Valenciana but we need to take a deeper socio-political, ethical and 4. This was done in the city of Madrid during the term of office of Mayor Manuela Carmena (Strategic Plan, Municipal Office and Participatory Forum interculturalist approach, linking it municipally to local on Human Rights). and participatory democracy and to common values of 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 11 Hotel Pasteur, Rennes equal dignity and non-discrimination. An interculturalist other species, together with each culture in particular, approach that not only respects, but also values and as the human race has several thousand expressions takes advantage of local diversity to foster and enhance of thoughts, feelings and actions, all making up the municipal and collective plans, schemes and projects enormous sociocultural diversity of humankind. Lévi- for everyone. And this should emphasise the shared Strauss synthesized it in the “dual character of the human links, such as human development, quality of life, rights, species”: just one and with multiple expressions, in short, democracy, and so forth. unity and diversity. 2. Based on this conceptual, political and ethical If cities are multifunctional territories, spaces and places, framework, let’s now enter the core of this monograph and cultures are differentiated repositories of thoughts, and, as a second step, succinctly define the categories. feelings and actions, “education” is, among many other Cities/Culture/Education, a highly significant triangle things, an area and an institution of social life, as well as a in each of its terms and in its interrelations. “Cities” way, perhaps the most relevant one, for the enculturation have been inhabited for a long time and concentrate a and socialisation of people and for a respectful life with whole host of activities, spaces, processes, functions and others. And this in both formal and informal education, services, which makes them different from villages, and and in very different forms of pedagogy. this within the framework of the urban/rural coupling is as 3. So, now, as a third step prior to the main question crucial as it is vague. When we classify them as places, we of what to do and how to improve, I’d like you to think are assuming – as opposed to “non-places” (Marc Augé) – or think again, even if briefly, about the relationships that they are areas with history, identity and relationships. between these three realities, attempting to identify When it comes to “culture”, we need to differentiate some challenges and possible practices. two key meanings: the one we could call institutional In relation to city and culture, we could focus on the and the other that we could describe as anthropological. following. As by its very nature, i.e. a space that has The former refers to the Ministry of Culture, councils developed with a certain history, every city is the product and cultural entities, i.e. cultural policies and institutions, of successive migrations. And this entails socio-cultural and therefore to the ever-so-crucial area for cities and diversity and distinctions between those born in the city local life comprised by historical and cultural heritage, and those born elsewhere; between those who have lived local arts and authors, museums, etc. Meanwhile, social there all their lives and those who have recently arrived; anthropology is all about Culture and cultures, i.e. the between the immigrant generation and their children adaptive and ever-changing device, present in all societies born and raised in the city; and between “domestic” of all eras and places and which distinguishes us from and international migrants, etc. And here we see, as 12 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 mentioned above, the relevance of working on the shared between city and culture doesn’t just refer to diversity, belonging to the city. but also to unity, similarities and differences, and to However, before continuing, I suggest that you shared things. This entails history, traditions, symbols, consider that this isn’t the only factor of socio-cultural festivals, shared customs, etc. Indeed, inhabitants identify diversification in your city. There’s another factor of more or less with the city and in one way or another. diversification, as complex and varied as the previous one: They feel they belong to the city, or the district, or the I’m referring to generations, in the process of life itself neighbourhood. We’re no longer talking about culture and the dynamic development of the city, of lifestyles in the ethnic sense or the aforementioned subcultures: and subcultures of classes, of neighbourhoods, of gender, we’re looking at things that are shared, either with the of ages, etc. From here we can infer another important social whole – belonging to and esteem for the city in practical result: as councillors, I suggest that you which you were born and/or live, or to a specific part, i.e. address – if you haven’t already explained it – all forms the neighbourhood where you move around, wake up, of diversity. In other words, don’t reduce diversity to an sleep, do the shopping, exercise, take your kids to school, issue related to international immigrants, but also include etc. This a shared culture, which in a neighbourhood the contributions of national or “domestic” migrations. is expressed in a history, an atmosphere, festivals and Yet even this isn’t enough! You should also think about the rituals, and so on. action of government and local policies, internal diversity, The city/culture connection has led us to all forms of the ethnogenesis of your city’s own creativity and diversity and shared public culture. Turning now to the development, from shared history – including its legends relationship between city and education, I’ll be even and myths – to neighbourhood cultures and identities to briefer, given that the Educating Cities network has subcultures of class, gender, age or functional diversity. been addressing it admirably for decades. Therefore, So far, we’ve been looking at the city/culture connection I won’t refer to the core issue that you address in the from the slant of cultural diversity, but this has to be International Association, in the sense that each of our completed with “shared public culture”. The connection cities, in their policies and activities, can and should have Friendship Park, Montevideo 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 13 an educating function. This is crucial and magnificent, but in this letter, I’d like to bring up two complementary points about how to tackle today’s challenges. The first has to do with civic education, understanding by this at least two major aspects. On the one hand, civic virtue, i.e. civic education as something that is available, or not. In other words, as the degree and way in which people behave tolerantly with others in their city or neighbourhood, vigilant with spaces and respectful of urban rules and public institutions. This doesn’t detract from, but actually calls for, a discerning, critical and, when appropriate, activist-like attitude, as well as peaceful and non-violent protest. On the other hand, civic education as another way and type of education, complementary to other pedagogical lines that have been developed over time, such as education for peace, for development or for social justice. This second aspect is about the education of citizens or residents as subjects who are active and aware of their rights and obligations as members of this “community of communities” that their city is, should be or could be. And we will all agree that citizen education calls for certain ethical values to be shared, such as pluralism, respect, hospitality and civic courage, which again refer to the connection of each city with the rule of law and democracy. Along with civic education, I’d like to mention another key point in the connection between city and education: I’m referring here to school education. Schools can and should be spaces of harmonious living and key players The workshop, a place for productive cultural projects, Rosario (upper in harmonious living within their urban and territorial photo) setting. Of course, cities don’t always have powers in Citizens like You, Medellín (lower photo) formal education. However, and using municipal powers and always based on cooperative work with the other authorities and social entities, you know that a lot can be peoples in the world do. This “properly” can be specified done in the two lines that I suggested. in the need and goal for democratic, participatory, “Inwards”, enhancing each school as a space for peaceful and effective management. In line with what harmonious living and not merely coexistence, creating has been mentioned, this calls for two things: fostering spaces for relationships and dialogue between mothers local equality and social justice policies that tackle and fathers of different backgrounds, promoting school socio-economic polarisation, as cohesion is not about mediation and between peers or classmates, etc. And this; and appreciating the existing diversity, but without “outwards”, playing an active role in the cohesion of exaggerating the differences, creating collective projects the environment, joining in with the community and and focusing on the shared roles of residents, neighbours, participatory processes of the neighbourhood or setting, citizens, mothers and fathers, patients, and so on. creating collaboration boards between all schools, Another issue raised at the beginning was how education implementing “learning and service communities” that can add to that agenda. The above doesn’t seem possible connect students with other municipal processes, etc. without a fully determined and “groundbreaking” 4. Now that we’ve commented on the approach, defined commitment to education, which requires, as you well the terms and created connections between them, let’s know, agreement and cooperation with other levels of take a fourth step, which involves going back to the three government, as well as programmes and resources. questions that I proposed at the beginning. Both formal and informal education, of adults and We were wondering, first, how to properly address schoolchildren alike, can provide the local population with diversity in cities and municipalities. You, and your cities the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values involved in and residents, face this challenge like other cities and intercultural harmonious living. 14 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 Shared and public knowledge of the history of the city, its heritage of peace, citizen rights and the responsibilities of everyone. Inner education to explore and practise civic skills and intercultural skills of listening, dialogue, negotiation, decision-making and the informed formulation of proposals. And, above all, educational spaces for overcoming suspicions, fears and prejudices, with the display of attitudes and values of inclusion, respect, interest in others and hospitality. Finally, our third question, which refers to the specific role of local governments. I’d suggest putting a new spin on two key components of that role in local governance. On the one hand, placing harmonious living at the very top of the local agenda, not just as a part of social policy, and even less so by reducing it to “an issue for social services” (however important they may be), but as a purpose and ultimate goal of the city’s economic, social, institutional and democratic life. No more and no less. And, secondly, assuming the centrality of the community-based and participatory process, whereby local stakeholders (public officials, social entities, professionals and technicians, businesspeople and retailers, the media) are responsible for their place and for the common good and, if you allow me, the common goods prevailing in this socially and environmentally responsible territory. 5. With these “ingredients” – harmonious living at the top of the municipal agenda; citizenship and interculturalism as “cement”; adoption of all the diversity in the city, as well as the shared public culture; connections between civic virtue, citizenship education and open school – I’d like to suggest some proposals below on what to do. Hopefully they’re useful for reflection and debate, or Buntkicktgut. Intercultural street football league, Munich © Samir Sakkal to inspire lines of action, or when systematising and evaluating what you are already doing. • Shifting again from the more general to the more specific, a first suggestion for reflection and • To give meaning and significance to each municipal action would be to frame and bolster municipal action in this area, and the tasks and efforts of municipal culture and education policies within, and from, officials and professionals, we should link what’s done the framework of an open government and shared at a municipal and local level with the international administration. I can’t dwell here on minimally agenda. In addition to the work in progress at the United developing these trends of the new democratic Nations towards declaring the right to the city for all, the and operative municipalism. I’ll only say that it’s 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals necessary to socialise local public policies, which are particularly relevant in this regard. All of them are being municipal powers won’t have positive results inspiring in order to make sense of local policies and without the participation of their key players and actions. However, I would highlight SDG 11 (inclusive and recipients. And how can we do this? By incorporating safe cities, etc.), 16 (peaceful societies, access to justice society and organised and general citizenship into the and effective institutions, etc.) and 17 (need for new cycle of these policies, i.e. both their identification partnerships). You know them well: I’m just here to point and place on the municipal agenda and their design, out their usefulness to give meaning and hope, as well execution, monitoring and evaluation. If this is a as an international focus, to everything that is done on a generally valid principle, it is certainly an imperative daily basis. when working and cooperating in the urban framework • Since the work to properly connect the city, cultures and in culture and education. and educational actions is not without difficulties, 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 15 Buntkicktgut. Intercultural street football league, Munich © Samir Sakkal obstructions, tensions and conflicts, we should place I hope you have found this letter interesting. In any all the importance on mediation and the culture of case, thank you very much for taking your time to read it peace in the city’s declarations, policies, programmes, and sorry if – due to space restrictions – I haven’t further protocols and resources, promoting, among others, three explored this or that and if I haven’t referred more to specific types of action and mediating methodology: community experiences. I assure you that I’m writing to you based on mediation (with an intercultural or gender approach, experiences and the extensive literature on this subject. I when appropriate); school mediation (or between peers), will give the editors my address if you would like to send me and institutional or organisational mediation (to address comments or continue this letter. And, above all and most of tensions, whether they are within the government or all, I wish you lots of luck and success in your important task between corporations and entities). of municipal responsibility and management. 16 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 ure in Education. Arts and Cult ing for a New Land of Search Cooperation ement, Vienna, Austria Manag Michael Wimmer y and Cultural lic ULT, Institute of Cultural Po airman of EDUC Ch Worksounds: EDUCULT Project involving students from vocational schools composing their own music. 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 17 ARTICLE In a historic review it becomes evident that the arts have always had a tremendous influence on societal life: be it Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance or Romanticism, all periods of history rely on artistic evolutions more than other societal achievements. Even in our times, “modernity” and its “post-modern” rejections connote its latest forms of artistic expression. From that perspective it is not implausible to say that finally, the world can only be understood by the artifacts even though we are not aware of them in our everyday life. Directors of good schools know that. All our ideas of a Much has already been said about the current good school include provisions for encounters with comprehensive transformation processes in European the arts, whether music, fine arts, sculpture, literature, societies. What we definitively can say is that the theatre or dance. There is no comprehensive personal industrial era is going to come to an end. One of the development for young people without taking into account consequences is an enlarged new cultural and artistic the arts – and of course also movement or sports. Good sector, particularly in cities managing their unique profiles education policy is guided by the following principle: and, ultimately, their attractiveness. Reliable data shows when the arts evidently hold a strong status in society, us that, meanwhile, about 4% of European workforce they must also be represented in the heart of the school find their professional forms of realisation in this sector. curriculum. This is more than, for example, in the automobile or In contrast to this implicit truth there are many schools in chemical industries. The other consequence is less which the arts do not play a significant role at all; moreover, gratifying when the national school systems have not there are still quite a large number of citizens throughout yet found an appropriate response to these challenges. Europe who would ignore the meaning of the arts and Their inability to take into account new circumstances even state as a personal characteristic that they do not diminishes young people’s abilities to tap their potential understand the arts and have no interest in changing and, thus, find a place in productive and further developed that attitude. In this kind of personal stereotyping, European societies. dealing with the arts would be a fable of some privileged It is up to politicians like the former president of contemporaries in their leisure time, something that has Germany Richard von Weizäcker, who have learned their nothing to do with the constraints of ordinary people lessons when arguing that “arts and culture are not a managing their daily lives in increasingly insecure times. luxury we can afford or even cancel, but the spiritual Meanwhile aesthetic codes have found their way into the ground that secures our true inner survivability.” deepest corners of our lives and thus there is obviously Accordingly, this contribution will address possibilities and a considerable discrepancy between the factual influence limitations of cooperation between the education and the of the arts on all populations in society and, respectively, cultural sectors in a new era in which we still do not have a lack of awareness in the greater part of Europe. This an appropriate artistically-affiliated term for it. divergence can be viewed as the delayed result of an In doing so we do not have to start from scratch. In all industrial regime relying on specific skills and abilities. European cities we dispose of long lasting traditions in Following its comprehensive enforcement, schools dealing with arts and culture in education in order to had to limit their provisions to a corpus of cognitive improve the accessibility of culture to young and, until objective knowledge, whereas the arts as expressive now, excluded people or foster their creativity. But in most forms of subjective emotions were assigned – if at all – cases it is still seen as a minority issue that only surfaces to the privacy of the pupils’ homes and kept outside the when the “really important things” are finished. doors of the school buildings. These ironclad concepts Those who lobby to make the arts an indispensable of what school is and must be, appear to have been part of any kind of education can, in the meantime, rely nearly indestructible since the 19th century. Even while on a number of international documents including the pedagogical movements for “progressive education” Convention on the Rights of the Child 19891 which clearly have tried for over a hundred years to expand the school curriculum to make the arts a core issue, the preservers of the national school systems found institutional strategies to successfully deny these challenges. 1. http://artsineducation.ie/wp-content/uploads/Childrens-Right-to-Culture.pdf 18 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 states the right of each child to have access to a full range have more opportunities for contact with the arts than of forms of artistic expression and, thus, that schools those with socially disadvantaged backgrounds in schools have the duty to promote the development of “the arts where the arts do not play a role at all. The negative and other cultural matters.” Also the UNESCO Road Map consequences can be seen in the modest professional for Arts Education 20062 together with the UNESCO careers of the latter; but they are also echoed in the Seoul Agenda 20103 can be seen as a clear invitation to utilisation of arts institutions when their audiences, make use of the arts as a “fundamental and sustainable despite all cultural policy efforts over the last 50 years component of a high quality renewal of education.” After (“Culture for all”), still embody pervasive social inequality all, even the European Union with its highly economically in society. driven character has included “cultural awareness and Following the current arts education discourse we can expression” as one of the key competences in its Council find at least two strategies for improving the status of Recommendation for Lifelong Learning 2006.4 the arts in schools. The more traditional one accepts the division of the academic world into different subjects National experiences but encourages an increase in the number of arts- While these internationally agreed documents have often related subjects. The result is a growing competition not found adequate ways of implementation on a national, between different subjects: more music lessons, more regional or local level there is, nevertheless, a traditionally fine arts lessons, even more drama lessons, regardless grown infrastructure for arts and cultural education of what happens to the other subjects. As education whether in the formal school system or non-formal policy in more European countries is less able to act as a education settings. Evidence of this includes informal referee in this game between different subject interests, collaborations such as, among others, the ACE-Network.5 “autonomisation” has been the easiest official answer. It In this setting national administrators in education as well should be left up to the schools which subjects are going as those from the cultural sector regularly exchange their to be prioritized and which can be diminished or skipped. experiences (often allowing the national representatives It does not require tremendous imagination to predict that “of both sides” to become acquainted with each other arts-related subjects are not big winners in this game. for the first time). The ENO-Network6 is another platform The other strategy is slightly fairer as its in which arts education researchers try to improve the representatives argue against a traditional curriculum evidence basis for any kind of arts and cultural education separated strictly into subjects and suggest the relevant to the decision-making processes. alternative of more interdisciplinary approaches. In doing so the arts could lose their status as just an unpleasant Arts and cultural education in school appendage of valuable school material and instead find If we look a bit closer at the type and extent of arts their place in cooperation with partners from other education provisions in the European national school subject areas. Their representatives can learn from systems we can easily find out that there are some, progressive education efforts which, for over a hundred particularly with regard to music and visual arts; yet years, have doubted that a strict division of the world the majority of the arts stagnate on the margins of into ten or twelve subjects is appropriate for adapting the curricula.7 In comparison with the so-called “hard to the complexity of the world as it is today. The Finnish subjects” their status is low, and when it comes to school system is in a pioneering position and has recently certification they seem dispensable. scrapped the scheme of isolated subjects and replaced it Additionally, there is a strong social impact when pupils with interdisciplinary topics.8 from wealthy families attending arts-affiliated schools In keeping with these intentions, in at least some parts of Germany so-called “Kulturschulen”9 (schools with a cultural profile) have been put into practice. In fulfilling the claim of a “good school” the arts are not peripheral 2. http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/CLT/pdf/ in one or another subject but, rather, exist as something Arts_Edu_RoadMap_en.pdf interwoven with complex thematic approaches to be 3. http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/CLT/pdf/ Seoul_Agenda_EN.pdf taught and learned. Accordingly, thematically-oriented 4. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32018 projects rather than lessons are structuring everyday H0604(01)&rid=7 5. http://www.aceneteurope.net/ 6. https://www.eno-net.eu/ 7. There had been a series of EU publications within the framework of the Eurydice program “Arts and Cultural Education at School in Europe,” last 8. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/finland-schools- issue dated 2012. Online: https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication- subjects-are-out-and-topics-are-in-as-country-reforms-its-education- detail/-/publication/4cc49f74-205e-4785-89e4-6490fb589d62/language- system-10123911.html en/format-PDF 9. https://kultur.bildung.hessen.de/kulturelle_praxis/kulturschule_hessen/ 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 19 school life, overriding a strict time regime that seems to be increasingly less appropriate. As such the arts are going to become a major force in current school development. In this new type of school the arts demonstrate core differences between these subject approaches, representing a critical issue in contemporary schooling in terms of cooperation; internal cooperation within the schools making the teacher more of a team player, and external cooperation as schools are developing as open learning centres makes use not only of internal resources but also the institutions and initiatives that the neighbourhood can deliver. Meanwhile there are many positive examples of cooperation between individual teachers and artists or between schools and arts institutions which allow the pupils to find new areas of experiences. Many examples show that these new approaches to teaching and learning can be met with considerable resistance not only on the part of teachers (who have been carefully trained to become soloists in their areas of expertise) but also pupils and parents. “When do we get to learn again?” was only one of the questions a pupil raised after taking part in a cooperative arts project between a school and a theatre. This is just one indication that arts-based schooling can mean saying goodbye to cherished ideas of “learning” in which long-lasting experiences are connected to constraints, exams and, all too often, boredom. These child-oriented examples show that the pupils in aesthetically rich learning environments find new chances to unfold potentials which would have been undiscovered in traditional schools. And suddenly a new kind of pupil appears that is not only prepared to incorporate previously unconsidered knowledge but to learn voluntarily and make use of their learned abilities in their daily lives: confidence and curiosity as the very basis Aktionstag Sonnwendviertel: Community Art Project in an urban for creative thinking and acting. environment, which brought together young citizens and artists with the aim of bringing together “old” and “young” members of the local population. Arts and cultural education in non-formal and informal settings Besides the traditional and endangered provision of arts education within the formal school system there is also an Additionally, many of these non-formal institutions tried infrastructure of non-formal arts related activities: public to address social inequality by focusing in a particular way and private music schools, amateur choirs and ensembles, on socially disadvantaged young people whose cultural art schools, libraries, theatre or dance initiatives. In most background was not taken into consideration within the European countries all these institutions and initiatives regular school system. That, apropos of the fact that play quite an important role in maintaining cultural the increasing number of migrants who have come to life and allowing access to arts and culture. What is Europe in recent years have developed their own non- often underestimated is that many of them have been formal cultural infrastructure, one that is not reflected in established in opposition to the formal school system. education or even in cultural policy. Against the rigid school system with all its constraints Within the current education policy debate the non- (supposedly preventing creativity) representatives of formal sector is currently being confronted with two major the non-formal sectors tried to create a positive variant challenges. One lies in the creeping expansion of the in voluntary handling of the arts and no permanent formal sector; “full-day-schooling” starting with obligatory examination. kindergarten as the all-encompassing answer to the 20 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 growing social and ethnic diversification of European schools to better prepare their pupils as “the audience societies is limiting spare time for those looking to access of tomorrow,” not taking into account that, in the the non-formal sector. The most plausible answer is, also meantime, the majority of schools follow other priorities in this case, cooperation between the institutions in the such as creativity or self-expression. As a consequence formal and the non-formal sector. For many schools this most cultural institutions, even small initiatives, is still a hidden treasure as they are not aware that the have established their own education and mediation non-formal sector equally disposes of a lot of education programmes to better communicate with those who are know-how that can lead to more attractive teaching and not regular visitors. This is even more true when cultural learning settings. policy makers are confronted – often incited by populist In contrast, schools can guarantee access to the political rhetoric – with sobering data after which fewer non-formal sectors for young people who otherwise and fewer people would receive sufficient benefits from wouldn’t take part in such programmes. Everyday cultural institutions equipped with public resources. practice of cooperation in this respect shows that a And so the publicly funded cultural sector as a whole number of obstacles must be overcome in order to found itself under constraint to redefine its relevance in organise that cooperation despite institutional barriers. society and, thus, to redefine its relationship with local Obviously, institutional constraints characterised by communities. different language regulations, objectives, qualifications, All experiences show that this new task leads to a procedures, quality standards or evaluation criteria make profound process of institutional transformation. It it necessary to carefully prepare any kind of cooperative is not just about mere marketing adjustment; it is settings. In Austria, for example, so-called “Campus about radical changes in all institutional areas such as Schools” are improving opportunities for good cooperation management, programming, qualification, communication with an architectural framework that brings the different and cooperation. The respective challenges even grow institutions closely together allowing the pupils to jump when potential audiences are decreasingly homogenous from one learning setting to another without noticing the and ethically, religiously, socially or generationally differences in the institutional character. diverse, leading to a complete rethinking of what cultural The other challenge lies in the incredible enlargement of institutions provide, not only from the perspective of a the informal sectors in the recent past. The commercially defender of the arts but also from that of a (potential) user. driven cultural sector together with the omnipresence of When a new generation of qualified educators and social media has led to a far-reaching transformation both mediators is in place, the need remains to cooperate in terms of access to arts and culture and to the social internally and externally. For a long time, cultural cohesion of learning societies in the near future. More institutions tended to follow an additive approach, and more young people turn down the offers provided believing that the sheer existence of an education by the non-formal sector when they can act out cultural department would be enough and the rest could carry participation with the help of a laptop at home. In keeping on performing in the traditional art-centred way. In with these trends, the only chance for the traditional non- the meantime, it has become more and more evident formal sector lies in its ability to bring people together that intra-institutional cooperation between educators physically and provide them with the experience of and mediators and all other departments would bring meaningfulness in shared artistic practices. cultural institutions up to date. Only by following such an intersectional approach combining united forces Arts and cultural education in cultural could the organisation of new settings like “outreach- institutions programmes” be manageable. The same is true in terms In most European countries a few large cultural of external cooperation, when schools as well as a variety institutions were built to function as the backbone of the of other initiatives in civic society are seen as increasingly national population’s cultural identity. As such they had important partners that decide the success or failure of no problem in attracting and keeping their audiences. a project in an increasingly contested terrain. In most When it was mainly the wealthy and well-educated European countries a lot of public programmes have been societies that pursued access, no elaborate audience implemented, all of them pursuing the intention to foster development strategies had to be conceptualised and the cooperation between schools and cultural institutions. implemented. This privileged position has been, at least, They range from individual artist residencies to cultural relativised during recent years. Even when the flow of institutions which run their own school.10 tourists visiting the institutions is ensured, for most local people the programmes, including those of internationally renowned cultural institutions, became rather irrelevant. 10. https://www.kammerphilharmonie.com/zukunft-gestalten/ As a stereotype reaction these institutions turned to zukunftslabor/ 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 21 Textilmobil: Artists Initiative at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna to cooperate with schools in creative design. © Eva Lausegger The importance of arts and cultural education in “creativity,” as the new magic word of the post-industrial cities era promising to enable further economic and social The success of efforts being made in schools, non- prosperity, enjoys considerable popularity not only among formal education institutions or in cultural institutions, political decision makers but among others as well.11 In this respectively, relies on the dynamics of urban euphoria it is too often forgotten that “creativity” also transformation. The sheer fact that the European cities stands for a further strengthening of competition. In the of today look very different than they did only thirty years shadow of this new battleground more and more creative ago makes it clear that the comprehensive transformation individuals in precarious circumstances12 can be found, processes of our time are also going to shake the ground not to mention those who have less creative personal in the areas of education, culture and the arts. While the characteristics but other valuable talents such as restraint, world of the arts traditionally views itself as an avant-garde resistance or empathy. In times of an insidious reduction of force trying to fight against inertia, education and culture the welfare state they will – even equipped with the highest are more likely to be on the side of the defendants of levels of education – lose their future perspectives. existing conditions. Although in the cultural policy discourse over the last years the term “creativity” has experienced a lot of attention, I would like to add a slight warning not to 11. See Richard Florida’s incantation of the new creative class. overestimate hopes in that perspective. Yes, it is true 12. When, for example, the average annual income of an Austrian artist is that the acquisition of traditional skills is not any more a around €5,000, it becomes clear that artists are not an attractive wealth- producing role model. Instead the cultural sector is a mirror for social guarantee of finding a professional spot in the shrinking inequality in which a growing number of subsisting artists stand opposite a productive sector. So it is quite understandable that small number of rich celebrities. 22 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 This remark is meant to clarify that particularly in highly complex city structures a one-dimensional political strategy to foster “creativity” in education or in culture won’t lead to the necessary results. This contribution is mainly about an increased need for cooperation, internally or externally; personally or institutionally. This claim is also true in the political arena. Unless we can overlook the, up until now, strictly divided institutional framework of an average European city, we won’t master the current upheavals. By no means can it be assumed that the comparably weak sectors of culture or even education will be able to compensate for the failures in other sectors. First and foremost, it seems necessary to overcome existing barriers – be they psychological or physical – and make use of the resource “curiosity” in searching for blank new terrain. This would be the application of “creativity” in all fields of a city’s competence. As such it would bring to the fore that, for example, today’s environmental policy can only be successful when its aesthetic implications are taken into account.13 Aktionstag Sonnwendviertel: Community Art Project in an urban environment, which brought together young citizens and artists with The role of public authorities the aim of bringing together “old” and “young” members of the local As we come to the end of this article regarding the population. changing environment in which public authorities are acting to try to steer access to arts and culture, cultural participation or arts and cultural education of their citizens, so we must learn that, with the growing new wave of we must take into account that most of those representing illiberal and authoritarian forces, “culture” is nothing good them are trained within the guidelines of industrialism. per se but dependent on respective political framing. As Thus, it is more than understandable that this framework with other issues, be they technology or communication- of thinking about and acting on issues like business related, possible counter effects unfold alongside the settlements, the requirements of the labour market and the individual and social use we make of them. acquisition of respective skills are still deeply embedded The increasing degree of social imbalance is all the in the minds of the actors in charge as, finally, the one and more dangerous as the original political promise that only political priority. Accordingly, the dominant industrial post-war-period education would lead to a better standing point of view still provides the only scale that counts. In in society will be found to be false. Compared to the comparison with that, in exact data transferable criteria, optimism of the early days, even the original concept the arts, culture and also arts education – as spheres of education as the most effective ladder for success that extend beyond the dominant principles of immediate has become ambivalent. Currently there are too many usability – tend to become quite irrelevant. people around who no longer believe in the promise that In this context it is more surprising that a new education – with or without the arts – will provide a better generation of right-wing populists have put “culture” life. For them, other factors like ethnicity or family origin on the political agenda and, therefore, are tapping the have become increasingly more important. emotional reservoirs of angry citizens to divide urban This kind of distrust increasingly produces massive populations not only ethnically, but also socially, between frustration within urban populations and brings me to arts-affiliated liberal and cosmopolitan elites and ordinary the final assumption that only cross-sectorial approaches people yearning for a homogenous cultural home. And combining competences in the fields of culture or education with issues like housing, transport, technology, environment, ecology or social security will allow for the maintenance and further development of social cohesion and prosperity. When, for example, in Vienna more than 13. Meanwhile there are a number of promising concepts like “Artistic 25% of the local population is excluded from political Citizenship” (see Elliott. D. J. , Silverman, M., et. al.) (2016): Artistic Citizenship – Artistry, Social Responsibility and Ethical Praxis. Oxford participation, no measure to improve access to the University Press. arts and culture would have any chance to significantly 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 23 Living Sounds: Community Art Project with the Artist Peter Spindler, who makes use of masks in the public space to call attention to diversity issues. © Petra Rautenstrauch improve the working and living conditions of those who now the potential of the arts, either in education or in are structurally excluded. other social sectors, has not been adequately applied and A review of history shows the extraordinary importance – observing the actual political portents on the European of the arts as a pillar of open, empathic and thus walls – the unbelievable becomes an option and collective cooperative societies. From such a perspective we decline is possible. It is up to us, who have taken on are invited, again and again, to put this experience in responsibility for competence in urban development, to contemporary settings of cultural participation and choose which way we will go. We should be brave as we education. But a look backwards also shows that up until enter this new land. futuro, redefiniciones Crisis del formas de de la ciudadanía y ión cultural de la juventud participac Carmen Leccardi de Milán-Bicocca ad Profesora de la Universid utions as Platforms Cultural Instit tivity and for Lifelong Learning, Crea Intercultural Dialogue ny Siung Dublin, Ireland Jen er Beatty Library, Head of Education, Chest Museomix Toulouse, Musee St Raymond 2016 ©Jenny Siung 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 25 ARTICLE Cities need to embrace numerous approaches and take stock of their achievements and challenges through multiple viewpoints as well as accommodate the diversity of the citizens. There are several indicators that define cities culturally as well as educationally and contribute to the quality of life and inclusion. Yet many cities are faced with the challenges of connecting communities with cultural institutions while at the same time promoting active citizenship. Museums, libraries and cultural institutions provide invaluable opportunities to encourage learning and participation through lifelong learning, creative practices and intercultural dialogue. Introduction point for people to socialise as well as convene outside What makes a city an educating one? What are the the temple in public spaces, to discuss ideas, politics, contributing factors that make it so? Public spaces such and trade, and celebrate and participate in Greek life. It as museums located in these cities play an important role is this model of a central focal point where museums, in the life and service to their people. However, museums libraries and cultural institutions can lead to a number of face stiff competition and cannot work in isolation in spillovers; knowledge, industry and network.4 Regarding order to remain relevant to existing and new audiences. knowledge, these spaces are similar to incubation hubs Traditionally museums were developed as cabinets of that allow for ideas, innovations and processes to be curiosities in the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe and have developed by artists and creative businesses. Industry evolved to become centres of learning. This fostering of refers to a dynamic environment where there is potential learning has a spillover effect on other institutions and for creative industry, businesses, artists and arts organisations including libraries and cultural institutions. organisations and events to impact each other. Network In 2012 the European Commission acknowledged the reflects the spillover within a concentrated area such as a importance of spillover effects of the arts, culture and cultural quarter.5 creative industries.1 “A spillover is understood to be a process by which an activity in one area has a subsequent Cultural quarters broader impact on places, society or the economy through These spaces where the spillover effect is very evident the overflow of concepts, ideas, skills, knowledge and have sprung up internationally on small, medium different types of capital.”2 and large scale projects. Both Dublin and Waterford city councils are planning to develop such hubs. The The spillover effect on museums, libraries and city councils cite participation of citizens, featuring cultural institutions in cities intercultural or migrant integration as a contributing The author believes museums, libraries and cultural factor to the area, and lifelong learning and creative institutions play an important part in the spillover effect practices as a means to support the economic, civic and in cities. Firstly, most of these organisations are located cultural life of both cities.6 in the city centre rather than isolated remote places. Culture plays a role in response to a number of crises Museums, for example, derive from the Greek word including identity, inequality of citizens, sustainability and museion; a sacred space to protect the arts and sciences.3 purpose. The author believes culture is and has long been Ancient Greek temples played a role as a central focal a remedy to such crises from the Industrial Age to the point for people to gather for worship and revere sacred present day. These cultural institutions not only preserve, objects and votive offerings; they provided a connection protect and display cultural heritage, they play a central role and can help connect citizens with the city.7 The Council of Europe describes the role of cultural heritage 1. Fleming, Tom, Cultural and Creative Spillovers in Europe: Report on a and its mission to create a peaceful democratic society, preliminary evidence review, October 2015, Arts Council UK, Arts Council Ireland, Creative England UK, European Centre for Creative Economy Germany, European Cultural Foundation Netherlands, European Creative Business Network, p.4 and pp.14-15. 4. Fleming, op. cit., p.8. 2. Ibid. p.8. 5. Ibid p.8. 3. Rambukwella, Chulani, ‘Museums and National Identity: Representation 6. See A Cultural Quarter for Waterford, Outline Rationale, Priorities of Nation in National Museums’; Building Identity, The Making of National and Building Blocks, September 2017, Waterford City Council. See Museums and Identity Politics, National Museum of History, Taiwan, 2011, parnellsquare.ie for the Parnell Square Cultural Quarter Dublin. p.35. 7. Cultural heritage includes built and natural environment and artefacts. 26 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 sustainable development and promote cultural diversity.8 By inviting communities to engage and participate in these spaces, citizens prove they can organise their culture in an innovative way.9 The role of museums, libraries and cultural institutions in fostering lifelong learning, creative practices and intercultural dialogue This innovative approach has reached more traditional institutions such as museums. From the late 20th century to date, museums have moved beyond their four walls and fostered partnerships with non-museum disciplines and sectors. Hence this has created a significant role in the lives of their communities. For some, museums have a tendency to offer a one-sided form of engagement with communities; for others they actively offer their spaces and invite communities to co-create, co-interpret and develop exhibitions, which is a radical shift from the model of mausoleum to an open one. In 2017, the American Alliance of Museums took a look into the future and projected how museums will operate in 2040 and predicted some will move from a static collection-based organisation to a more fluid, dynamic, community centred institution.10 Which brings this author back to the concept of Projection Mapping Installation, Chester Beatty by Maker-in-Residence, projected values of museums of the future; ideally the 2016 ©Jenny Siung location of museums, libraries and cultural organisations would benefit and contribute greatly to the spillover effect in the city planning of cultural quarters. The Open Method of Coordination is an EU platform for ministries of culture Lifelong learning and national cultural institutions who meet to exchange In Lifelong Learning in Museums: a European Handbook, good practice and produce manuals and toolkits which learning in a museum can be informal, casual or at times are shared across Europe. It has been identified that accidental.12 The learning offer in cultural institutions cultural institutions are important actors in the promotion tends to differ from the formal sector and programmes of cultural understanding, intercultural dialogue and can range from guided tours, hands-on workshops, music cultural diversity and in the transmission of culture across performances, talks, and family events, to exhibitions. generations.11 What does this look like in the current offer The offer is determined by resources as well as the of lifelong learning, creative practices and intercultural remit of these organisations; for some learning is at the dialogue? There are a number of core areas this author heart of the organisation, whereas for others it is often has included in the article for discussion. viewed as an add-on in annual programming. Museums, libraries and cultural institutions act as a ‘third space’ beyond the formal classroom and offer multiple learning opportunities. Visitors have a variety of backgrounds, interests, knowledge and a wish to encounter experiences in these spaces. The recent global economic downturn has 8. Council of Europe Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural impacted youth and adult populations who have either left Heritage for Society, Council of Europe Treaty Series - No. 199, Faro, 27.X.2005, p.2. formal learning or with the loss of employment have had 9. Visser, Jasper, ‘The Role of Culture and Community in the Development of to retrain. Digital technologies often bypass the traditional Smarter Cities,’ Museums of the Future, blog post 9 January 2019. gatekeepers of knowledge such as cultural institutions, 10. Rozan, Adam, ‘Hello and Welcome to the Future,’ Museum 2040, November-December issue, volume 96, no. 6, 2017, American Alliance of Museums, p. 17. 11. Report on the Role of the Public Arts and Cultural Institutions in the Promotion of Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue, Open Method of Coordination (OMC) working group of EU Member experts, work plan 2011- 12. Gibbs, Kirsten, Sani, Margherita, Thompson, Jane (eds.), Lifelong Learning 2014, January 2014, European Union, Brussels, p.5. in Museums: A European Handbook, EDISAI srl- Ferrara, 2007, p.13. 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 27 dementia-friendly visits, have sprung up in these organisations. How to develop dementia-friendly tours How do these organisations design and deliver such programmes? Networks play an essential part in the process as well as the ability to step outside cultural organisations, and discover how best to collaborate and encourage a dialogue in order to understand each other. The author’s organisation offers dementia-friendly tours. A member of the Education team was invited to attend a training session with the Azure network.15 This is an established partnership between an agency that supports older people and partners with the Irish arts and cultural sector. Training and support in how to design and develop gallery tours for people with dementia and their carers was offered and gradually a programme using visual thinking strategies was launched in 2017.16 On arrival, participants are provided refreshments before their visit to the museum. The facilitator interacts with each visitor and their carer before they enter the exhibition space. The facilitator maintains contact with the group, yet does not pressure anyone to answer when a question is posed. Moments of contemplation, to experience another environment and meet other people are all opportunities for people with dementia and their carers. These programmes take time to establish and require evaluation throughout. It is one example of how cultural institutions i.e. anyone can access knowledge without consulting can adapt to the changing contexts of their offer for these keepers of information. These cultural institutions citizens and cities. have had to step back and reflect how best to address these new challenges and create more dynamic learning Creative Practices in Creative Cities environments in which staff and visitors can access As reflected in this article, museums, libraries and information collectively as well as explore and reason cultural institutions have developed new and innovative about collections in new and creative ways.13 approaches to learning for their audiences in response The above observations bring the author back to the to changing contexts. Many of these organisations have American Alliance of Museums (AAM) 2040 conference experienced budget cuts and reduction of staff as a result and journal. The then-CEO of the AAM is a psychiatrist of the global economic crash of 2008. The author has and cited mental wellness as an area of development referred to the role of culture in crises and post-2008 for museums. They see that museum-led interactions forced a major rethink in audience and engagement and involving objects, stories and dialogues, appropriately professional development as a means to tackle long- facilitated, lead to the reduction of stress, anxiety term impact of the economic downturn. An example and include rather than isolate participants.14 In order is an EU-funded initiative The Creative Museum (2014- to remain relevant, cultural institutions will need to 2017) followed by the two-year Making Museum project continuously rethink their role in communities for their (2017-2019). The principle thinking behind these projects citizens. Cultural institutions can have many positive looked at the very survival of museums following the impacts, especially as citizens live longer and are time- aforementioned cuts. A spillover of knowledge, industry, rich. A number of well-being programmes including network and creativity was triggered, and saw the development of non-traditional partnerships of science 13. See www.creative-museum.net/c/creative-museum/ as an example of creative and dynamic learning models for museums. 14. Report on the Role of the Public Arts and Cultural Institutions in the 15. See www.ageandopportunity.ie/what-we-do/education-training/azure Promotion of Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue, op.cit., p.5. 16. See www.vtshome.org 28 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 writers, scientists and museum professionals who gather and connect in a museum environment. They spend three days in teams and respond to ideas inspired by the host museum collection. In turn, these groups invent, design and prototype museum installations with new technologies and on the final day of the event they encourage the general public to test their ideas. Project partners attended Museomix as a way to look at how these skills can be adapted in their own organisations and also to share them with their local networks.20 The beauty of this collaborative effort is the openness and willingness to exchange ideas, take risks when developing prototypes Creative Museum group at Museomix Toulouse 2016 ©Jenny Siung as well as problem-solve and disseminate with others; these approaches are identified as co-creative (when a person creatively collaborates with others) and open source (the sharing of ideas openly without a patent, e.g. centres, creative entrepreneurs and makers (a maker is a code for a game). The model is commonly used by the someone who makes things with their hands and uses start-up sector when developing ideas for businesses. the ‘do-it-yourself’ approach) with museums. Creativity and creative practice is the ability to transcend the Why work with makers? traditional way of doing things in museums, to create Makers are innovators and are often found in city-based new ideas, relationships, creativity and imagination.17 maker spaces where they meet up and make things or The project partners were offered an opportunity to not showcase these ideas at annual maker fairs. Cultural only explore, respond and reflect on these approaches, institutions can tap in to their creativity and exchange they were provided the chance to upskill and train in ideas for public engagement programmes. The Maker- new ways of interpreting museum collections. In Analysis in-Residence offers makers a 12-day residency in the of Best Practices from Across Europe, the Creative Creative and Making Museum projects partner countries. Museum reflects on the connections between cultural A traditional artist-in-residence programme tends to organisations and sees museums as a dynamic learning allocate a space for an artist to respond to a collection environment.18 The changing contexts in the way museums and/or develop his/her own work while supported by an work and collaborate has encouraged viewing both the organisation. The Maker-in-Residence, however, offered museum and the external world as potential spaces makers the chance to collaborate and co-create with for creativity. Thus, in both projects experimentation, museum collections. Why makers? It is in recognition of prototyping and embedding new practices emerged.19 the knowledge and skills of these makers who harness More importantly creativity is not fixed, it is ever evolving creativity without a fear of ‘failure’, that is, they are and changing as well as responding to the current adept at trying out new ideas in a cost-effective manner. environment. Both projects gave museum professionals This kind of experimentation often leads to failure, yet the courage to take a ‘can do’ approach and try out new if they do not succeed, they try again. The freedom ideas both in training programmes and in their respective to experiment is a fresh and invigorating way to test organisations. new responses to museum collections. This co-creative approach by the museum and maker encouraged not only Mixing the Museum a sharing of knowledge and access to collections, it also These creative ideas, approaches and realisations were counteracted the traditional view of a ‘closed museum’ by explored through a number of key training initiatives many external creative practitioners, and existing and new in both projects; Museomix and Maker-in-Residence. audiences. Museomix is a French-based collective of creative practitioners such as designers, gamers, coders, artists, How to create a Maker-in-Residence programme The author co-curated with a maker the first projection mapping installation in an Irish museum. Inspired by the Vatican’s projection of endangered animals on St Peter’s 17. What do we mean by creativity? See www.creative-museum.net Basilica, it was proposed to invite a digital technologist/ 18. Sunderland-Bowe, Jo Anne (author), Siung, Jenny (ed.), Analysis of Best Practices from Across Europe, The Creative Museum, Cap Sciences, 2016, p.7. 19. Siung, Jenny (introduction), Toolkit, ‘Strategies for Success’, The Creative Museum, Cap Sciences, 2017, p.6. 20. See www.museomix.org 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 29 maker to interpret the collection of Islamic, East Asian and European rare books and manuscripts.21 Initially the idea of projection mapping was not readily embraced by the museum staff, yet once the example from the Vatican was shared, a better understanding of the project was achieved. In turn the maker worked with a computer they had designed for under €40 (known as a Raspberry Pi), had access to the museum’s digital collection, and designed a map of rotating images which were then projected on to the wall in the public space of the museum. They also shared their skills with local audiences including adults, teens and local makers while at the same time the residency helped the museum to build capacity with hard-to-reach audiences.22 The most expensive part of the project was the projector which in Ireland costs €100,000 to purchase whereas in Berlin, for example, it costs €1000 to hire. Being a resourceful museum, a loan of a projector from a neighbouring organisation for a fraction of the cost was obtained the day before the planned installation. It is important to understand the contexts in which makers and museums work, i.e. they may differ, expectations and experiences Introduction to dice game prototype with director of Musee St are not always the same. However, open dialogue, mutual Raymond, Museomix Toulouse, 2016 ©Jenny Siung trust and understanding as well as the willingness to learn, try and test things out are all core ingredients for these collaborations. The same organisation has article, these cultural organisations have had to review, continued to host a number of other maker-in-residencies adapt and respond to changing contexts in order to survive and embedded maker culture in its public and learning and remain relevant to their existing and new audiences. programme as a result.23 How do cities and their cultural institutions see themselves in the face of emerging challenges? The Intercultural Dialogue in Inclusive Cities Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities is a very good Audience engagement is central to the role of museums, example of how cities can rate themselves and provides libraries and cultural institutions and this piece makes an Intercultural Index. The programme offers an evident the need for broad engagement. As identified in intercultural city strategy, a set of principles and a way Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of thinking. More importantly it looks across numerous everyone has the right to participate in the cultural life sectors that help assess how a city endeavours to be of the community.24 Increased migration and mobility inclusive of its citizens. These indicators look at how a across the EU has led to a number of crises with the city council can demonstrate its commitment to being most recent crossing of refugees and migrants from the an intercultural city through the education system; Middle East across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe residential neighbourhoods; public services; business and (2013- to date). Again the author believes culture not only the labour market; culture and public spaces; mediation addresses lifelong learning and creative practice, but also and conflict resolution; language; relations with the local provides safe spaces to allow for a deeper knowledge media; an open and international outlook; intercultural and understanding of different cultures in a shared and intelligence and competence; welcoming new arrivals; open environment such as museums, libraries and cultural and governance, leadership and citizenship. Dublin was institutions.25 As with the other examples addressed in this awarded Intercultural City status in 2012 and an advisory committee of cultural diverse citizens of the city was established by the Office of Integration, Dublin City 21. See www.news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/12/151208-vatican-photo- Council.26 This approach of inclusion of citizens empowers ark-wildlife-photos-cop21 22. See www.creative-museum.net/c/makers-in-residence 23. For more information on how to become a creative museum, see Toolkits: ‘Strategies for Success’, ‘Spaces for Yes’ and ‘Connecting to Communities’ on www.creative-museum.net 26. This author sat on the advisory committee 2012-2014 as a representative 24. See www.unesco.org from the Irish national cultural institutions in recognition of their work in 25. See www.creative-museum.net/c/creative-museum/ Op. cit., p.5. intercultural dialogue and learning in museums. 30 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 in the Promotion of Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue are just two examples.30 What does intercultural dialogue look like and how does a museum, library and cultural institution develop intercultural competences?31 In addition to the Council of Europe Intercultural Cities programme, there are organisations and individuals that represent cultural diverse communities in cities as well. Training of staff as well as appropriate programming, the willingness to reach out to new audiences and the creation of spaces for encounter, are key ingredients to foster intercultural dialogue. The author’s museum recently commenced its first bilingual storytelling session for families who speak more than one language, with a local organisation called Mother Tongues.32 Many city-based libraries offer language learning and exchange as well as certified accreditation for these courses. The British Museum offers English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) tours using their collections as a starting point.33 Indicators of success for these examples are the provision of safe spaces for learners as well as promotion of mutual understanding and interaction. Conclusion and Recommendations City Fusion Carnival Goddess© Declan Hayden (Office of Integration There is a danger that each endeavour for museums, 2007-2015), Dublin City Council libraries and cultural institutions as described in this article may become tokenistic or irrelevant. It is important for cities to provide opportunities for their citizens to participate and give voice; this can be achieved new and established migrant communities and provides through careful and thoughtful cohesive planning and social cohesion in cities.27 The current Dublin City Strategy communication across the sector. By inviting communities 2016-2020 acknowledges migration and cultural diversity to engage and participate in these spaces, citizens and describes Dublin as a compact city with a range of prove they can organise their culture in an innovative sustainable neighbourhoods promoting social inclusion way.34 Therefore, following here are a number of and integration of all ethnic communities.28 How is this recommendations: reflected through cultural life in the city? In the examples • It is important to continuously review programmes and of cultural hubs, both Dublin and Waterford cities are initiatives. in the process of creating cultural quarters and have • What might have worked ten years ago may be obsolete included an intercultural hub as safe and welcoming today. spaces for cultural expression.29 • Mutual respect and understanding are essential. • Co-creation and collaboration open spaces to for hard- How to build an intercultural programme for to-reach audiences. museums, libraries and cultural institutions There are very good toolkits and guidelines available for organisations to support intercultural dialogue. Museums as places for intercultural dialogue (Map for 30. See https://www.ne-mo.org/fileadmin/Dateien/public/service/Handbook_ MAPforID_EN.pdf and Op. cit., footnote 11. ID) and The Role of Public Arts and Cultural Institutions 31. Intercultural dialogue is a process that comprises an open and respectful exchange or interaction between individuals, groups and organisations with different cultural backgrounds or world views. Among its aims are: to develop a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives and practices; to increase participation and the freedom and ability to make choices; to foster equality; and to enhance creative processes. 27. See https://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/dublin 32. See www.mothertongues.ie 28. Dublin City Council, Integration Strategy 2016-2020, Community and 33. See www.britishmuseum.org/learning/adults_and_students/esol_ Social Development Section, Dublin City Council, p.10. programmes.aspx 29. Op. cit., footnote 6. 34. Visser, op. cit., footnote 9. 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 31 Summer in Dublin© Declan Hayden (Office of Integration 2007-2015), Dublin City Council • Most cities have a maker space and community of • Museums, libraries and cultural institutions can provide creative practitioners. safe spaces for cultural encounters as well as offer Many museums, libraries and cultural institutions opportunities for creative expression. historically served one nation and reflected the single Museums, libraries and cultural institutions are no longer identity of a country, their people and religion: gatekeepers of knowledge: • It is important to acknowledge the diversification of • Cities are hosts to empowered self-directed learners countries and the complexities that come with that. and citizens who can access knowledge through digital • Cultural and national identity is not fixed – it is technology. constantly changing. • These organisations can learn and encourage open • Cultural diversity is an asset rather than a threat for dialogue with their audiences. cities. • Audiences have different learning needs, styles and • A deepening knowledge and understanding of different expectations. cultures is important. ducation and Culture to Linking E es build Sustainable Citi olés nts nd Local Governme Jordi Baltà Port Cities a mittee on Culture of United Expert from the Com Jbeil Byblos Municipal Cultural Centre © Jbeil Byblos City Council 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 33 ARTICLE There is a key link between education and the development of cultural capacities and the exercise of cultural rights. Here at the Committee on Culture of United Cities and Local Governments, we understand culture as a common good that expands each person’s ability to create their own future and as a process that helps us understand, interpret and transform reality, underlining the fact that cultural rights are an integral part of human rights. In this sense, to the extent that education is a lifelong process of skills development that takes place in numerous contexts, it’s necessary to understand and explore the multiple scenarios in which education ecosystems and culture converge: formal and non-formal education, cultural institutions and organisations, public spaces, virtual environments, etc. Introduction integral part of human rights. In this sense, to the extent The Committee on Culture of United Cities and that education is a lifelong process of skills development Local Government (UCLG) works together with local that takes place in numerous contexts, it’s necessary to governments around the world on promoting an approach understand and explore the multiple scenarios in which to sustainable development in which culture is a key education ecosystems and culture converge: formal dimension. The emergence of culture as the “fourth pillar” and non-formal education, cultural institutions and of sustainable development, along with its economic, organisations, public spaces, virtual environments, etc. In social and environmental components (Hawkes, 2001, the same way that we talk about an educating city, we can UCLG, 2010), involves understanding that culture is an end also talk about a city that acknowledges and promotes in itself in societies that wish to fully guarantee the rights its multiple cultural realities, which explores the ways and freedoms of all people. This is because a dignified in which educational experiences can contribute to the life involves people having opportunities to express development of cultural skills and the exercise of cultural themselves creatively, to access, conserve and give life to rights, and which fosters the role of cultural agents in the heritage, and to maintain and learn about diverse cultural creation of learning processes. identities and expressions. It also involves acknowledging, This involves working both on specific experiences and especially at the local level, that there are innumerable on carrying out awareness-raising actions and campaigns intersections between cultural, social, economic, political, to promote a greater understanding of the role of environmental and educational fields: engaging in cultural culture in sustainable development and its transfer to life can contribute to social cohesion; having access to international, regional, national and local strategies in this linguistic and cultural diversity and the arts enriches area. One framework that has focused attention on this in learning processes; and cultural events and institutions recent years has been the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable can contribute to job creation and wealth creation, etc. Development (UN, 2015) and the Sustainable Development The challenge is to foster policies that respond to the Goals (SDGs) which compose it. The 2030 Agenda is less aspirations of citizens in these areas and, in turn, address explicit in terms of the cultural dimension of sustainable the complexity derived from these intersections. development than would have been desirable. However, The relationship between education and culture is UCLG believes that the goals set by the international therefore a key element in the work of the Committee community in the field of sustainable development will on Culture, as reflected in its founding documents, the not be achieved if they do not recognise cultural aspects Agenda 21 for Culture (UCLG, 2004) and Culture 21 that are implicitly or explicitly linked to many of the Actions (UCLG, 2015). The core idea is that there is a goals established in the SDGs. This entails addressing, key link between education and the development of among others, Target 4.7, which underlines the aim to cultural capacities and the exercise of cultural rights. ensure education that encourages the acquisition of We understand culture as a common good that expands theoretical and practical knowledge required to promote each person’s ability to create their own future and as a sustainable development through, among other aspects, process that helps us understand, interpret and transform the appreciation of cultural diversity and culture’s reality, underlining the fact that cultural rights are an contribution to sustainable development. It’s also Jbeil Byblos Municipal Cultural Centre © Jbeil Byblos City Council 34 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 necessary to highlight the links between culture and all Despite these difficulties, there are numerous the SDGs and the importance of exploring them at a local experiences which in practice demonstrate the potential level, while collecting numerous examples of the ways in of linking education and culture in the drive towards more which cities and local governments are already working in sustainable cities. In particular, the following lines of this direction (UCLG, 2018). action can be identified: This article seeks to make reflections based on this two- a) Access to and engagement in cultural life from formal fold approach (the monitoring of specific practices and and non-formal education. The development of cultu- the effect for improving political strategies) by stating ral skills boasts a privileged environment in educational challenges, useful approaches and future orientations on spaces. In line with the idea of learning as a lifelong process the relationship between culture and education from the that takes place both at formal education centres and in perspective of sustainable cities. other types of spaces, there are many relevant educational methodologies, while cultural expressions reflected in edu- Challenges and lines of action cation must be diverse. The right to participate in cultural The peer learning programmes of the UCLG Committee life translates, in its educational aspect, into the existence on Culture include self-assessment exercises that of inclusive opportunities for the development of sensitivity make it possible to pinpoint difficulties in bolstering towards the most varied artistic and cultural expressions, the cultural dimension in the approach to sustainable the learning and appreciation of tangible and intangible development. Specifically, in the case of the relationship heritage, linguistic diversity, the development of individual between education and culture, the main challenges we and collective creativity, and the promotion of values rela- have identified in different cities in recent years are the ted to diversity and curiosity, among others. More specifica- following: lly, there are cities which reflect it in measures such as the • The centralisation of educational competencies in following: many countries, which can hinder the adaptation of • Programmes to foster artistic skills among children, formal education programmes to local cultural realities young people and adults, such as the Crea programme and, all too often, also makes it difficult to collaborate (formerly known as Clan1) in Bogotá, the EN RESiDÈNCIA with organisations and cultural agents in the most programme in Barcelona, or the Escuela Libre de las immediate environment. Artes - Arena da Cultura in Belo Horizonte (which • The lack of attention to the arts and culture in formal are presented in this monograph), or the educational education programmes, even with variations according services of the Municipal Cultural Centre of Jbeil-Byblos, to the country and the time. If we understand access to which provide a space for meeting and dialogue with artistic and cultural education as a cultural right and as varied educational and artistic activities for different the basis for lifelong access to culture, the absence of audiences. adequate opportunities both in early ages and in other • Initiatives to bring heritage and traditional knowledge educational and training frameworks is a major obstacle. closer together, such as in the Welcome to the Field • The neglect of educational programmes by some action in Gabrovo, which fosters relationships between cultural institutions, although there is also great young people and older people who have knowledge diversity here and, in general, there is a progressive related to the field and their involvement in local recognition of the need to include education and training heritage activities, or the Festival of the Seed Exchange among the core activities of many cultural organisations, in Seferihisar, which involves actions at schools with which include innovating in methodologies. In any the idea of preserving and showcasing the varieties of event, many cultural institutions and venues (theatres, native seeds and traditional agricultural practices. In museums, heritage associations, etc.) still give limited both cases, knowledge related to nature and educational attention to these issues; in some cases due to the lack and cultural goals is combined to contribute to a more of financial or human resources to deal with them in the sustainable development, which takes advantage of right conditions. everything inherited from the past and gives new • The lack of dialogue among decision-makers of meanings in the present and the future. educational and cultural policies: despite the growing b) Educational, training and mediation actions by cultu- awareness of the links between the two sectors, ral agents. Culture professionals and organisations (asso- institutional frameworks are often not open to cross- ciations, art groups, museums, theatre companies, libraries, cutting partnerships beyond specific projects. Neither is dialogue facilitated, given the frequent inflexibility of educational programmes, especially in formal education, and the lack of time, resources and mutual knowledge 1. The best practices included in the article can be found on: http://obs. between decision-makers and technical staff. agenda21culture.net/es/home-grid 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 35 Lyon. © École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Lyon orchestras, auditoriums, etc.) are increasingly assuming the role of knowledge and cultural participation as a their educational functions, which can have multiple cornerstone of inclusion and cohesion. translations, such as disseminating heritage and creativity; • Training initiatives for the development of cultural fostering actions to appreciate diversity; holding workshops skills and greater professional opportunities, as in and other engagement activities; or creating partnerships the case of the World Music Centre in Aarhus or the with educational and social agents to carry out activities digital education programmes led by the Shadok Centre with an educational component, and which can be held at in Strasbourg. In these cases, the idea is to provide traditional cultural venues, in public spaces and in other an area for possible professional development in the accessible environments. The measures we can observe in arts and culture, together with their intrinsic values of this regard include the following: expression and knowledge and their effects on social • Programmes for the promotion of collective creativity, cohesion. with an impact on the appropriation of public space, c) Innovation in the governance of education and cul- such as the “JE SUIS…” programme in Vaudreuil-Dorion ture. Understanding that education and culture should ex- (also presented in this monograph), or the Dakar School plore their intersections to help exercise human rights and of Commons, which fosters artistic and cultural activities sustainable development in cities should lead to a review focused on citizen debate and the preservation of the of ways of how to design, implement and appraise policies. common good in the neighbourhood. These actions Innovation in the governance of this area includes, first of rethink the public space, often enriching it with new all, fostering integrated strategies between educational artistic expressions, favouring interaction and bolstering and cultural policies, accompanied by collaboration and the feeling of belonging and connection with the human coordination mechanisms and internal training actions so and physical environment. that professionals in each field can better understand the • Knowledge-sharing actions by cultural institutions, particularities of the other. Secondly, and with a similar lo- such as the latest generation ARhus library in Roeselare, gic, it’s important to create spaces for dialogue and collabo- defined as an open knowledge centre; creative writing ration with relevant community stakeholders: associations activities for refugees and asylum seekers at the Dylan representing education and culture professionals; families; Thomas Centre in Swansea; educational programmes at NGOs that influence education and culture, etc. Finally, it’s the Museum of Congonhas; and the educational actions desirable to seek out formulas for collaboration between of the museum and other cultural heritage agents in the various levels of public authorities, which may allow for Conche. Together, initiatives of this type underline an adaptation of educational policies. In many cases, this 36 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 Cultural polo Totatoga, Busan. © Busan City Council Create-Invent-Share Project, Strasbourg . © Strasbourg City Council depends on central government, local cultural realities, and observation and reflection, also entails paying attention other ways of coordination between competent levels in to critical aspects on which to build a stronger long-term each sector. In this area, we can highlight experiences such model. There are several elements that cut across these as: lines of action and which should be integrated into all • Cultural strategies and programmes that integrate the actions to guarantee the quality of the processes and education and social inclusion as cross-cutting their structural impact. The following aspects are worth elements, such as the Galway Cultural Sustainability mentioning: Strategy or the Totatoga Culture Cluster in Busan. • The diversity of content, expressions and knowledge These initiatives reflect a broad overview of cultural included in cultural education programmes and actions: policies, which are linked to other dimensions of the diversity of artistic disciplines; the diversity of the city’s vision from a sustainable development heritage and memories in their tangible and intangible perspective, with particular emphasis on education dimensions; the balance between tradition and and social issues. contemporaneity; technological skills, etc. • The creation of networks and partnership frameworks • The plurality of agents and the design of appropriate between education and culture agents, such as the frameworks for partnerships, with the involvement cooperation initiatives designed under the umbrella of local governments and other public authorities, of the Lyon Cultural Cooperation Charter, which links community organisations, artists, citizens, etc., ideally together a far-reaching network of cultural, educational in ongoing and effective frameworks for dialogue and and social agents to promote decentralised, participatory cooperation. and inclusive actions and seek the equality of all • Attention to accessibility and social inclusion, with citizens in access to culture, or the kültürLab network special sensitivity to opportunities for people at risk of education and culture agents promoted by Izmir as of exclusion and their ability to access and actively part of its participation in the Pilot Cities programme, engage in education and culture actions, the existence of promoted by the UCLG Committee on Culture and adequate information channels on current opportunities, Culture Action Europe, which has served to develop new and the mechanisms for analysis and appraisal of education and culture initiatives given the shortcomings engagement patterns and their results (with data broken in this area. down by gender, age, functional diversity, etc., as and when relevant). Cross-cutting elements and quality criteria The lines of action and the quality criteria set forth Understanding sustainable development as a structural in this article are areas in which the UCLG Committee and ongoing commitment, which calls for permanent on Culture plans to continue working in the next few 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 37 Museum of Congonhas. © Congonhas City Council School of the Commons of Dakar. © Kër Thiossane & Dakar City Council years. This article will particularly underline the need Bibliography to advocate the links between education and culture • UCLG 2004. Agenda 21 for Culture. The commitment of cities and local governments to cultural development. Barcelona: UCLG. for the scope of agendas such as the SDGs and their Available online at: http://agenda21culture.net/sites/default/files/ transfer to national and local levels. This is a process files/documents/multi/ag21_en.pdf that requires collaboration with multiple agents, and the • UCLG 2010. Culture is the fourth pillar of sustainable development. UCLG policy guidelines. Barcelona: UCLG. Committee is open to exploring partnerships both with • UCLG 2015. Culture 21: Actions. Commitments to the role of culture local governments and any other interested organisation. in sustainable cities. Barcelona: UCLG. Available online at: http:// In particular, we would like to expand partnerships with agenda21culture.net/sites/default/files/files/culture21-actions/ c21_015_en.pdf UCLG 2018. Culture in the Sustainable Development educating cities in order to learn more about their Goals: practical guide for local action, Barcelona, UCLG. approaches to the link between education and culture and • HAWKES, J. 2001. The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability: Culture’s to work together on fostering the exercise of the rights of essential role in public planning, Melbourne, Cultural Development Network (Vic) / Common Ground Publishing. all people and on co-building sustainable cities. • IFACCA, UCLG, IFCCD & EUROPE, C. A. 2013. A “Culture” Goal in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. • UN 2015. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. New York: United Nations General Assembly. Available at: https://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/ L.1&Lang=E 38 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 a Vaz Pinto Catarin gal) ity Council (Portu C Culture at Lisbon ouncillor for C 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 39 INTERVIEW Catarina Vaz Pinto holds a degree in Law from the Portuguese Catholic University in Lisbon and a postgraduate diploma in European Studies from the College of Europe, Bruges. Councillor for Culture at Lisbon City Council since November 2009. Cultural manager. Independent consultant in the field of politics and cultural development and cultural and artistic training. Executive coordinator of the Gulbenkian Criatividade e Criação Artística programme at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2003- 2007). Consultant for Quaternaire Portugal S.A. in the field of cultural projects and policies (2001-2005). Executive director and lecturer on the postgraduate course in Cultural Management in Cities at the Institute for the Development of Business Management (2001-2004). Secretary of State for Culture (1997-2000). Deputy Minister of Culture (1995- 1997). Co-founder of the Forum Dança cultural association and executive director (1991-1995). One of the issues that we’re interested in addressing in problem solving; critical thinking and creative thinking; this publication is the complementarity and coherence interpersonal relationships; autonomy and personal between educational policies and municipal cultural development; health and welfare; aesthetic and artistic policies. In which aspects do you think a shared agenda sensibility, technical and technological knowledge; and between education and culture can be defined? awareness and control of the body. Defining a shared agenda between education and culture is essential for the formation of a society that is prepared As co-chair of the UCLG Committee on Culture, you for a life of constant and rapid changes and for the have expressed your commitment to the cultural side adaptability that contemporary society demands. of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the In Portugal, the lack of investment in education during 2030 Agenda. In this sense, how do you think that the forty-plus years of dictatorship has determined the cities can use cultural actions to contribute to the progress of education across the country. In recent years, scope of the SDGs, including Goal 4 on inclusive and the National Conservatory has expanded integrated equitable quality education? arts education to other schools in the country. However, I’m convinced that a city will never be sustainable without universal artistic education in the state school system is its cultural side being explicit and operational. Culture non-existent today. urgently needs to be transformed into a key dimension of At a municipal level, powers in the area of education are urban policies, protecting heritage, supporting creativity, limited to pre-school and do not include the design of the fostering diversity and ensuring that knowledge is syllabus, which is done at a national level. However, by accessible to all. using municipal cultural facilities we’ve managed to reach In Lisbon, there are many permanent educational out to a large number of schoolchildren with initiatives projects based on partnerships between cultural facilities adapted to educational levels and aligned with the key (museums, landmarks, theatres, libraries, galleries, to skills of the 21st-century student profile. archives, etc.) and schools that foster information, debate Pin Meanwhile, educational systems have undergone a and action with the goal of inclusive and equitable quality az change, shifting from paradigms focused solely on education and the promotion of open, multicultural and a V knowledge to others which focus on the development of sustainable cities. They advocate the transformative rin new skills - mobilisers of knowledge, abilities and aptitudes. power of culture and its strategic and cross-cutting role in ata This trend, together with the new student profile, bolsters the SDGs. Related to these permanent projects, we have C and fosters opportunities for joint ventures with the linked schools with vulnerable populations (unstructured Department of Culture, while also encouraging cultural families with low incomes, low levels of schooling, major mediators to commit to this educational benchmark in ethnic diversity) to cultural facilities, including the key order to put the student profile into practice. stakeholders of these facilities, mediators and teachers, A shared agenda needs to influence the creation of skills, with projects featuring a guest artist and based around mainly in the areas identified as core skills: languages controversial and urgent topics where it’s necessary to and texts; information and communication; reasoning and reflect, debate and raise awareness. 40 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 DESCOLA programme © José Frade Issues such as racism, human rights, democracy, identity The recently created DESCOLA programme features and borders are the building blocks for the development creative activities for students and teachers at the city’s of these projects, which later gain visibility among the main cultural spaces, based on the close collaboration wider community of the family and the school itself. This is between mediators, artists and teachers. It includes more achieved through the public presentation of assignments than twenty municipal cultural stakeholders: museums, carried out by the students themselves. These projects theatres, archives and libraries. intentionally have a territorial base, benefiting from It was conceived as a joint action plan of Lisbon City geographical proximity that facilitates mobility between Council through the education divisions of the Municipal the school, the public space, the cultural facility and other Office of Culture and the EGEAC (Municipal Company points of interest identified in the area. They are projects of Facility Management and Cultural Animation) in with a potential for expansion and are designed to attract partnership with the UIED (Research Unit in Education more partners from the same and other areas. This way and Development) at the Nova University of Lisbon. It’s of working also corresponds to a dynamic of efforts being the result of a local survey into cultural facilities and shared among several stakeholders, just as the SDGs their weighting in a broader context of restrictions and advocate and recommend. opportunities on a global scale, while its scope covers the educational possibilities provided by the cultural facilities Could you illustrate this with some specific examples of Lisbon City Council. in Lisbon? As a result, the educational divisions of the cultural In the city of Lisbon, the educational agenda of archives, facilities of Lisbon City Council come together as an libraries, museums, theatres and landmarks, as well as added value to engage students and teachers in creative other cultural facilities and projects, has a relevant and teaching processes for subjects in the school curriculum, significant reflection in the non-formal and informal leading to ways of thinking, of feeling and of responding education possibilities on offer in the city today. Also in within the scope of the skills recommended in the 21st- this field, research into education has helped us see the century student profile. potential that the city’s education options can contribute For the non-school audience, the work is carried out to schooling processes, making it possible to enrich mainly through projects at municipal libraries with teaching and syllabus-related work, as well as expanding numerous training courses in a whole host of fields opportunities for enjoyment and relationships with (health and welfare, computer science, crafts, literature, the city. etc.) or more complex projects such as “Vidas y Memorias 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 41 DESCOLA The project was launched in 2012 by Lara Seixo Rodrigues, The DESCOLA programme pushes the right buttons for who - after working for ten years in architecture - decided to everyone who conceives education as an act of freedom. It’s the change tack and devote herself to urban art, with the WOOL result of a joint venture and the ongoing commitment of Lisbon festival. That’s when she realised that older people were the City Council to the educational dimension of the city’s cultural demographic group that showed the most interest in graffiti and and artistic heritage. This programme of activities reflects the the work of artists. This, added to her awareness of loneliness desire to make it available to everyone throughout their lives and sadness among the elderly population, was the trigger that as a source of inspiration and as a sense of belonging. Aimed gave birth to the Lata 65 project. specifically at the school audience, DESCOLA is a challenge These “urban art workshops for the elderly” involve two accepted by the city’s education teams, the Municipal Company sessions: the first is theoretical and revolves around the history of Facility Management and Cultural Animation and the of urban art, the historical context of graffiti and its techniques, Municipal Office of Culture in order to develop a programme of such as tags and stencils, while the second is practical and creative activities based on close collaboration with mediators, focuses on creating stencils that participants will later paint, artists and teachers. together with various tags and graffiti, on an allocated wall. The activities proposed by DESCOLA, aligned, rethought The graffiti artists are encouraged to paint and draw whatever and grassroot-based, have always drawn on the 21st-century they want - flowers, names, faces - and the idea is to familiarise student profile as a reference and have seen Lisbon’s cultural them with urban art and show them that they can leave their and artistic heritage as a field of research, questioning and comfort zone and do new and seemingly unusual things for their creativity. age. The DESCOLA programme includes more than twenty The workshops organised by Lata 65 were so well received municipal cultural stakeholders (museums, theatres, archives that the project, in addition to having several editions in and libraries) which believe in the educational force of the Portugal and the Portuguese islands, was also repeated arts and culture and want to engage, alongside teachers and internationally, for example in São Paulo and in Texas. students, in the construction of schools that are open and One of the most recent Lata 65 projects was carried out participatory learning communities. in partnership with National Geographic to create Genius: Picasso’s Street with the hashtag #GénioNãoTemIdade (Genius Mimos e livros à mão de semear (Cuddles and has no age limit). This initiative invited about twenty-five books) elderly people from various institutions in order to show that This is a project that makes families aware of the importance it’s never too late to continue creating, clearly inspired by one of stories, couplets, rhymes and lullabies in the cognitive and of the twentieth-century’s greatest artists who until the age psychomotor development of children up to thirty-six months. of ninety-one created works of art that are highly respected Mothers, fathers and caregivers know very well how special around the world. and unique their children are. With this project, we set out to help them better understand these traits and the development Bordalo Pinheiro Museum of each child in the various stages of growth and learning. The museum’s activities cover all types of audiences, providing More than telling stories, this project provides tools for shared informal and themed visits, workshops, courses, gatherings, reading. It’s never too early to share a story, even though presentations, shows, etc. Visitors are invited to interpret newborns don’t listen carefully to the person’s voice and simply the historical and artistic meaning of Bordalo Pinheiro’s work concentrate on their face. However, a few months later, you can and the understanding of its underlying values: conscious encourage them to identify images and babble a few words. citizenship and critical thinking, always with humour as a Our project in four cornerstones: backdrop. 1. R eading awareness actions: there are ten sessions aimed at These values, fundamental in this artist’s work, are one babies from nine to thirty-six months, accompanied by an of the most serious challenges proposed by contemporary adult. They are held every fortnight on Saturdays. education. For schools, and in coordination with current 2. B ook-turning club: this sets out to raise awareness of syllabus-related goals, there’s a subset of activities that focus artistic and cultural practices, such as music, dance, on interdisciplinarity with visual arts, literature, music, the theatre, etc. environment, philosophy, ethics, humour and ethnography. 3. R eading as a family: this programme provides themed Visits, workshops and educational activities for the school packs with books of various genres and formats. Each pack audience set out to build bridges and foster relations with the contains four books and a medical-literary prescription. museum, which in turn stimulate the acquisition of personal 4. R eading bridges: this is a website that has videos with skills that focus on creativity, autonomy, critical thinking and stories, reading suggestions and ideas for activities to do freedom of expression. In the end, everything is part of the at home. place full of originality and talent that is Bordalo Pinheiro’s world. Lata 65 The museum has a permanent programme of workshops, This project sets out to bring older people closer to a form courses, visits and talks which, based on Bordalo Pinheiro’s of artistic expression that is associated with younger people: work, which encourage creativity and invite the participation of urban art. One of the main goals of Lata 65 is to combat children, young people, adults and families, such as workshops stereotypes and prejudices towards the elderly, such as “us” on botany and zoology (scientific illustration), tile painting, and “them”. drawing or printing. 42 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 de Barrio” (Neighbourhood Lives and Memories), which As a result, the Agenda 21 for Culture was integrated into works with the elderly to collect and file memories the city’s cultural policies and we’re now completing the and documents from the past. Two other examples are Pilot City programme on “Culture in Sustainable Cities”.1 “Arqueología de Barrio” (Neighbourhood Archaeology), What’s more, the definition of “Strategies for Culture in which puts the population in direct contact with the the City of Lisbon 2017” was explicitly included in the archaeological remains discovered in their area of Agenda 21 for Culture. residence to reveal information about them, and Lata 65, Incorporating this document into the actions of a street art project for the over-65s. the Department of Culture in Lisbon was a natural process, It takes the perspective of a learning ecosystem that as we found that we were already undertaking projects features cross-cutting spaces, times and content, all that meet the permanent commitments of the Agenda inherent in lifelong learning, in the sense of tackling the 21 for Culture. The compilation of these projects under challenges of the contemporary world and constructing a structured discourse underlines their importance and the society of the future. the results as a set of strategies. We also found that the Agenda 21 for Culture is an important instrument of Could you tell us what the Agenda 21 for Culture has consensus among cities on a global scale, setting minimum meant for Lisbon? frameworks and minimising the typical discontinuity of Lisbon signed up to the commitments of Agenda 21 for political cycles at a local level. Culture at the outset. The advent of facing culture as a key dimension of sustainable development and as a cross- What role does education play in this new strategy? cutting vision finds a practical response in the principles Within the responsibilities and competencies of the and programmes promoted by the UCLG Committee on Department of Culture and the current lines of action Culture. and resources (the Municipal Office of Culture and the Municipal Company of Facility Management and Cultural Animation), the strategy for this area is to explore the educational potential of the city’s cultural agenda through existing cultural facilities and services (museums, 1. This programme, launched by the UCLG Committee on Culture, allows theatres, archives, libraries, etc.). In other words, its participating cities to become Pilot Cities of the Agenda 21 for Culture and take part in a process of learning, skills-building and connectivity based on educational services in relation to each of its audiences the principles and actions included in the Agenda 21 for Culture. and the school audience in particular. Lata 65 project © H. Cardoso Open-doors day, Museu do Aljube © José Frade 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 43 How has the governance of education and culture stimulate the pleasure of critical and creative thinking, been approached from the perspective of dialogue as well as the ability to enjoy cultural realities in an and coordination between the various areas of local informed way, in conjunction with the syllabus-based government? programmes of formal education. The need for ongoing reflection and a reclassification of this area of professional performance was underlined by What challenges or difficulties have you seen in this acknowledging the importance of educational options at regard? cultural facilities for the promotion of Lisbon’s history, Overall, the greatest difficulty is to get other municipal affirming the sense of belonging to a community with offices to recognise the value and the contribution of different cultures, and understanding and valuing the culture. This is our role: to raise awareness through presence of the city in the world and the emotional results that objectively and subjectively reflect the expression of Lisbon. benefits of an action in which the cultural dimension is This pioneering initiative, launched in April 2014 and taken into account. This is even more relevant in an area which gave rise to the DESCOLA project within the where the goals are as coincidental and complementary Municipal Office of Culture, resulted in the development as is the case with culture and education. of new and reinvented educational programmes and And from the perspective of cultural and educational the creation of an informal community of reflection stakeholders, how can we promote a common agenda formed by professionals who conceive and implement the and working procedures that link them all together? aforementioned municipal agenda, as well as educational It’s not easy, but it is possible and a major investment teams from benchmark cultural institutions in the city of is being made in this area. The obstacles to developing a Lisbon. common agenda are: This informal community has worked on the creation • An overfocus on the respective fields of responsibility of new audiences and on new practices of integrated, and involvement of the educational stakeholders relational and network-based work, which has led to in each area, such as the teacher overfocusing on professionals benefiting from lifelong learning and the syllabus and the mediator overfocusing on their refresher courses, with major advantages for their target institutional narrative. That’s why we’re fostering audiences and greater opportunities for engagement. spaces for dialogue and collaboration between teachers The school audience is a concern for many of the and cultural mediators to focus on content with a facilities, and the educational services are trying to shared interest and to promote training activities that Awareness-building for reading Open-doors day, Museu do Aljube © José Frade 44 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 Open-doors day trigger new viewpoints, values and attitudes in standalone projects into common strategies to guarantee teaching practices within formal and non-formal coherence and consistency. contexts. • The lack of time, human resources and money to Which aspects do you think will be fundamental in take students from their school to cultural facilities. Lisbon’s educational and cultural dimension in the That’s why we’re investing in transport (the so-called coming years? school ticket) for students up to 9-10 years old and Fostering a stronger relationship among cultural facilities implementing a free public transport ticket to foster and strengthening the “culture-education-learning” extracurricular activities. triangle through transformative projects that have a • The lack of clearly and effectively structured information long-term impact on people, communities and society as so that teachers can choose what interests them and a whole. then draw on a broad and interesting selection of Creating effective teaching programmes that enhance possible options to do so. As a result, we’re investing in knowledge and the emotional bond with the city such as a better systematisation and accessibility of information, “Islamic Lisbon” and “Roman Lisbon” and, with a view to as well as in digital media. ensuring that citizens are aware and informed of current As for the non-school audience, the greatest difficulty is environmental problems, approaching environmental reaching people who, for various socioeconomic reasons, issues through culture, an example of which is “Lisbon, tend to not take advantage of culture or go to cultural Green Capital 2020”. facilities. This is a barrier in the sense that the potential Stimulating the taste for cultural experiences in people’s target audience isn’t open to receiving information, taking lives, not just based on formal education, but also in part in new experiences or discovering new cultural terms of developing various skills from the perspective of facilities. In Lisbon, we’re taking a proactive stance in lifelong learning. this field and reaching out to the audience. However, in practice, this is a tricky task. As a result, users of cultural Is there any advice or ‘lesson learnt’ from your activities, mainly related to educational options, have a experience that you’d like to share with other cities tendency to stay put. hoping to work in a similar line? Meanwhile, stakeholders responsible for cultural One of the main difficulties that we must overcome is and educational policies are working hard on bringing the tendency to consider the cultural activities proposed sectors together with a view to preventing overlaps by entities, institutions and cities simply as leisure and and redundancies, while also integrating one-off and recreational activities. This misinterpretation is often 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 45 DESCOLA programme © José Frade made worse by the over-specific or partial nature of some considered high culture. The absence of various audiences cultural proposals, which aren’t integrated into coherent can only really be reversed by transforming cultural strategic plans. Overcoming this situation involves further institutions into places where a “shared experience” (of understanding the impact of people’s engagement with conception and creation) is invented, instead of their culture by means of in-depth and strategy-centred traditional function as “places to transfer culture”. With research, guided by goals and focused on the specific regard to this second obstacle, and when it comes to competencies to be developed by participants from a young people, technology can foster new ways research-reflection-educational action point of view. of interacting with culture in a more active and This means recognising that the interrelation between involved way. formal, non-formal and informal educational contexts is a As for culture available to the school audience, the fundamental challenge in today’s world. opportunity to strengthen the relationship between Another obstacle to overcome is the limited municipal education and primary/secondary schools participation of audiences of a certain age and from involves training processes for teachers and cultural certain sociocultural contexts more distant from what is mediators. 46 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 zón Leonardo Gar rtiz A Program O er CRE 2019, Bogotá and Form n 2015 and rmónica de ogotá betwee Orquesta Fila e of Arts of B ut Advisor for the the District Instit Coordinator for . Colombia 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 47 INTERVIEW Leonardo Garzón Ortiz holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Musical Pedagogy and a Master’s Degree in University Teaching from the National Pedagogic University. His musical activity has basically focused on Colombian Andean music, as a performer, conductor and arranger of Andean bandola works. He was coordinator of the music program for the Arts Department of the Francisco José de Caldas District University; coordinator of the training component of the Ministry of Culture’s National Plan of Music for Coexistence; Music Manager for Bogotá from 2008 to 2012; and Arts Education Advisor to the Bogotá District Education Department and the Ministry of Culture. He was the CREA Program Coordinator for the District Institute of Arts of Bogotá between 2015 and 2019. Nowadays, he is working as Advisor for the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá and is in charge of the school program for musical training in the district colleges. For many years now, Bogotá has played an important the areas of music, visual arts, theater and dance, and that role in opening doors to a varied and broad access to, was turned over to the District University, which created and participation in, culture through both formal and a Faculty of Arts. Over the following years no arts training informal educational settings. Could you explain to us programs were carried out. what led the city to promote these policies? In 2012, the third left-wing government took power in Indeed, dating back to the 1950s, the Mayor’s Office of Bogotà, with Mayor Gustavo Petro at the helm, who had left Bogotá has had training programs in the arts; from 1950 to in 1990 the guerrilla group M19. He proposed the initiation 1960, the District’s Department of Education set up various of a fundamental change in the city’s public education non-formal schools focused on training in traditional policies, based on two strategies: (1) lengthening the school Colombian music, theater, visual arts and dance, which day to eight hours per day and, as a result, beginning to were then taken on by the IDCT – the District Institute make the transition to a full school day model (jornada for Culture and Tourism – created in 1978. These schools evolved into higher education programs which, between 1992 and 2005, worked in conjunction with the IDCT and Exhibition of the Crea program, December 2018, Virgilio Barco Library the District University. Another important background element was the Young zón Weavers of Society (Jóvenes Tejedores de Sociedad), ar which was active between 1998 and 2001, and encouraged o G young people to develop technical qualifications in the ard different languages of art. This program developed within eon the framework of policies of democratization of cultural L practices that had been making important inroads, such as festivals in the park, which began in 1995. The idea was for young people in the city, particularly those with limited iz resources, to have access to technical training in different Ort art disciplines, and from there, to become aware of possible professional projects. Starting in 2001, with the change of administration and in keeping with national policies, entities within the cultural sector distanced themselves from artistic training activities, with the idea being that this was the responsibility of the educational sector; thus, Young Weavers ceased to exist. In addition, in 2005 the IDCT eliminated the Academic Sub- directorate which oversaw higher education programs in 48 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 única), and (2) the inclusion of three obligatory subjects in this new period of change: art, sport and citizenship training. A part of this responsibility was assigned to the cultural sector: art, headed by Idartes1 and the Philharmonic Orchestra; sports under the District Institute of Recreation and Sport; and citizenship training, in part, with the District Institute for Cultural Heritage. This is the context in which the Crea program, initially called the Clan program, was born as a response by Idartes to the mandate of the Plan for District Development,2 taking on the task of offering arts training for boys and girls in the city’s public schools who entered within the framework of the full school day policy. It was the first time Crea Festival, October 2018, Simón Bolívar Park that the conditions were provided to fulfill the desire of many artists and organizations to do artistic training within the formal school context. The Clan program was very opportune for schools because, in addition to offering high and in which artistic areas. There are Pedagogical and level artistic training, more intensively and in the hands of Territorial Managers, contracted by Crea, who have direct professional artists, it could provide the infrastructure in contact with each school and coordinate the activities which to do that. The Local Arts Centers for Children and in keeping with the overall Pedagogical Project and the Youth (Clan) were created, drawing the attention of boys details of the operation. The agreement with the Ministry and girls in public schools. of Education envisages a program aimed at children in The program has been carried out without interruption grades 1 to 9, that is to say, between 6 and 17 years old. since the second quarter of 2013. In 2016 there was a The vast majority of those benefiting from the program change of administration and the program was fall within socioeconomic strata 1, 2 and 3.3 Some schools re-tailored along three strategic lines: Art in School, Crea have been able to maintain fairly stable groups over the Entrepreneurship and Crea Laboratory, in order to offer course of various years, allowing for an introduction to art training programs to a broader population and, thus, the different artistic forms during the first phase and diversify the training focus. In addition, the program’s name then, in the 5th or 6th year, the students select the one to was changed from Clan to Crea. which they are most drawn. In 2018, the program worked with 92 schools, involving a total of 46,000 students. What are the Crea program’s main focuses and areas of • Crea Entrepreneurship: this invites children and especially activity? young people from the city’s neighborhoods to take part Currently the program works with seven art forms: drama, in an artistic endeavor with the aim of viewing it as an digital arts, visual arts, audiovisual, dance, literature and opportunity for opening new doors to future prospects in music. These are developed along three strategic lines: their lives. It involves a pedagogical focus on the artistic • Art in School: aimed at boys and girls attending public projects, which includes high level technical training, schools. The aim of this is to reclaim a space for art within ongoing exposure to the expansion of contacts and the concept of overall education and human development. broadened communication and the management that The strategy is based on an interface with the schools’ this implies, as well as the involvement of the children’s curricula and their syllabi. The Art in School training families. The program is free and open to any child or process is carried out in the seven artistic fields; each young person who wishes to benefit from it, given that school determines the number of children participating there is space in the chosen area of training. There is in the program, where that training will take place (60% ample flexibility to accept children and young people into in the schools themselves and 40% in the Crea Centers) more or less established groups, and incorporate them into the creative processes. There are three options from which to choose. One is Getting Down to Work (Manos a 1. Idartes is the District Institute of Arts of Bogotá, created through Resolution 440 of the Council of Bogotá dated June 24, 2010, as a public entity within the Culture, Recreation and Sports sector. See: https://www.alcaldiabogota.gov.co/sisjur/normas/Norma1.jsp?i=39887 2. When using the word District in the context of Bogotá, this refers to the 3. The Colombian government uses a criterion of stratification of urban and entire city, not to portions of it, and, thus, the policies, actions and district rural housing as a measure of quality of life, which serves as a guideline for entities that make up the city. According to the latest census figures the the application of different social policies. See: https://www.dane.gov.co/ population of Bogotá, as of 2018, is 8,081,000 inhabitants. files/geoestadistica/Preguntas_frecuentes_estratificacion.pdf 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 49 Crea exhibition, August 2018, Virgilio Barco Library Crea exhibition, November 2018, Virgilio Barco Library la Obra), generally aimed at children who are still unclear The cultural sector’s aims are coordinated between the about which particular artistic practice most interests Ministry, Idartes and the Crea program, and thus, through them; young people and even adults choose this as well, its implementation, contributes to the guaranteeing of the and creative projects are developed in short periods cultural rights not only regarding the numbers of people it of time, so that the participants can try out different affects (almost 60,000 per year over the last three years), artistic languages. This mode involves an average of 6 but also who those individuals are: children who are not hours per week. Then there is Go on Stage (Súbete a la used to receiving this type of attention from the State; Escena), drawing in individuals who have a clear idea young people who are in the process of shaping their life of which artistic area interests them and, when they projects; and a vulnerable population, especially adults, come in, are already part of active artistic groups. This and all of it corresponding not only to priorities within the involves a commitment of 8 hours per week. And thirdly, cultural sector, but also to the city’s social policies. Citywide Groups (Grupos metropolitanos) which is a With regard to education policies, the Crea programme is group of children and young people with more artistic linked to the national and district priorities of implementing experience and commitment in a particular area of art the full school day model and to the District Education who come from various different training centers, focused Ministry’s pedagogical proposal, which is based on six on the creation and production of high-level professional types of knowledge in turn associated with different fields and artistic pieces, and who are a driving force of the of knowledge: creative (art and culture), experimental program. Currently there are citywide groups in the areas (science and technology), communicative (speaking, of dance, theater and audiovisual work. In 2018, there reading, writing, second language), knowing how to take were 8,000 young people from the city actively involved care of oneself (sports and recreation), knowing how to live in this aspect of the program. and share in community (citizenship and coexistence) and • Crea Laboratory: serving a primarily adult population, knowing how to understand (basic skills), all of which are with specific demographic profiles: the homeless, people interdisciplinary lines of learning. in prison, the elderly, persons with disabilities, children and young people with varying capabilities, African In your opinion, what do creative artists bring to the population groups, indigenous groups, LGBTQ groups, educational process? women under special protection, adolescents in the Keeping in mind that Idartes is an entity that implements juvenile penal system, and victims of armed conflict, policies and actions designed to promote arts for the city, among others. The aim of Crea Laboratory is to support and not an educational institution, the training programs individual and collective symbolic redress, aid in restoring they develop are established with this mission in mind. rights to those abused or to vulnerable population Thus, a choice was made to call the training individuals groups, and provide tools for the affirmation, visibility and involved: Artist Trainers (Artistas Formadores). They well-being of people with special needs through art and, look for actively engaged artists with higher training in particularly, through creative artistic work. In 2018, a total the particular art field in question (most of them have of 2,370 people participated in this aspect of the project. professional degrees) and with certified experience both in creative and training activity. Despite the different How does the program fit with the city’s educational and emphases in each of the strategic lines (Art in School, cultural goals? Crea Entrepreneurship and Crea Laboratory), the aim is 50 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 to guarantee creative experiences in the different groups, efforts in order to agree on the contents, training focuses models, levels and approaches. and the insertion of the arts in each one of the schools’ To carry this out, the training is based on the following education projects. A significant achievement has been epistemological areas of art: made in changing the traditional image of arts in the • Aesthetic Sensibility, understood as a development school context as solely associated with entertainment, of perception and an understanding of the emotional to seeing it as an essential area of knowledge in children’s elements that the immediate relationship with the development with regard to its impact on the brain, external world offers as a sensory experience. Through on emotional development and on aiding to build civic recognizing these elements of sensation and emotions, responsibility. the ability to relate to one’s own self surfaces. There have been ties developed with the Department of • Symbolic Expression, which refers to the ability to Social Integration, which is responsible for the formulation transform emotional and sensory content into a creative and implementation of public policies aimed at the exercise process, based on the languages of art: sound, movement, of rights, social inclusion and improvement in the quality of visual expression, color, character, text, image. life of the most at-risk population groups. Those attended • Knowledge of the arts through their theoretical to through this entity are: elements and their contexts. Artistic practice must be • Underprivileged children belonging to the Department’s able to connect the practical elements of creation with Centers for Love (Centros Amar) and Centers for Growth the theoretical elements that underlie the conceptual (Centros Crecer). constructs of each practice and their associated social • Young people involved with training and creative art and cultural dimensions. This area focuses on the programs provided by the Department’s Youth Centers connections of each of the works with patrimony and the (Casas de Juventud), developed with an eye towards meaning that each different expression brings to building entrepreneurship of young people; individual and collective subjectivity. • Elderly people attending the Department’s Day Centers; • The development of abilities and skills: artistic practice • Homeless people in the temporary shelters (Hogares de is understood to be an experience that creates changes Paso) made available to this population group. in the way the body relates to the expressive elements of In 2018 an agreement was reached with the Department art. of Security, Coexistence and Justice which oversees • The development of creative thinking seen as the capacity the District Prison and several detention centers for to generate unusual, unexpected and new responses adolescents within the SRPA, the Adolescent Penal to particular situations of daily life, making it possible Responsibility System. These two population groups have to think outside of the box, and leading to new ways of been served through the development of training in the acquiring knowledge. area of creative arts and focused on the reorientation of This pedagogical focus aims for artistic practice to life paths and projects for the participants. substantially alter the ways of building knowledge and to In the latter two cases, Social Integration and Security bring to those benefitting from this, ideas about themselves and Coexistence, the alliances have included additional that lead to citizens’ self-expression based on autonomy, resources placed towards the Crea program in order to critical thinking and freedom. be able to hire additional artists and trainers with specific profiles for these particular population groups, thus From the governance point of view, and taking allowing for the development of pedagogical approaches into account that the program addresses cultural, focused on each one and on the specific missions of the educational and social aspects, among others, how has partner entities. the relationship among the different departments of the district administration been structured? What have And with regard to citizen groups, independent cultural been the main challenges? organizations, artists, etc., are there specific aspects From the program’s very inception, the most important which have been key to the program’s success? ally has been the District Department of Education. The The program has established agreements with private non- alliance involves two scenarios, one in which the two profit organizations which contribute to the implementation entities share development plan goals and each one with of the training, particularly for Art in School, through which its own resources carries out the agreed upon actions the Crea program’s educational proposal is developed, with for the fulfillment of those goals. In addition, agreements the pedagogical support of each organization. were signed between the two entities in 2013 and 2017, and For activities associated with circulation and flow through these the Ministry of Education has contributed (festivals, exhibitions, publications, among others) and additional resources to increase budget support for Idartes. research, alliances are made with these same types of Both scenarios involve intense and ongoing management organizations that associate with the entity, and contribute 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 51 with their own resources, management capabilities and – Extension/Flow experience in this sort of activity. – Infrastructure – Technological development Given the size of the program and of the city, it must – Administration have been necessary to modify and adapt it to new This model is the outcome of ongoing reflections and needs and challenges. Can you describe how the adjustments regarding the management, results and program has evolved over the years? scope of the program. Modifications to the program have primarily consisted of: • Electronic arts and interdisciplinary arts: an area of • Attention given to different groups of children within knowledge was added that encompasses creative the public school system. Although it initially focused on processes between art, science and technology, and seeks school programs within the curriculum, it was important to generate creative and aesthetic interfaces with other to take into consideration others who seek opportunities fields of knowledge. and the exercise of their rights with regard to artistic • Flexibility regarding the educational models: the program creation. began with a model that provided a solution at the These two lines, Entrepreneurship and Laboratory, start, which was based on the appropriation of technical are totally under the aegis of Idartes, thus providing elements in each of the artistic languages, and the interesting possibilities for growth and the creation of a creation of certain contents using those elements. Little policy that helps make the program sustainable. by little, the program has taken a closer pedagogical look • A program-specific management model. Currently, this at that, trying to respond adequately to the particularities model comprises six components: of each of the lines, each one of the artistic areas and – Educational development each of the contexts. – Territorial management Crea Exhibition, August 2018. Virgilio Barco Library 52 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 With an eye towards the future, what are Bogotá’s construction that will give the Crea program its own space, objectives in continuing to work along these lines? Are designed for arts training and creation. The proposed there significant changes in store? idea is for the new development plan to continue with The city administration changed on December 31, 2019, activities under the aegis of Idartes for the continuity of and the investment in the plans ends on June 30, 2020. the program. In 2016, some goals were set that are being satisfactorily met and will offer the city a very strong program, with Do you have some advice or “lessons learned” as a enormous commitment on the part of citizens and better result of your experience, that you think might be useful conditions on the institutional level, such as the creation of for other cities trying to work along a similar line? the Artistic Training Sub-directorship within Idartes, which The Crea program has been a great challenge for Idartes, gives added sustainability to the program and other artistic both on the management and policy level. Among the training initiatives at the institutional level. most important lessons learned, the following are worth The program’s strategic lines has been reframed highlighting: with the aim that the upcoming administration with its • Implementing this sort of program has required respective development plan will provide continuity to determination and a political decision, making it possible the program and that it can continue responding in the to overcome the barriers of inter-institutional dialogue, best way to the city’s needs. This change is an effort to which otherwise would have slowed the process. turn the idea of entrepreneurship and special attention to • It has been very important to have the vision of expanding specific population groups into cross-sectorial approaches, the program to include a broader range of population since the need to carry out productive projects reaches groups and to seek coordination with different projects beyond the aspirations of young people and has become an that fall within city administration’s policy scope: expectation for adult population groups as well. Likewise, education, social integration, health, and security, among the idea of special attention is not only applicable to the others. laboratory line, but must also be applied in the school • One of the success factors of the program has been to setting and in different community projects. propose a solution with its own infrastructures. However, Currently there are 20 training centers set up in 11 of the 20 localities4 in the city. Eighteen of those facilities are buildings, unused private schools or rented warehouses which have been renovated. The other two are properties 4. The term “locality” within the Bogotá context, refers to the political belonging to other public entities and are operated and administrative divisions within the city. Currently Bogotá comprises 20 localities. See: http://www.bogota.gov.co/localidades/mapa. The Crea under loan, therefore not generating renovation and program has 20 training centers operating in 11 of the 20 localities. See: maintenance costs. Currently, two projects are under https://sif.idartes.gov.co/sif/public/ Theater festival Festicreadores, September 2018. Final concert, November 2018, Virgilio Barco Library. 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 53 as explained earlier, the current ones are not under the of their sons, daughters or relatives, to value creative control of Idartes, they provide autonomy in various areas work, and to draw family members together around these with regard to the organization, implementation, and types of activities. handling of time and space. • The flexibility of the training approaches has been a What impact has the project had on the different groups great challenge for the program’s educational teams, in who have benefited from it: children in schools, young that it has involved adapting to needs of, and creating people and those living in vulnerable circumstances? possibilities tailored to, the populations served and to the In 2017 the program carried out a research project to entities with which we are associated. However, having identify the impact of the pedagogical processes on those achieved differing models has been one of the factors benefiting from the program, with the aim of “highlighting most valued by other entities within the district and the development, impact and contribution of the Crea national government. Program in the artistic field (artistic practices), the • A project of this nature requires a permanent effort to educational field (educational practices) and the social field document the actions. In this regard, important advances (citizenship and coexistence practices), taking into account have been made in the systematization of administrative, the different actors involved, from a critical perspective.”5 pedagogical and management procedures. From that, Although the results in most of the indicators are positive, increasingly careful analyses have been generated that that is, they show that the Crea program’s initiatives are reflect the territorial presence, the socio-demographic creating changes in the lives of its participants, what is characteristics of the participants, the financial details most important is to have a baseline that, with statistical of the investment and the impact, which are of great criteria, allows for subsequent measurements revealing relevance to the mayor, the directors of the entities those impacts longitudinally. involved, and the policy interlocutors. It is important to The program has been compiling an information system note that, in addition to relying on a very robust and with over 11 million data entries, but with this research reliable information system, two research projects have alone, we now begin to have analyzed data relevant to been carried out making it possible to create baselines policy and decision making. to demonstrate the impact of the program both on This research will soon be repeated with another team participants and on the artist trainers. of researchers, maintaining the methodology and main • Making a program of this type sustainable requires categories, so that the results can be compared with those a strong commitment on the part of the benefitting from 2017. communities, their families and their environments, through which the program has taken very decisive actions yielding results from that commitment. Those who benefit from the program (children, young people and adults) develop a strong appreciation for it, for its artists, for the spaces and, fundamentally, for the opportunity to link art to their lives. It has been a very satisfying experience for the families because they have witnessed 5. The final results of the research carried out will be published on the enormous power that art has to raise the self-esteem www.crea.gov.co 54 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 ichel Vallée of M rtment of the City pa n and Culture De r of the Recreatio Directo n, Canada o Vaudreuil-Dori 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 55 INTERVIEW Director of the Recreation and Culture Department of the City of Vaudreuil- Dorion since 2009, Michel Vallée has more than 20 years of experience in museums and cultural management applied to cities. As a result of these projects, he has given lectures in Canada, South America, Europe and Asia. Among his achievements, the JE SUIS... project, created in 2010, has enabled the City of Vaudreuil-Dorion to offer its population a unique opportunity for community development through culture. Today, it is recognized by major French-Canadian organizations and by the UCLG’s Committee on Culture as one of the world’s leading cities in terms of Agenda 21 for Culture and was awarded the UCLG International Prize - Mexico City - Culture 21 in October 2016. A member of several regional and national boards related to culture and municipalities, and of the cultural mediation research group at the Université de Québec in Montreal, Michel Vallée was involved in creating the new cultural mediation program at Cégep Saint-Laurent and is on the Cultural Citizenship Committee of Culture Montréal. In recent years, he has cooperated with several cities and regions in their discussions on participatory culture applied to community development. For years now, the City of Vaudreuil-Dorion has been this rapid transformation, as gatherings of certain committed to an educational, cultural and citizen communities emerged naturally in neighborhoods that led participation approach for inclusion and social to the emergence of ghettos. The word “ghetto” may seem cohesion. Could you provide us with the context that charged, but we must be realistic: when members of the led to these activities? same cultural community buy about 40 homes in the same Since the turn of the millennium, Vaudreuil-Dorion has neighborhood, there is a risk of the group’s self-exclusion experienced, among other things, a huge rise in population from the rest of the community. which has inevitably led to a major social transformation. Given these new situations, questions have arisen: In less than 15 years, the city’s population increased by • How can we offer a sense of pride and belonging to all more than 118%, partly due to a massive influx of young citizens? families not only from other areas of Quebec, but also • How can we encourage encounters so that citizens of all from all over the world. Due to these new circumstances, backgrounds can meet, appreciate each other, and stop for several years Vaudreuil-Dorion was one of the leading fearing each other’s presence? municipalities in Quebec in terms of birth rates. In 2010 • How can these diverse backgrounds, including the and 2011, it actually ranked first. cultural and intergenerational differences, be brought However, this major transformation would not be the together and turned into a strength? last. Over the past two years, a new phenomenon has been emerging: the arrival of a significant number of What are your city’s strategic cultural priorities right senior citizens seeking to be closer to the services they now, and how do they relate to the goals of Agenda 21 require. The construction of specialized buildings adding for Culture? hundreds of residential units for the elderly has once From the perspective of sustainable development again transformed Vaudreuil-Dorion’s demographic profile. and, more specifically, Agenda 21 for culture, the City In addition, the community, once predominantly French- has decided to pursue numerous measures to ensure speaking, has recently reached the 40% mark for citizens that citizens become important players in their city’s who do not speak French. development and agents of education and culture. 2019 The social makeup of the city has been and is changing and 2020 will be significant years for the City and its every day following the shifts in ages, cultures, and partners in terms of the area’s cultural management backgrounds. and the involvement of the economic community in this By 2009, the aims of elected representatives had effort. Our aim is to create the necessary conditions for become very clear; the city had to pursue specific the area’s cultural development in order to improve the measures to avoid the social problems associated with citizens’ quality of life by encouraging them to learn to 56 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 “live together” and to respect both the history of the places and the differences present in the community. What are the goals and the educational aspects of your cultural efforts in the city of Vaudreuil-Dorion? The approach that Vaudreuil-Dorion has taken with regard to cultural action implicitly involves education. The aim: To take respect for differences and peaceful coexistence to another level. How to achieve it: To create the conditions that are conducive to bringing people together. The vision: Encounters lead to knowledge of others and their differences, and this knowledge, in turn, leads to respect. In Vaudreuil-Dorion, encounters have therefore served as the basis of our educational program, and citizen participation, our most successful diploma. In other words, we have decided to focus on encounters that raise awareness of others and of their differences, regardless of what those differences may be. We started off with the assumption that someone’s country of origin, age, gender or sexual orientation are opportunities to learn from each other rather than opportunities to divide us. Presentation of the project JE SUIS..., 2011 © Stéphane Labrie A very active social worker in our community, Marie-Julie McNeil, told me: “Michel, if we want to achieve different results, we have to use different tools.” After analyzing JE SUIS… is an intervention philosophy based on citizen various ways of doing things elsewhere in the world, involvement, education, cultural rights and participation strange though it may seem, Vaudreuil-Dorion decided to of all community sectors. offer an educational program without naming it as such, When the program was launched in August 2010, cultural so that encountering the other would be the aim, the main mediation became the primary tool for this major project. priority. Several cultural mediation projects were launched at that Educating without calling it that. Bringing culture into time, allowing citizens from diverse backgrounds to meet, the citizens’ daily lives without claiming to do so. Focusing share and discover each other, through participatory on encounters by creating the conditions conducive workshops led by educators, artists, and other cultural to education, taking into account the larger picture. In agents. short, thinking outside of the box as a response to an These are the decisions we made: exceptional situation. • To build on the community spirit that is present in In cities, education is part of our daily lives. All over certain sectors and groups of citizens as a basis for the world, some of the more traditional approaches to expanding it throughout the city. awareness-raising have not worked, yet there are some H ow to achieve it: offer participatory cultural workshops great examples that encourage us to reinvent it. From led by artists and other cultural agents. Creativity traditional schools to university courses offered to the becomes the tool that allows community members elderly in community centers, to formal art schools or attending the workshop to meet and exchange views. even informal ones such as Faro (Fábrica de Artes y Mixing citizens from different backgrounds at these Oficios Oriente) in Mexico; the Escola livre de Artes à workshops has a truly magical effect. The cultural agent Belo Horizonte in Brazil; or the CREA program in Bogotá, becomes the teacher or, rather, one of the teachers, Colombia, education can and will take different paths. since all participating citizens unwittingly convey their Vaudreuil-Dorion has simply created its own model of values, their culture, and their history. cultural action—one where encounters become an act of The goal: to create a community that knows and education. A model built on realities and differences. respects itself, which is proud of the differences among its members; a place where people help each other, Could you give us an overview of the JE SUIS… participate, and build their future jointly in the community. program? When did it start? Was it inspired by other • To integrate the JE SUIS… project with a cross-cutting international initiatives? approach: 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 57 Cultural mediation © City of Vaudreuil-Dorion 1. Into the city’s entire administration (policies, general our 125 community partners, approximately 20,000 management, communication, public works, technical participants engage in JE SUIS… services, human resources, etc.), not only into cultural As follows are a few examples, listed by partner type: services. 1. The education community 2 . Into all the areas in the community (health, policies, Among these partners, teachers and school principals business, education, environment, community, culture, as well as the school board of our region (the para- etc.) so that everyone becomes a catalyst of change. governmental organization managing schools in Quebec) Beginning in 2004, even before I arrived in Vaudreuil- have always played an important role. For example, several Dorion, I developed cultural projects where culture and ventures were pursued with teachers in conjunction with education were closely linked. When I was approached by existing educational programs to add social cohesion and the Quebec organization Culture pour tous, I realized that community involvement to their objectives. what I was doing had a name: cultural mediation. After 1.1. Discovering Félix Leclerc reading about the experiences of Lyon and Grenoble in As adults, we are highly aware of our responsibilities France, in 2009 I was finally able to witness first-hand towards our children. Imagine that you and your the importance that culture could have for the family move away from your country with the sole development of individuals and of the environment in aim of offering your children a better life. The culture, which their lives unfolded. The JE SUIS… program was the language, and the attitudes - everything is inspired by the energy of these two French cities. I like different. Often isolation awaits you. Thanks to several to say that Lyon and Grenoble are actually my second partnerships, several groups of adults in the process of biological parents. learning French have worked with the music of the great Quebec songwriter Félix Leclerc, who died in 1988 but What impact has the JE SUIS project had in mobilizing is still considered one of the fathers of Quebec culture. different audiences? And could you also tell us who the Bringing native and immigrant Quebeckers together, main players are? these gatherings, focused on poetry and song, helped to Counting all our partners, an average of about 50 considerably improve the results of existing educational activities have made it possible to offer close to 800 programs related to Frenchification. public workshops a year, helping to establish citizen 1.2. Through the eyes of the past and the present participation and cultural rights as a given, as a natural J ointly with a group of community partners including act, as an educational process. Each year, thanks to senior citizens’ centers, schools, a youth center, and 58 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 several artists, the Centre d’archives de Vaudreuil- due to social exclusion or even mental health issues, for Soulanges has created an exceptional exhibition concept. example: Using archival photographs, senior citizens shared their 2.1. Back to the sun memories with groups of children and teenagers from A timeless event was held on May 4, 2011. A moment to diverse backgrounds. Following these inspiring meetings, stop and talk about the unspeakable: losing a child. the children illustrated these memories and the teenagers Jointly with all its partners, including the Centre de sought out the buildings or places they had discussed and santé et des services sociaux (CSSS, the Health and photographed them as they stand today. The exhibition— Social Services Center) for its area, the City brought the or rather, the entire educational process—was awarded the community together around pain, but above all, around History Award by the Governor General of Canada. This hope. For nearly four months, 24 bereaved parents who wonderful way of encouraging unlikely encounters across had lost their children just before or after birth worked generations serves the purpose of raising awareness of with three artists to challenge conventions and break the history underlying today’s urban landscapes. down taboos. 1.3. The circus across generations J ournalist Patrick Richard compiled the letters that Take kids who practice circus arts after school every parents had written to their deceased children, dividing week, and pair them up with elderly people who live them up and then joining them into a single text to be alone in retirement homes. Using the circus of the past delivered before an audience. Participants were able to and the present as a starting point, they write to each shout, to show their distress, to whisper. Director Patrick other for several weeks. The theme becomes a pretext Rozon created an installation of parents who delivered for writing, for exchanges, and for getting together. On the text they had written with heartfelt emotion. Finally, a sunny afternoon in the spring of 2018, they finally mosaic artist Madeleine Turgeon joined participating meet. The children are taken to the retirement home, parents to co-create a sculpture inspired by a gesture where they meet their correspondents for the first from one of the fathers involved who reached his time and work with them on a sculptural piece. There hands up to heaven, saying he was still waiting for his is nervousness, laughter, tears. Authentic emotions. child. The piece, a tree with a baby inside a hole in its Only the real thing. Among them, we find Hubert and trunk, still waiting, continues to unsettle all those who Jeannette (11 and 72 years old), who met through the see it. artist John McRae at the initiative of the Harwood The father of one of the participants told us that his school principal who wanted to organize an activity family had come apart since this tragic loss because the based on exchanging letters and improbable encounters. subject had become taboo. He didn’t understand why Yes, there are results. his daughter and son-in-law couldn’t move on. After that Yes, some of the exchanges remain significant. evening, he realized why. He even told us that the event Yes, there are exchanges that last over time and develop had brought his family back together again, because it into regular encounters between the child with her had allowed them to understand. parents and the “new friend of the family.” Here, everyone became a speaker, an agent of change, Y es, there are real lessons learned from each other’s a teacher, a bearer of light, proudly changing people’s presence and stories. mindsets. 1.4. Mentardises (Tall Tales) 2.2. The artists of happiness Designed in collaboration with a professional storyteller, Adults living with an intellectual disability work five teachers and a recreation counselor from a school for days a week on art projects with professional artists and teenagers, this cultural mediation activity lasted more citizens who join them on a per-project basis. Gathered than 3 months, offering some 300 young people aged 14 in a historic house in a park in the heart of the city, to 16 from various cultural communities the opportunity these people you were avoiding yesterday become your to participate in a storytelling competition in the form of mentors today by showing you what to do. More than a deceptive boast that they must act out in front of their an art workshop for people living with an intellectual class and ultimately on stage at a major gala. One of the disability, the Vaudreuil-Dorion model goes further by highlights of this adventure is undoubtedly the inspiring placing Les artistes du bonheur (the artists of happiness) account of one of the young participants in the grand in the heart of their community and changing people’s finale who dropped out of school and came back for the way of thinking, one person at a time. Once again, competition, because he finally had the chance to create informal education proves to have a lasting impact. a narrative of his own. 2. The health and social services community Have you encountered any significant difficulties The JE SUIS… program is full of examples of health care or challenges in the involvement and collaboration for vulnerable groups living in exceptional situations between educational and cultural agents? 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 59 “Les Mentardises” project © City of Vaudreuil-Dorion Back to the sun © City of Vaudreuil-Dorion Needless to say, not everything has been easy. We had to The process of building citizens’ capacities is facilitated use specific actions to convince others that this different and even enhanced by the use of culture as the main tool outlook could complement traditional forms of education. for communication. And the reason is that culture is based In this regard, although the wonderful Mentardises project on a non-competitive framework in which everyone’s ended because several teachers had to leave and focus contribution is based on their dreams, their values, and their energy on other challenges, other marvelous efforts their own histories. In other words: were developed by teachers and school principals who • I share who I am. were concerned about placing the children they were in • By expressing who I am and some of my customs, the charge of into the heart of the community, with all the way I act, I gain awareness of and take responsibility challenges that process entails. for them. I’m proud of it. First of all, I am proud of the On the other hand, education professionals in museums distinguishing features that I speak about; secondly, I am were initially cautious, waiting to see in what direction proud to share them and make them available to others. the City’s vision was headed. After only a few months, In practice, thanks to cultural mediation as well as to they became major advocates of the program by citizen participation and the contribution of the cultural proposing citizens’ meetings that were as unlikely as agents who define it, each participant alternates between they were successful. Ultimately, all the arguments in the being the teacher and the learner. The newly-acquired world can never match action on the ground. It’s the only knowledge is also a source of great pride. There is an way that community partners truly take ownership of the image that I am not likely to forget: a citizen who was process. an amateur photographer at the time was reluctant to approach the adults with intellectual disabilities in the What are the key components for ensuring permanent, artists of happiness program; he kept a distance and felt supportive participation of all agents involved? uncomfortable about taking pictures of them. Right away, The JE SUIS… project didn’t just materialize with the one of the “artists of happiness” named Joel approached wave of a magic wand. We had to secure the commitment him, hugged him tightly, and cried out with joy. Something of local organizations and social groups to agree to do magical happened, above and beyond words. You should things differently and, above all, to accept that their usual have seen the pride in his eyes and the pride he expressed groups be mixed with other groups within the community, out loud in this unique project. The photographs he took often seeming light years away at first sight. Believe me, later showed how much he loved his new friends... the from the very first meetings, the results are visible and “artists of happiness.” everyone realizes how important it is to be there. What are Vaudreuil-Dorion’s main goals for the future Given these experiences, what can cultural in terms of education and culture? participation contribute to citizens’ capacity-building To quote Guy Pilon, Mayor of Vaudreuil-Dorion, “Culture processes? Could you give any specific examples? and the JE SUIS... program are now embedded in our 60 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 city’s DNA.” In the future, Vaudreuil-Dorion intends to enable the first smiles to be exchanged. They also enable continue to promote the impact of education through the region to don its most beautiful robes, woven out culture in a cross-cutting way among even more citizens of pride and belonging. These works, the proud proof and partners. of an extraordinary educational program, punctuate • Mozaïk, an umbrella cultural network, was launched the surroundings and the daily life of the Vaudreuillois- to maximize the impact of cultural venues on the Dorionnais. population and to involve more interested citizens JE SUIS... is a major educational venture that only in conveying their knowledge. The Mozaïk website recently dared to acknowledge itself as such. After all, highlights an online cultural newspaper written by although words sometimes allow us to understand and citizens engaged in this project, yet another instance of embrace, at times action is what allows us to inspire the learners becoming teachers. citizens of a city to get involved. These moments become • A large mural painted on a water tower, designed by the opportunities to meet and to shine a light on the future of ASHOP artists’ collective after a wide-ranging process all those who have become both learners and teachers in of citizen discussion and co-creation, will mark the a unique community, which is their own. landscape for weeks with references to the city’s history, its present, and its future in the heart of an old quarter What advice would you give to other cities that would that is currently being revitalized. This major project like to pursue a similar approach to the one your city is part of a series of cultural mediation efforts carried has implemented? out in this neighborhood with hundreds of participants Inspiration does not mean taking a project and (Nourrir ses rêves, Le souffle de ma communauté and reproducing it just as it was elsewhere. If we have had Unité dans la diversité). the privilege of inspiring other communities to date, it These actions show beyond any doubt that cultural is because the JE SUIS... model is based on four specific mediation ventures focused on encounters and informal elements: education are an integral part of our city’s future. A 1. Proposing encounters that lead to knowledge of the future built upon belonging, respect for our differences, other, to awareness of our differences, and to respect and, above all, pride in those differences and on living in for those differences; creating unlikely encounters a community where culture and education do not always between different groups within the community. need to be referred to as such, because they are simply 2. Bringing partners together and leading them into experienced. this experience of meeting with agents from different In Vaudreuil-Dorion, cultural agents, community backgrounds, so that together they are able to create partners (business, health, urban planning, elected other encounters involving the citizens with whom they representatives, etc.) become facilitators, educators who interact. Artists of happiness © City of Vaudreuil-Dorion Artists of happiness © Daniel Bouguerra 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 61 3. Asking questions non-stop. In fact, there is no book of What social observation or situation experienced in the rules, but rather a long list of questions to ask. What community do you want as the main focus? Then the ques- social observation do we want to address? Whom do we tions will be self-evident. Who? With whom? How? Where? want to reach? Who can we work with to achieve this? Get your elected representatives involved not by appea- How do we get specific citizens out of their comfort ling to the politician but to the human being within them. zone while offering them an appealing challenge? What Our human feelings are our best drivers for change. In this is the most inspiring and meaningful place to carry regard, I would like to point out that the elected repre- this out? What artist has the kind of personality that is sentatives of Vaudreuil-Dorion started up the JE SUIS... capable of striking that magic spark?, etc. project out of an urge to improve the quality of life and the 4. Leaving a record of these meetings to remember, relations among citizens. They did it for EACH of the City’s inspire, and continue moving forward. residents. The political risk was high. Relying on culture to My main recommendation would, therefore, be to listen educate and lead a community into the future called for to your community and focus on what you want to address. true vision. The circus of generations © City of Vaudreuil-Dorion The circus of generations © City of Vaudreuil-Dorion 62 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 gner ator Ernst Wa n executive coordi unich and of in M University f Fine Arts Education at the t the Academy o Culture in d Professor a O-Chair in Arts an UNESC Germany of the remberg, Erlangen-Nu 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 63 INTERVIEW Ernst Wagner studied visual arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany, and graduated with a PhD in art history (University of Munich). He has past experience working as a secondary school teacher; at the Bavarian Ministry of Education and Culture; and at the Institute for School Quality and Research in Education in Munich. In 2008 Ernst began working at the UNESCO-Chair in Arts and Culture in Education at the University of Erlangen- Nuremberg and from 2014 to the present has been at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He is an honorary professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Ernst Wagner is member of the Board of Culture at the German Commission for UNESCO. On the European level he is chairing the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA). He initiated the “European Network of Observatories in the Field of Arts Education” (ENO) and the “International Network for Research in Arts Education” (INRAE), a global network of UNESCO-Chairs and UNESCO-Observatories which has been transformed into a UNITWIN network, recently recognized by UNESCO. Within INRAE he has been responsible for the project “Monitoring Arts Education” (MONAES). He has published more than 250 articles and books in ten languages. This monograph aims to address the many synergies well as the regional or national level. We find education between education and culture that can exist at the ‘for, in and through the arts’ not only at schools (in local level, and how these can be transferred into the the respective art, music, theatre, dance lessons) or in policy domain. Based on your extensive research in cultural institutions, but also in youth clubs, peer-to-peer these areas, could you first briefly describe how the learning settings such as in a music band or a break-dance arts and culture play a role in education and learning formation, or just in a mother’s singing with her child. processes? The mother may be interested in training her child as a This is not an easy question because there is not just future professional singer, or in developing a well-rounded one answer to it. We have to begin with looking at three person, or in teaching values or social skills through the different functions that art and culture in the educational arts. process can perform. Perhaps it becomes clearest when we Of course you can also consider the content, the look at the ways in which art and education can be related topics related to arts education. Cultural education can to each other. Here we can distinguish between three encourage people to learn about their cultural heritage different approaches, each of which is associated with a and to engage with various forms of traditional and different role for the arts: contemporary art (arts education in the narrow sense). It 1. Education for the arts, including promotion of the can also thematise everyday culture (cultural education talented ones who may comprise the next generation of in the broad sense) as a source of, and resource for, their artists, vocational training present and future life. 2. Education in the arts, including encouraging everyone As you can see, there are many answers to your to use their capacity for artistic experience such as question. Perhaps a matrix could be helpful to visualize the appreciation of art or expressing oneself through artistic different ways. Using this matrix could help to locate one means, and specific activity and see what stakeholders in the field may 3. Education through the arts, including using the arts not see, as they have to decide what to do. for other purposes, for example, to use multiple learning Finally, I would like to add, if I may, a slightly styles or also be creative in non-art fields. controversial comment regarding your question. First It is important to recognize that all three approaches are you speak of synergies between two fields, but then you legitimate and equal. only ask what role one field could play for the other, and In addition, these three approaches can all take place in not vice versa. I find that interesting. This is a general formal, non-formal and informal settings on the local as tendency in the way we all think. But why do we always 64 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 APPROACH SETTING FOR THE ARTS IN THE ARTS THROUGH THE ARTS RY Formal A RE OR P LTU EM U T C ON Non-formal - T L-C AR NA IO DIT Informal RA T Figure by the author have this one-way direction in our mind? Why don’t we confl icts between the levels, as we know, but we cannot ever enquire about the role educational aspects could overlook any one of those levels, and we must negotiate play in the arts? This would also allow us to discover new, the confl icts. innovative art practices that work in the social or political context. How can arts education contribute to the promotion of values such as living together, inclusion, participation What is the significance of this as regards and civic engagement in the local context? international agendas, such as the Sustainable Everybody could answer that now with countless personal Development Goals? experiences; we all know at least one excellent example All stakeholders in the fi eld, around the world, are aware of from our town, village or city. So, I choose to concentrate the important and indispensable role of general education on just one specific content: lifestyle. From my point (not of arts education) for the implementation of the of view, it is very convincing, because it encompasses Sustainable Development Goals. Thus UNESCO has been individual and collective aspects in an interesting way. shaping the concept of ESD (Education for Sustainable We can talk about the lifestyle of an individual, or of a Development) accompanied and supported by huge efforts. community, perhaps even of a society or an historical Numerous local, regional, national and international period; different political or economic systems or resources are invested in this fi eld that is essential for our subcultures, all of which create a specific lifestyle and we future. can learn from this diversity that it can be shaped in very Interestingly, with regard to arts education, we different ways indeed. Awareness of one’s own relativity is can always observe a gap between the two realms: always a good starting point. sustainable development and the arts. This gap exists It is crucial for art educators to keep in mind that in both directions. For instance, arts educators fear that lifestyle is always created and primarily follows aesthetic the arts are functionalised or abused for purposes of principles. We choose and combine aspects, and out of persuasion, selling or even propaganda. This sensitivity those we shape our style because we think it is somehow towards indoctrination is widespread, even if it is for a beautiful. Lifestyle is an aesthetic project and thus a good good, ethically acceptable reason. On the other hand, ESD example of an interesting topic in visual art education; people often prefer approaches that are ‘more serious.’ it includes not only fashion design, food design, interior They mistrust the arts as a luxury, a surplus that cannot design, architecture, urban planning but also the way we really contribute to ESD in an essential way. move, behave, look, style our hair, etc. I have a rather simple answer from my perspective. Important to this example is the very strong form of Taking into account that we refer to anything that human identifi cation to be found here: it is always ‘my’ or ‘our’ beings do or know, as ‘culture’ – and considering that lifestyle and we view with ‘critical’ eyes how the ‘others’ the arts are a specifi c fi eld in culture that human beings look. have developed throughout time as one of narratives, Returning to the individual-collective aspect, I think symbolisation, refl ection and experimental exploration of an educational project in which children, youngsters, – then there is, in any case, a clear connection to adults discuss how the ‘lifestyle’ or the ‘image’ of their Sustainable Development. As human beings we deal with community (be it a big city or a small village) should our future on different levels; for example, a normative look. What is necessary in order to develop and shape level in ethics or religion; an instrumental, technical or such a collective lifestyle is about creativity, openness pragmatic level in policy making; and last but not least, a towards alternatives and the unexpected consideration of symbolic level in the arts. Sometimes, or often, there are totally different ways of thinking, transparency, rational 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 65 justification, tolerance towards other points of view, etc. In short, we need artistic thinking. A project like that, by the way, would also allow participation – in a playful way. As we all know, participation in this context is a huge challenge for all communities. What could be some quality criteria to guide arts edu- cation programmes and projects? Are there any major differences between formal and non-formal education in Artistic education project that have helpd to slow down the migration this respect? of the population, South Korea With regard to the scepticism of arts education towards ESD, perhaps three quality criteria are decisive: 1. the prohibition of overwhelming (no indoctrination) through consideration of different, controversial positions. By presenting the respective topic in the context of controversial subjects regarding science, culture and politics, the positions taken by each are relativised. Young people must develop their own point of view; 2. enabling young people to analyse their own interests in political situations; 3. encouraging the playful, creative and open dimension that underlies the character of the project. The above-mentioned lifestyle example can perhaps reflect this idea and how these quality criteria can be put into practice. This is particularly true with regard to goals such as a peaceful, socially inclusive and participatory society. As to your second question, there is no difference between formal and non-formal education in terms of ‘Ghetto Classics’ is a project which provides musical experiences to young people in the Korogocho informal settlement area, a slum in this issue. The differences that are there exist between Nairobi. The activities include teaching children and young people to the three approaches I addressed at the start. Education play classical music instruments, and to read and perform music by for the arts mainly focuses on the output, the results; for Beethoven and Mozart, among other composers. example, the ‘performance,’ and the products of young talents on their way to becoming professional artists. Processes (and not products) are essential for education in the arts. This takes place in formal and non-formal settings. Formal education (i.e. in schools) focuses on general educational goals; that is the most important approach there. But it is not limited to this realm. In turn, education through art addresses transferable skills. The big goals (for, in, or through) define the relevance of criteria, not the settings. You have also done research on the integration of a cultural diversity perspective in arts education. What does this imply in practice? We have collected examples for ‘diversity oriented arts education’ around the world and, in a second phase, particularly in Europe. Having done this, we now have quite a clear picture of what this idea or concept could The artist Abd Elmohsin started a project in a community at Lake Burullus, a brackish water lake in the Nile Delta in Egypt. Artists have mean. One of the results is that we can no longer talk only been invited to produce paintings in the public space of this village, about intercultural aspects, because trans- or multicultural on walls, doors and fishing boats. Soon, children and women began aspects are relevant and valid as well. ‘Diversity education’ painting their own houses as well. 66 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 can be differentiated into specific dimensions. This has led to a model that allows for analysis and understanding of practice. The following graphic model offers an initial insight into this. What we could learn, as well, is how diverse the concepts are in the different regions around the world, because the challenges themselves are so unequal. By developing a model like the shown, we are not only able to understand these differences but also to talk about them, with colleagues from different regions of the world in a common language. Finding a common language in Art + climate = Change, festival to foster a social commitment for international networks is always an ongoing challenge, as changing attitudes that gathers together artists and researchers, and we know. environmental and climate specialists, organised by CLIMARTE. Bearing in mind the research you have conducted at European and international level, what are some of the climate change and new migration movements as the main trends you observe concerning the connection between challenges that will lead to new political upheavals and educational and cultural policies? conflicts. What we are currently seeing in many countries is a trend Cultural and arts education cannot escape these towards greater politicization of arts education. After the global developments. Looking towards the future, this end of the Cold War, the signals were set for convergence. means that ‘education through the arts’ will receive In the meantime, however, tensions and conflicts have been much stronger emphasis, also from a political angle. The increasing worldwide, not only within countries, but also potential of arts education to meet the challenges facing between countries. And new challenges lie ahead. You have ahead, has long been recognised in many countries. In just addressed cultural diversity issues. I would like to add politics, which aims for social cohesion, cultural education Can we find an attitude of acknowledgement and appreciation of and respect for ‘the other’ and consider ‘the other’ as equal? (Appreciation of ‘the other’) YES NO TRANSCULTURALITY INTECULTURALITY Shall the own YES Learning with each ‘other’ Being aware of ‘the other’ culture be and taking it into account Participation developed further Global Citizenship Sensitisationn by cultural interaction? MULTICULTURALITY LEADING, DOMINANT CULTURE (Openness towards the Doing something for other people, Connecting and aligning ‘the NO helping them other(s)’ to the own culture ‘other’) Empowerment Prevention Assimilation 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 67 SUSTAIN IT! Art lab in Berlin started the project “ART TO STAY” which In a large model, people from one favela in Belo Horizonte, that was addresses the trend to have more and more ‘takeaway coffee.’ Students destroyed by a property boom, reconstructed their lost place (and thus and artists explored why people do this. They found it was a way to their lost way of living) in a joint, creative action. show that they are modern, hip, active, young, wasting no time, and that they are important. The project turned this round to promote habits of lingering and enjoying coffee to the full. From ‘takeaway coffee’ to ‘art to stay.’ is therefore being increasingly promoted. Social, domestic, At the international level, it is becoming more complex. educational and cultural policy go hand in hand. And It starts with whether, for example, artists from there are very successful examples of this, in the area the global South receive a visa for Europe or North of intercultural learning, and in the empowerment of America. And it ends with the question of the common participation by young people. language that we must find in order to facilitate not only What has been largely lacking so far, however, is the communication but also cooperation. Here I would like integration of arts education into foreign or transnational to refer to the very important publication that addresses policy. But here, too, we can hark back to long-standing precisely this issue: Arts Education around the World: traditions: international partnerships between cities, Comparative Research Eight Years after the Seoul exchange programmes for cultural activities, encounters Agenda. Here, for the first time worldwide, results were between young people, etc. But these concepts need to gathered and interrelated.1 be rethought today. New challenges need new formats, and we need political support for that. Unfortunately, the Looking in particular at developments in cities, what attempts here are still far too tenuous. are the main areas in which local governments can contribute to an agenda on the arts, culture and What are the main obstacles or challenges to a stronger education? integration of policies in these areas? In recent years we have been to Belo Horizonte in Brazil; Here again we have to make a distinction between the Yaounde in Cameroon; the small Italian town of Poggio; national and the international level. At the national level, Singapore; and Riga in Latvia, to work together with local the main problem in almost all countries is probably still the actors on these issues. Based on this experience we were division of culture on one hand, and education on the other, able to develop a clear idea of what is needed in respect into certain departments or areas of responsibility. But arts to your question. What we know from this international education, as I have just defined it, is a cross-cutting task. experience is that it is essential, above all, to develop a It always affects several ministries. And that requires a new convincing profile that is precisely tailored to the local understanding of politics. situation and that is developed jointly with the local What would be really helpful – beyond the usual actors. That sounds banal, but of course it is not. Here, recommendations – is to get to know the other fields we rely very much on the principle of reflected profiling. I in which one is not working, but with which he or she is would like to share here a matrix we developed in a global collaborating. A person who is responsible for social policy research project, looking for bridges between arts or measures should work once for four weeks in the cultural cultural education and the SDGs as a reference document. field. The cultural person, on the other hand, should It may look confusing but it is actually quite simple. work in urban planning, and so on. Only if I have an idea of what is going on in all the other areas can I cooperate properly. For this kind of further education (which is what I would call it) you need supporting programmes, but also 1. It is published as volume 5 of the International Yearbook for Research in moderators/trainers. Arts Education, published by Waxmann Verlag in 2018. 68 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 ARTS EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Environmental Social Cultural Economic dimension dimension dimension dimension e.g. e.g. e.g. e.g. 12 Consumption & 10.2; 16 Inclusion 4 Education 8.6 Work Production 5 Equality (gender) 4.7 Diversity 8.9 Tourism 11.1/3/7 16 Peace 4.7/12.8 9.5 Innovation Settlements Contribution of culture (heritage) 11.4 Heritage In arts education we can distinguish between four But something was added here. On the occasion of different profi les or dimensions when it comes to a large conference on these programmes with over sustainability: environmental, social, cultural, and 800 participants from Bogotá in attendance, some economic. Now we can bridge these dimensions to specifi c international experts were invited to observe and evaluate Sustainable Development Goals – here represented by the the situation on site. This could not be comprehensive icons – and Targets, specifi ed in the boxes. because time did not allow that. So it was not about the Which aspect is crucial depends on the situation in a typical evaluation of strategic planning, regarding input, particular city. Do we want to address tourism, heritage processes and outcome, but rather about a different, issues, diversity in education, peace, or consumerism? innovative form of feedback that should work as a Policy makers and stakeholders must set the priorities formative evaluation. Leonardo Garzón Ortiz, a colleague in keeping with the respective local context. From this, who lives in Bogotá, Larry O’Farrell from Canada, and I an arts education policy and specifi c measures can be found a way to work out the profi le of the programmes in developed. It is important to add that this task must be Bogotá via a category model, that was similar to the one understood as a cross-sectional task in which education, above based on the four dimensions. We exchanged our culture, social affairs and urban development / urban assessments and discussed them together. We all agreed planning must work together. on the profi le by which, for example, the CLAN project sets the cultural dimension fi rst, closely followed by the Could you illustrate this with an example? social dimension with very little emphasis on the economic We all know good examples of connecting culture, dimension.2 education and social development in the cities in which we Earlier in this piece I addressed the necessity of fi nding live. But here, in this publication, we should think one step a common language in international cooperation. In beyond that. An example from Bogotá in 2015 could be of my opinion, this has been a good, successful example. interest. The City of Bogotá carried out two major projects in the slums at that time: El Nido and CLAN. In both of them, protected and non-violent spaces were designed with arts education activities. This is one of the many convincing 2. Larry O’Farrell, Leonardo Garzón Ortiz & Ernst Wagner. ‘The Bogotá Experience: Pre-testing Proposed Dimensions for the Evaluation of Arts examples of excellent development work through culture Education’. In: International Yearbook for Research in Arts Education - Vol. and education. 4/2016, Münster/New York (Waxmann), pp 41 - 51. 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 69 The common language was found – this is particularly You have been involved in several international important – in the dialogue between external observers networks. Whereas competences and trends in education and local actors. Such processes need the support of local and culture are often very different in each country, policies that have an interest in further developing their why do you think it is important to foster international programmes. cooperation in this area? Our daily experience tells us that important developments Could you give other examples of good practice, for in the political or economic field always take place on instance on education through arts? the ground, but arise in transnational contexts and are The global research project that led to the matrix shown significantly influenced by them. This is true in all fields, before – the one with four dimensions in respect to the not only in the arts, in culture or in education. Think, for SDGs – has delivered exciting examples. For instance, in example, of the major influence that the international South Korea, arts education activities in a remote region OECD study ‘PISA’ had on educational systems worldwide. have helped to stop the migration of the population. In Or what influence the biennials all over the world have Egypt, art activities supported the people living in a small on the development of the visual arts. So much happens fishing community to identify with their own village. simultaneously in local and global spaces. Likewise, in Brazil, an art school has helped to give new The exciting thing about this is the constant oscillation perspectives to displaced inhabitants from a favela. In these between distinctions, demarcations on the one hand and three examples, the main focus is on the development of leanings or takeovers, on the other. We all know this from the community, the city and the rural area. our own individual development, and systems do not Another example, from Nairobi, Kenya, focuses on function differently. vocational qualification. Here, at a music-school in a slum, International networks are platforms on which a common young people have the chance to develop their skills exchange regarding these questions takes place in a and attitudes by playing music together, which helped peaceful and collaborative way. They make the above- them massively in their search for work. Different from mentioned oscillation effective and fruitful. There we can this approach are two examples from Germany and New also better observe general developments and reflect Zealand. Both address attitudes towards environmental together. And for this to happen we need international destruction in a very playful way. I hope we can publish cooperation, international networks. the results of this research soon. At the moment I can only say, it works! Experiences 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 71 EXPERIENCE Gunsan: A City of Modern Cultural Heritage and Lifelong Learning Yang Keonseung y Yungjae Jang Education and Human Resources Division, Gunsan City Council Despite its modern cultural heritage wealth, Gunsan City, which opened its port in 1899, has suffered from a local economic recession due to civic disengagement caused by poor housing conditions. Gunsan is a city reborn as a famous Korean tourist attraction by combining the preservation of its modern cultural heritage with the tourist industry through citizen participation and lifelong learning. Gunsan, Where the Past, Present and Future Coexist Since opening its port in 1899, Gunsan has become a focal city of Korea’s modern history and culture. As a trade port with advanced shipbuilding and automobile industries, it has a population of 272,645; an area of 681.15 km2; and a total of 63 small and large islands. Gunsan is a central city of the Saemangeum Project, a national reclamation project, which constructed the world- longest seawall, measuring 33.9 km, and has put into effect a large-scale project involving the construction of an airport, harbors and industrial complexes on 409 km2 of land reclaimed from the sea. The Gunsan area comprises trade industrial complexes, farming and fishing villages, the old city centre, and the new city centre, forming a unique city shape where past, present and future exist side by side. Gunsan’s Painful Past In 1899, Gunsan was forced by Japan to open its port to other countries, and underwent a painful period of Japanese occupation (1910-1945) and exploitation of its natural resources, largely with regard to food (rice). Even following the liberation in 1945, its cultural heritage sites were neglected and became seriously rundown, and many young people left the city due to the poor living environment. As the new city centre was developed, the business districts of the original city were not given sufficient attention, creating a repeated vicious cycle. 72 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 Worth preservation Modern historical and for the future cultural heritage Preservation generation (historical resources) Population Depressed local migration to a newer economy downtown area A dynamic historical, cultural tourism city Derelict residential Require conditions improvement Residential Voluntary renewal Citizens’ enthusiasm for participation of lifelong learning citizens Background of the Modern Culture Heritage is the Educating City concept: ‘The city belongs to its Preservation Project citizens.’ There are 172 modern cultural heritage sites in the Gunsan area which reflect the history of colonial exploitation and Features of Gunsan City’s Modern Cultural the sufferings of its people during the period of Japanese Heritage Preservation Project occupation. Gunsan City’s cultural heritage preservation project can During this period, commercial zones were created in be described as follows: the Japanese residential area as the focal point in the city. • Gunsan City established a database for the 172 modern Following its liberation in 1945, the zone became a centre historical and cultural heritage sites, and created them of administration, business and finance. However, the as places for education for future generations by business districts rapidly declined due to the population preserving, rather than demolishing them. exodus resulting from poor infrastructure and new city • The Urban Regeneration Support Centre–primarily led by development. the Residents Council‒promoted citizen participation in In 1993, the trend of the Government of the Republic the project. of Korea was to remove many cultural heritage sites to • In the course of setting up the heritage preservation clear away the vestiges of Japanese colonialism. After plan, Gunsan City actively gathered citizens’ opinions, much consideration, however, Gunsan City decided instead and amended the related regulations and acts to to preserve them, in order to utilize those historical promote citizen involvement in administrative matters. sites and the painful history associated with them as • In order to revitalise the local economy, and in parallel part of education for future generations. In 2009, the with the urban regeneration project, Gunsan City City vigorously began to promote development of the supported start-ups, the establishment of cooperatives, deteriorated old city centre. Moreover, in connection the provision of consultation by experts, and with the tourist industry, Gunsan City created various restructuring of traditional markets. infrastructures, such as the Gunsan Modern History • There were additional supportive policies as well, such Museum. as the lifelong learning festival and the lifelong learning One of the characteristics of Gunsan’s preservation programme, that Gunsan has consistently promoted project is that it has been a citizen-participation since becoming a member of the IAEC in 2007. Citizens initiative promoted and governed by citizens, experts, were empowered through the learning process, creating artistic groups and the city administration, focusing on a synergistic effect through their participation in the improvement of the residential environment and the modern cultural heritage preservation project. enhancement of quality of life. At the core of the project 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 73 Citizen participation in the creation of artistic elements The Local Economy and Traditional Art in Gunsan City has emerged as a chosen location spot for Harmony many movies by opening up its modern cultural heritage In promoting the project to revive the cultural heritage sites to the film world. sites through lifelong learning, Gunsan City also encouraged combining the local economy with traditional Preservation of Modern Historical Culture art and the tourist industry. Gunsan City has renovated the 172 historical buildings Gunsan City set up administrative departments in the old city centre (banks, customs offices, temples, dedicated to maximising the synergistic effect. Japanese style houses, etc.) that form part of the painful • Local Economy Division: promoting revitalisation of the period of Japanese occupation, to be used as educational business areas, including the traditional markets, based spaces for future generations. on statistical data. From 2009 to 2014, the city put into effect the • Culture and Arts Division: promoting revitalisation of the ‘Modern Cultural City Creation Project’ to establish the regional traditional culture by establishing tangible and database of modern construction properties and, in 2015, intangible cultural heritage management systems and established a preservation and management plan for forming citizen art groups. Gunsan City’s cultural heritage sites in cooperation with • Tourism Promotion Division: promoting tourism projects experts in the field of traditional culture. through various traditional and modern cultural The city has also promoted connecting the modern heritage-related events such as ‘Yahaeng Night’ ( historical properties with cultural and tourism-related Cultural Heritage Night) and the ‘Gunsan Time Travel projects through improvement of neighbourhood living Festival.’ facilities in the region. • Urban Regeneration Division: constructing the Gunsan City has drawn attention to its cultural heritage ‘Urban Regeneration Support Centre’ for facilitating through various means, including studies of modern citizen participation and promoting policies such as history, cultural heritage courses, music concerts held improvement of the residential environment connected at the heritage sites, as well as various cultural art with the modern cultural heritage sites. activities for elementary school students, who are at the • Education Support Division: encouraging ongoing citizen foundation of the lifelong learning project. participation through lifelong learning programmes Furthermore, the city has promoted a cultural heritage such as ‘Delivery Lecture’ (programme of on-demand education project focused on 29 folk cultural heritage specialised talks) and ‘Happy Learning Centre’ (lifelong sites and monuments near Gunsan City, with the learning centre) and, simultaneously, fostering training associated fostering of guides who provide commentary of lifelong learning trainers. on the historical relevance of those sites. 74 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 Gunsan Time Travel Festival Cultural training programme Festivals on Modern History and Culture factories which have been the foundation of the city’s • Gunsan Time Travel Festival (Brand Name: A Trip to the economy. 1930s) In order to address these difficulties and revitalise local S ince 2013, this festival has been held annually in businesses to prevent outflow of the local capital to other September within the context of reproduced street-and- provinces, Gunsan City has issued a local currency with cultural settings recalling the Japanese colonial period in a total value of approximately €55 million which is now the 1930s. These settings are used as educational spaces in circulation. What is most encouraging is that citizens for future generations. The festival is attended annually have actively participated and purchased 92% of the local by approximately 500,000 tourists1. currency. The city is planning to issue €150 million worth • Yahaeng (‘Night Trip’ - Cultural Heritage Night) of local currency and to introduce a mobile electronic As of 2016, various programmes (markets, performances, money system. experiences, etc.) have been operating every summer The city is also pursuing the ‘Visiting Village Culture weekend evening and night, with some 300,000 tourists Café Project’ in order to heighten citizens’ capabilities, annually enjoying the modern historical and cultural revitalise local businesses, and create jobs. The project resources offered2. involves sending a lecturer to a small business place where more than five citizens are gathered to participate The Challenges Faced by Gunsan in lifelong learning and cultural activity services. The city Despite all of the success to date, the regeneration project covers the necessary budget. As of 2019, 250 lectures for the modern cultural heritage sites and the growing have taken place in 568 small business places, offering tourist industry may be risk factors resulting in a loss these services to 2,500 citizens. of self-reliance caused by outside capital investment encroaching on the local economy base and the effects of Conclusion gentrification driving out local residents. Gunsan City’s modern cultural heritage preservation Gunsan City is currently undergoing a very challenging and management is an ongoing project. This citizen period due to the shutdown of shipyards and automobile participation project has been carried out by actively collecting citizens’ opinions through surveys and public meetings. The people of Gunsan firmly believe that an educating 1. http://festival.gunsan.go.kr city belongs to its people and citizen participation 2. https://culture-nightgunsan.kr provides the city with nurturing energy. 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 75 EXPERIENCE Helsinki City Library, a Cornucopia of Urban Culture and Learning Tuula Haavisto Library Director and Culture Director emerita of Helsinki City Council Through opening the new Central Library Oodi, the City of Helsinki has launched an up-dated public library concept which influences the city library network as a whole. The traditional task of libraries promoting literacy, reading and information usage, has been expanded to include new forms of networking, supporting learning, active citizenship and media literacy. Users and visitors show their appreciation by using libraries more and more actively. The new Helsinki Central Library Oodi was inaugurated ordinary library users in Helsinki, received the bold new in December 2018, receiving widespread national and library warmheartedly. Very seldom does an expensive new international attention. The library was widely presented public building receive such unanimous applause. in the international media from Italy to Portugal and Both Helsinki residents and city visitors have supported Spain, from Brazil and Malaysia to South Korea and Russia, the library with their feet: during December 2018, including coverage in The Guardian, The New York Times 286,000 visits were counted. The two-millionth visitor of and The Washington Post. Also the most important group, the year 2019 stepped in on 15 August 2019. Helsinki Central Library Oodi © Maarit Hohteri 76 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 In the Helsinki city centre, there was a particular lack of spaces for The Oodi library has videogames and multimedia rooms available © family use. Since opening the new Oodi Central Library in December Jonna Pennanen 2018, families are one of the most eager user groups. © Risto Rimppi Oodi library is a leading example of the updated role of public libraries in Helsinki. According to reactions from Within six months after opening the Oodi numerous international guests, the concept would be library, 13,000 new library cards had been relevant in their circumstances as well. Oodi seems to be issued in Oodi, and 24,000 in all of Helsinki, an suitable answer to many new and longstanding needs which means an amazing growth of 64% of today’s citizens.1 compared with the previous year. The total Within six months after opening the Oodi library, 13,000 number of visits to Helsinki libraries between new library cards had been issued in Oodi, and 24,000 in all of Helsinki, which means an amazing growth of 64% January and June 2019 was 42% more than compared with the previous year. The total number of in 2018. Several branch libraries had also visits to Helsinki libraries between January and June increased their visitor numbers, some stayed 2019 was 42% more than in 2018. Several branch libraries as they were and a few had fewer visitors had also increased their visitor numbers, some stayed as than a year ago. Lending numbers grew 6% they were and a few had fewer visitors than a year ago. (200,000) from the previous year, and again, Lending numbers grew 6% (200,000) from the previous there were several libraries showing higher year, and again, there were several libraries showing growth numbers. higher growth numbers. People want to come together at a place in which to work and spend time, they want to learn new skills, and they still want to read, though this need seems to be Based on these needs and thoughts, the new library was diminishing. Recognising these needs was an important designed to offer: factor in the three-hour-long political discussion before • an open, non-commercial, public space making the final building decision in January 2015, as was • information and skills for a more functional society covering citizen support for the project, which politicians • a rich city experience created by the residents are keenly aware of doing. themselves For the planning of the new central library, Helsinki • the house of reading in the Töölönlahti cultural area2 City Library developed a new vision. The traditional • a pioneer in intelligent everyday life – fab labs, virtual task of public libraries, promoting reading and literacy, services, robots… was expanded: ’The library is an enricher of ideas and • a library for all senses – a new programme every day thoughts where, by sharing knowledge, skills and stories These goals were not developed solely by the library we together create a new civic society.’ staff or other civil servants. An important element from 1. In Finland, public libraries in general are an adequate answer to a 2. Töölönlahti Cultural area is a concentration of cultural institutions laid variety of needs: more than half of the population, and even more than out in a park along a bay in the city centre. The institutions housed there that in Helsinki, use public libraries regularly in one way or another. This include: the National Opera and Ballet, The National Museum, Finlandia covers both physical libraries and multifaceted library services via the Hall, the Music Hall, Helsinki City Theatre, and one branch of Helsinki City Internet. Museum, among others. 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 77 Services & Facilities Offered at the Oodi Library Book Heaven A wide selection of books and magazines in nearly 20 languages, which can be read on site or borrowed. The collection includes more than 100,000 items, including music, console and board games, films, etc. Urban Workshop & Offers a wide range of professional tools from a soldering station to a laser cutter, 3D Makerspaces printers, not to overlook traditional handicrafts or sewing machines. The work facilities and tools can be used independently or with the assistance of the library personnel. A range of workshops and events for all ages are organised to put ideas into practice. Study, Work and Meeting Oodi offers an extensive schedule as well as open and pleasant facilities that can Facilities be used for particular work needs, for study, or for teaching sessions by reserving group facilities of various sizes. Computers, printers, photocopier-scanners and Wi-Fi connections are available for use. Music Services Creating music from start to finish (rehearsing, recording and producing) is possible in the different studios and playing rooms that can be booked, and which feature workstations, amplifiers and other musical equipment. Instruments and music equipment can be borrowed using the library card. Concerts can be hosted in the library, as well. Gaming Services Oodi offers devices and facilities for digital gaming in specifically adapted rooms that can be booked. Spaces for board games are also available. Events, Workshops and Oodi users can take part in a diverse range of events and workshops, attend lectures Lectures and be inspired by media art displays, which take place on a regular basis. Services for Children and Oodi has space for relaxed quality family time and for doing things together. Children Families are welcomed on every floor of the Oodi library building, which has an accessible entrance for prams and buggies. Film, Information and Other complementary services are offered on the Oodi premises such as film Playground Services screenings (with a 250-seat auditorium), information desks for different citizens' services, the municipality participation space and a playground space that serves as an open meeting place for families with children and offers specific activities. Restaurants and Coffee 2 restaurants and coffee spots are available within the library premises. Bars the very beginning was citizen participation. Nearly 20 Modern Library Act different ways to involve people and also future partners in Oodi library is also the flagship of the new Library Act of the planning were applied. At first, all in all, 2300 Dreams/ Finland (2016). The objectives of the Act are to promote equal Visions were collected from citizens during 2012-13. A opportunities to access education and culture, availability set of eight edited thematic reports based on those was and use of information, reading and literacy, lifelong learning, produced and used as an official planning document. competence development and active citizenship, democracy After collecting ’dreams’ on quite a broad level, the and freedom of expression. issues consulted with citizens became more concrete, According to the Act, the concrete tasks of public libraries for example, families participating in the family library are to: planning gave useful input, such as the idea of several • provide access to materials, information and cultural ‘parking lots’ for baby carriages in the building. contents; Practical and successful participation resulted in a deep • m aintain versatile and up-to-date collections; feeling of ownership of the new library among the people • p romote reading and literature; of Helsinki. • p rovide information services, guidance and support in the Since its opening, citizen participation has continued to acquisition and use of information and in versatile literacy be part of the permanent working model of Oodi. skills; 78 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 • provide space for learning, recreational activities, wor- and home services.3 A gigantic newcomer like Oodi could king, and civic activities; easily overshadow some of other libraries. However, a • promote social and cultural dialogue. political decision was made in 2015 to safeguard the whole Also the new Act is enlarging the scope of libraries library network, because it was so highly valued. from reading and literacy towards learning and societal Oodi is somewhat of a moving force in the network. The communication. The library space is considered to be city library ensured, through various decisions, that what a service in and of itself. Library floors are no longer was learned through Oodi would be spread throughout the monopolized by shelves and reading tables. network. For example, a systematic job exchange system Two Finnish examples worth mentioning regarding fresh to Oodi was organized, open to every interested staff working concepts in line with the new Act, are the Metso member. The citizen participation methods have also been Live Music and Novellikoukku. Metso Live Music of the applied to the whole library system. Tampere main library Metso is a series of events offered Users have not abandoned other libraries in Helsinki. by the music department consisting of an interview Their importance as meeting places in their own with, and music by, well-known visiting musicians. The surroundings is exactly the same as Oodis: non- guests often give a concert in Tampere, so this is also commercial public spaces with long hours, open to cooperation between the library and other cultural everybody. Users appreciate the fact that in libraries venues. The events are free-of-charge and extremely they are received as individuals instead of belonging to popular, so that musicians currently offering a concert some labelled group such as ’the elderly,’ ’youngsters,’ in Tampere even hope to be invited as guests of Metso ’immigrants,’ or similar. Live Music. Novellikoukku (’attracted by/hooked on short Helsinki branch libraries also offer numerous stories’) is a concept created by the Helsinki City Library, programmes aimed at kids, and young schoolchildren consisting of a two-hour-long session, where one person (in Finland considered to be 7 years and up) often stay in reads short stories of choice, as others knit or crochet, the nearest library during afternoons when their parents and comment on the stories heard. are still working. A variety of local discussion events are organized in libraries, which are appreciated as neutral Dynamic Library Network of Helsinki grounds even for challenging debates. Reading circles Returning to the Helsinki perspective: in all, Helsinki and language cafes (for immigrants to practise the has 37 libraries, two mobile libraries, hospital libraries Finnish language) are always popular. Most libraries offer exhibition space, used by amateur artists, collectors, local history enthusiasts and hobbyists. All libraries in Finland are highly motivated within the 3. Mobile libraries are book buses, one of which is equipped especially for traditional field of public libraries, promoting literacy children. Hospital libraries offer books for the patients and staff to read. and reading. Competition for peoples’ free time is stiff Currently most of them are located in homes for the elderly, where people have longer stays. Home services bring books to those people who, for one because there are so many tempting Internet and other reason or another, cannot leave their homes. activities. In the age of countless social media channels, Metso Live Music in Tampere City Main Library. Young artist Lisa in In Spring 2019, 14 language cafés offered weekly meetings in Helsinki close contact with listeners. © Juhani Koivisto libraries, reaching hundreds of immigrants who want to learn the Finnish language. © Satu Haavisto 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 79 libraries emphasise the importance of reading long create conditions for a stimulating and enjoyable life. narrative and analytical texts. A profound understanding Functionality is based on equality, non-discrimination, of the world requires serious concentration which does strong social cohesion and open, inclusive ways of not come about without reading whole books and well- operating.’ The City library’s action planning follows this thought-out and argued articles and publications. Today’s strategy and the Library Act, to serve citizenship in the constant flood of visual images has its advantages but it best possible way. cannot provide the basis for the same analysis as can a good text. Reading and literature enhance creativity in an Sources immeasurable way. • Finnish Library Act (2016): https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/ kaannokset/2016/en20161492 Further, public libraries consider media education as part • Helsinki City Library https://www.hel.fi/kulttuurin-ja-vapaa-ajan- of their tasks, especially for groups which have no natural toimiala/en/services/Libraries/ connection with digital contents via education, training or • Helsinki Central Library Oodi https://www.oodihelsinki.fi/en/ • Helsinki City Strategy 2017-21 https://www.hel.fi/helsinki/en/ work. Helsinki City Library works, for example, with an administration/strategy/strategy/ association called Enter Ry, which offers peer advice and • Ministry of Education and Culture (2016): Finland is one of the top training in ICT for senior citizens. countries in the world in the field of library services https://minedu. fi/documents/1410845/4150031/Library+services/65df0ce2-685f- The Helsinki City Strategy (2017) states that ‘the basic 4c3c-9686-53c108641a5c/Library+services.pdf task of the city is to provide quality public services and Fab labs and makerspaces serving do-it-yourself-people can be found in Libraries in Helsinki are accessible to all © Jonna Pennanen the Oodi Central Library © Jonna Pennanen 80 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 EXPERIENCE EN RESiDÈNCiA. Creators at Barcelona’s secondary schools. “We have found a space here for thinking” Carles Giner i Camprubí Director of EN RESiDÈNCiA, Barcelona Institute of Culture Since 2009, the Creadors EN RESiDÈNCiA (Creators in Residence) programme has provided a shared workspace for artists, students and teachers at state secondary schools in Barcelona. Over a full academic year, and within the established school timetable, creators from various disciplines and generations develop an arts project together with a group of young people, starting with the initial concept and leading to the public presentation of the final outcome. Linking culture and education through processes schools in Barcelona (two-thirds of the city’s state schools of contemporary creation. providing compulsory secondary school education). EN RESiDÈNCiA was conceived and rolled out by three These are selected through an annual public call and entities working in cooperation: the main public entity the participating creators are invited by mediation within the cultural sphere (Barcelona Institute of Culture teams (curators and coordinators) which carry out tasks – ICUB); the main public entity within the educational associated with the creation processes throughout the sphere (Barcelona Educational Consortium Barcelona academic year. EN RESiDÈNCiA has engaged a broad – CEB, which comprises both the city council and the community of creators (115), teachers (133), adolescents Catalan autonomous government); and the A Bao A Qu between the ages of twelve and sixteen (1,770) and association, which stands at a crossroads between culture, mediation teams (13 teams, 30 people).1 creation and education. EN RESiDÈNCiA was created as a joint project, transcending the traditional separation Created and developed with a focus on cultural between culture and education and questioning the usual and educational mediation model of relationships between the two: EN RESiDÈNCiA is The EN RESiDÈNCiA concept was based on the idea that the result of a joint, shared vision. This ‘building together’ experts – “mediation teams” – were necessary mentors in has greatly empowered the project which, in a matter of the development of creation processes within the formal few years, has evolved into a major city programme. educational system. Its goal has been to strengthen adolescents’ cultural From the outset, it was considered that ten months capital through raising their awareness of the meaning of creative process called for the involvement of an and diversity of contemporary creative work: visual agent filling the role of head of coordination, overseeing arts, poetry, performing arts, music, design, circus, and maintaining the balance between the artistic and contemporary dance, and playwriting. In a broader educational dimensions of the programme. They would sense, EN RESiDÈNCiA helps to create fairer and more work together with the creative artists, the teachers equitable access to culture and foster the building of more horizontal relationships between culture and education. Over the course of its first ten years in operation, a total of 101 residencies took place at 42 secondary 1. All the creative processes are described at www.enresidencia.org 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 81 Malumnology: Luis Bisbe EN RESiDÈNCiA in the Instituto Doctor Puigvert (2012-2013) and the adolescents throughout the process. With this through exchanges with the students and creative artists, conviction in mind, the ICUB and the CEB proposed generate all types of interaction. that the A Bao A Qu Association should join in with These connections draw the adolescents, creative artists defining the EN RESiDÈNCiA project. This partnership and teachers together into the system of culture and was a decisive contribution to the initial design of the arts. The residencies become more intense and complex programme and the first three pilot years, during which as visits are made to exhibitions, museums, artists’ it took shape. By the fourth year (2012-2013), more workshops, creative spaces, auditoriums, theatres, etc., mediation teams were incorporated, bringing them to a and as the young people are received in these spaces total of thirteen. as active participants and not passive visitors. Often, The EN RESiDÈNCiA mediation teams shape a unique these connections lead to long-term relations between world that includes entities specifically geared towards schools and cultural centres before the end of the the intersection between education and culture (A Bao residencies. Community centres, libraries, art galleries, A Qu, L’Afluent, Experimentem amb l’Art, Escola Bloom), live music venues, theatres, etc., present the public educational teams at museums (Fundació Joan Miró de presentations of the works, the shows, the exhibitions and Barcelona, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, MACBA- the performances that are the products of this creative Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona) and cultural process. The connection of each residency programme venues (Mercat de les Flors, Teatre Lliure); teams from art with the city’s art world multiplies the impact on each and factories (Graner, Sala Beckett - Obrador Internacional de every participant. Dramatúrgia, La Central del Circ, La Caldera – Les Corts); and independent spaces (Antic Teatre, La Poderosa). As Breaking with the school model but set within a result, it’s a collection of stakeholders (associations, the academic framework. A ten-month EN private or public entities, etc.) that form part of the RESiDÈNCiA cycle. city’s cultural life. They play a key role in connecting the EN RESiDÈNCiA features a minimum of three hours per residency programmes with their own spheres. week that includes a full two-hour session with the direct The mediation teams combine specific territorial participation of the creative artists. This requirement knowledge and proximity with an overall vision of the helps alter the rigidity of the usual space-time relationship city, thereby contributing not only to the uniqueness at schools, thereby creating time focused solely on this of each residency but also to the ongoing creation of a and which is outside the standard ‘school subject’ format. shared link between culture and education, which is what Creative processes are not ‘subjects’ and do not take EN RESiDÈNCiA is based upon. In fact, as each residency place in fifty-minute sessions; they are different and defines itself (thematically, territorially, artistically, etc.) call for a different atmosphere. This apparently simple the mediation teams, the ICUB and the Educational measure has played a pivotal role in maintaining the true Consortium, together with the artists and the teachers, character of creative processes: EN RESiDÈNCiA isn’t about link the residency with the city. This is achieved by placing contemporary art classes, nor is it a workshop-focused each residency in contact with cultural venues (in or near subject. It’s a project in which contemporary creative the city), entities, collectives and other stakeholders who, processes are carried out, leading to a final ‘piece of work’. 82 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 It’s an invitation to artists to develop a piece, placing the beyond the immediate participants: the contagion occurs same importance on it as they normally do when creating in the months of January and February and consists of their own personal pieces. activities (presentations, group sessions or meetings) Over the ten years since its launch, EN RESiDÈNCiA where the creative artists, the students and the teachers has gradually shaped a specific way of undertaking the share the residency experience with the other teachers at creative processes. Without losing awareness of the the school. The idea is for the teaching staff and school experimental, unique and unrepeatable nature of each heads to learn about what the residency consists of and residency, the programme has steadily consolidated involves. This is not just for information purposes, but also certain stages – ‘shared steps’ – connected with each to encourage possible connections and internal alliances creative process. The first of these is the so-called within the school, potentially sharing the residency landing phase, which sets out to encourage participants programme with other students with regard to learning to discover (rediscover) the secondary school, its materials and subjects that are part of the broader school surroundings and the neighbourhood. This places syllabus. In short, this phase sets out to create links within emphasis on the value of research, investigation, the school, tying together the creative processes with the documentation, filing and archiving information, educational aspect and other related contexts. experimentation, etc. Following the contagion sessions, the rhythm and speed After the landing phase (two, three or four months into of the residencies pick up as the process begins to focus the residency, depending on each process), comes the on the public presentation: EN RESiDÈNCiA stands by so-called contagion phase: the residencies plan the core the idea that the creative processes and the resulting parts (thematically, artistically, conceptually and material- pieces of work (or documents) must be as widely shared wise) of their particular creative process. Therefore, this as possible. The social dimension of artistic creation then is the perfect moment to expand the sphere of action moves on to create spaces for its public presentation Josep Maria Balanyà EN RESiDÈNCiA in the Instituto Joan Brossa (2010-2011) 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 83 where the works, and what has gone into them, can be experimentation, team work, communication skills, exhibited and where young people, artists and teachers dialogue, documentation, archiving, story creation, can show what was involved in the creation of these writing, performing, etc.) are evaluated by the teachers, pieces. The public presentations take place wherever who play a key role in how the residency is undertaken: it is most appropriate to the project in question, be it a they welcome the creative artists and oversee the link cultural centre or the school itself. EN RESiDÈNCiA has between the creative processes, the school and the made a name for itself in Barcelona’s cultural world and educational process in which the students are involved. the presentations resulting from the programme now form Dialogue between students, teachers and artists is part of the city’s art exhibitions. essential in all stages of the residency. The residency, though, doesn’t finish with the EN RESiDÈNCiA underlines the cultural dimension of presentation and exhibition of its final result. Instead, the secondary school education, in contrast to a traditional final step comes later with the closing sessions. Following limited view of schools as centres of cultural reproduction. the presentations, the artists, teachers, students and mediators sit down together to assess everything that Awaiting public policies regarding culture and took place in the process. This is one more step in the education cycle that goes beyond a formal evaluation, which is also a EN RESiDÈNCiA is one of the initiatives that addresses part of each residency. the need to formulate and develop real-life educational In fact, EN RESiDÈNCiA, despite being an optional and cultural policies; long-term policies focused on course within the school syllabus, forms part of reshaping the traditional model between the two systems. compulsory schooling and is therefore evaluated like Customarily, these have been based exclusively on all other subjects. It’s a different sort of evaluation, the instrumental condition of consumption: cultural fully focused on achieving skills. These skills (research, centres supply schools with a certain limited number Playground Scene: Laia Estruch EN RESiDÈNCiA in the Insituto Juan Manuel Zafra (2016-2017). 84 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 of activities and schools provide the audience and fill the seats in the hall. This is an unequal and hierarchical exchange that puts each one into the category of either users or programmers. Local governments have the responsibility, however, to promote active citizen engagement, subjectivity, and inclusion in all culturally- related processes. In short, citizens should cease to be mere receivers of culture and become agents for culture: citizens with a say in the matter. It has been shown that EN RESiDÈNCiA has an impact on everyone involved in the programme: it alters the view of contemporary creative art, it changes approaches (at the school, in classrooms, at museums), placing importance on the educational aspect of cultural centres as well as on the cultural side of schools. It influences participants (nobody completes a residency feeling indifferent), questions the systems, helps them rediscover the city and Programmed adolescence: Los Corderos EN RESiDÈNCiA in the its people, requires commitment, involves introspection, Instituto Milà i Fontanals (2013-2014) memory and the shaping of voices and words. As the title of the exhibition honouring the ten years of EN RESiDÈNCiA proclaims: “We have found a space here for thinking”.2 The cabin LAMBEGBPAOLTJRI: Pep Vidal EN RESiDÈNCiA in the Instituto - Escuela Costa i Llobera (2015-2016) Neighbours, houses, streets and squares: Domènec EN RESiDÈNCiA in 2. Exhibition at the Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona – Fabra i Coats, the Instituto Josep Serrat i Bonastre (2015-2016) from 12 April to 30 June 30 2019. 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 85 EXPERIENCE Music as a driver and an enabler of Sustainable Development Dagmara Szastak Independent Culture Programme Specialist at the City of Gardens, Katowice Katowice is a dynamically developing city which is undergoing transformation from a post-industrial hub into a city of creative industries. The effect of the changes is an increase in the status of Katowice as a scientific and cultural centre, where knowledge and creativity are one of the most important cornerstones of development. In addition, belonging to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network not only increases the prestige of Katowice on the international stage, but, above all, contributes to its development in many areas in which education plays a key role. Katowice is a city of multidimensional transformation out so far in the field of broadly understood musical with a particularly dynamic development that has culture in order to more effectively achieve social goals, been taking place over the last twenty years. During such as increasing social cohesion and combating group this time, not only has the landscape of the city been exclusion, thereby contributing to the city’s sustainable transformed, but its status as a scientific and cultural hub development, in line with the UN 2030 Sustainable has increased. Development Goals. Examples of activities carried out In turn, the intensity and diversity of the city’s musical by this institution which can be defined as best practices potential, as well as the rich musical history and tradition include: of Katowice, resulted in the high rating of its application and the city’s inclusion in the UNESCO Creative Cities The Music Hub Network in December 2015. Membership of this network This hub supports the music sector in Katowice at boosts the prestige of Katowice on the international stage, various levels: from local artists (Dzielnica Brzmi Dobrze but above all it influences its development in many areas – District Sounds Good) to projects exploring broadly where education plays a key role. It is also major proof of understood musical themes (Muzykogranty), as well as the transformation of Katowice from a post-industrial hub industry meetings and workshops raising professional into a city of creative industries. The process of change qualifications (Katowicki Radar Muzyczny – Katowice clearly indicates the direction which the city wants to Music Radar). take, making industry based on knowledge and creativity Besides the significant support for the musical one of the cornerstones of its development. environment, an equally important task of the Music Hub Supporting young talents, financing grassroots music is to run a multifunctional space dedicated to a wide projects, organising concerts for residents, and fostering group of entities representing branches of the creative innovative arts projects and music education for various music industry, with particular emphasis on professional age groups are the most important activities undertaken and amateur musicians. Ultimately, Music Hub will by the city as part of its membership of the Creative Cities feature professional recording studios (post-production, Network. in situ recording and mobile recording), rehearsal rooms The UNESCO Creative City of Music project is (along with music and sound equipment, backline), music implemented by Katowice’s City of Gardens - Krystyna equipment store rooms, music production and sound post- Bochenek Culture Centre. This institution sets out to production studios, as well as workshop space. further the artistic and educational activities carried The Music Hub is a response to the increasing demand 86 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 © Radoslaw Kaźmierczak from the ever-growing music market. It provides creative the musical space of the city and the region. The project artists from Katowice with a unique opportunity to also includes get-togethers (lectures, workshops) open develop their talents in totally professional conditions. to the public, which are held alternately with Katowicki As a result, the Music Hub will ultimately deliver a rich, Radar Muzyczny – Rozmowy (Katowice Music Radar – comprehensive set of tools for the development of Conversations), discussions moderated by the Akademia musical creativity, its dissemination and its popularisation. Menedzerów Muzycznych (Academy of Music Managers). What’s more, it will provide an additional boost to the Guests of the series include, among others, artists, development of the local economy. music producers, managers, journalists, composers, The music industry development incubator is located vocal coaches, songwriters, festival and industry event on two levels of the headquarters of Katowice City of organisers, lecturers and academic teachers, both Polish Gardens and features a space earmarked for rehearsals, and from abroad. The series is aimed at representatives workshops and recordings (including the possibility of of the regional music community and people interested in recording in the concert hall) and a mobile recording the development of music in Katowice. Education remains studio, operating at the seat of the institution and its main goal. outside it. The space is also used by a group of people interested in Dzielnica Brzmi Dobrze (District Sounds Good) – hip hop culture, who meet up regularly at the institution education of music bands as part of the Rapsztaty project. Workshops are held District Sounds Good is a project aimed at beginner here alternately with meetings of the (Ślaska Liga ‘ music bands from Katowice. Its purpose is to support Wolnostylowa (Silesian Freestyle League), during which musical groups rooted in the city, identifying with it and the participants hone their skills in rap improvisation. representing specific districts of Katowice. It has been The themed meetings focus on issues such as freestyle, running since 2016 as part of the Music Hub - the music text, mastery, beat-making, music video, social media and industry development incubator. management. Renowned and highly appreciated artists The programme aims to reach out to young bands are frequently guests at Rapsztaty workshops. who, despite their enormous potential, face numerous As part of the Music Hub, monthly meetings of the problems that prevent them from appearing on the music industry are also held, known as the Katowicki Katowice music scene (and elsewhere). The goal of the Radar Muzyczny (Katowice Music Radar), during which project is to diagnose these problems and help solve them representatives of Katowice’s music community can take through ongoing education in the field of winning and part in lectures, workshops and meetings with Polish and effectively maintaining listener attention. foreign music agents, and specialists in public relations, Each year, teams are selected through a tender marketing, copyright and performers’ rights. It’s also a (maximum of five). They receive the patronage of discussion platform for anyone who wants to co-create Katowice, the UNESCO City of Music and the two-year 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 87 © Eric Van Nieuwland support of Katowice City of Gardens, including a number and co-created several special projects. Equally important, of endeavours such as workshops, concerts, studio throughout the year-long programme, musicians have recordings, video sessions and music videos. This is to access to a rehearsal room fully equipped with a backline foster the development of a musical career, the scope of and sound system, located in the building of the City of which ranges from city districts to the whole country and Gardens. We also have our own recording studio. – ultimately – worldwide. During the pre-selection, we choose twenty to thirty Participation in the URBACT programme - entries of bands (from approximately fifty to sixty implementation of the ‘On Stage Project. Music applicants per year), which then present themselves Schools for Social Change’ before the jury on the Katowice City of Gardens concert URBACT is the European Territorial Cooperation stage. Over the past four years, we have received more Programme for Sustainable Urban Development. It than two hundred applications, of which (as part of the highlights the key role that cities play in the presence pre-selection) we have put through approximately one of increasingly complex social changes. Participation in hundred to the next stage (auditions). the programme involves networking of cities for whose So far, more than twenty bands have received our development various themed areas are important. It patronage. We’ve released ten CDs and soon more of them allows the cities to develop practical, innovative and will be sent to the printing press. We also design album sustainable methods which combine economic, social and covers, assisted by students majoring in visual identity (in environmental aspects. Meanwhile, the ‘On Stage Project. partnership with the Academy of Fine Arts). What’s more, Music Schools for Social Change’ primarily consists we’ve created nine 360-degree video sessions (each took of fostering social integration by means of musical place in the district from which a particular band comes), education. Along with Katowice, L’Hospitalet (Spain) - as well as five music videos and another five video project leader and creator of “best practices”, Valongo sessions will be created soon. (Portugal), Adelfia (Italy), Aarhus (Denmark), Brno (Czech The bands are given the opportunity to take part in Republic) and Grigny (France) cooperate in the transfer numerous music and music-related workshops, including network. vocal skills (four editions), music production (Ableton), mix The task of Katowice is to adapt a best practice and mastering, PR and band image (partner - Kayax). We implemented by the network leader to specific local have also organised percussion workshops and a guitar characteristics by diagnosing problems which the city masterclass. community may face and answering the question of how Project participants have had the chance to enrich the music can help solve them. Working on the substance of city’s musical life (and not just in the city) at exceptional the project entails real financial investments on the part club and outdoor events. In just four years, District of the cities in order to implement the ideas developed. Sounds Good has resulted in over two hundred concerts Furthermore, participation in the URBACT programme 88 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 creates a real opportunity to develop a strategic and prepares its future leaders. The culture-forming document that can contribute to an increase in the level significance of music education and the way music of music education in the city. supports knowledge acquisition in other fields - for The context of brass band traditions and local musical example, mathematics – are key aspects. heritage has become the key to the adopted development Apart from its educational value, the implementation of strategy and to tailoring the project to Katowice’s the URBACT best practice, which is to ultimately result in environment. It is closely correlated with the Kultura De‘ta the creation of children’s brass bands at state-run primary (Brass Culture) project, also implemented by Katowice City schools, will also help counteract social exclusion through of Gardens. This is a multi-annual project based around the greater integration of local communities. the topic of brass bands in a very broad context - artistic, The dynamic culture-based transformation of the city cultural, social and educational. calls for the involvement not just of businesses, but also The brass band that we have taken as a desirable model the local community. Katowice is constantly enhancing comes from the local community, which serves this its strategy of attracting investors. At the same time, community on a daily basis and represents it outside. it acknowledges the importance of factors such as the It’s a local community in miniature. The band is where engagement of residents in city affairs, the activity of intergenerational relationships are nurtured, positive Katowice residents within the framework of the civic interpersonal relationships are kept, and knowledge and budget, a thriving NGO sector and the stimulation of these values important for small communities are transferred. activities by the city. This poses new challenges, but also It also facilitates communication within the community new opportunities, for the city and its inhabitants. © Radoslaw Kaźmierczak 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 89 EXPERIENCE Arena da Cultura Free School of Arts. Accessibility, citizen engagement and training Bárbara Bof Director of Promotion of Cultural Rights, Belo Horizonte City Council The arts and cultural training policy of Belo Horizonte city council has been bolstered over the past twenty-plus years by the work of the Arena da Cultura Free School of Arts. Recognised as a strategic project of Belo Horizonte of the ELA-Arena in 2014. As a result, this policy of arts City Council, the Arena da Cultura Free School of and cultural education has managed to gain ground with Arts (ELA-Arena, in its Portuguese acronym), linked to the principles that have remained unchanged for more than Office for the Promotion of Cultural Rights, the Municipal two decades. Foundation of Culture and the Municipal Department of Culture, provides free arts and cultural training across all Discussion forums as a basis for dialogue and regions of the city, with its priority being democratisation engagement and universal access. Since its launch, Arena da Cultura has been laying Key projects of the ELA-Arena are Arena da Cultura and the foundations for a decentralised policy on arts and Integrarte, which address various disciplines, such as cultural education, promotion and creation, fruit of the visual arts, drama, circus, dance, popular design, music collaboration between the public authorities and the and cultural heritage. This is all covered by courses, citizens of Belo Horizonte. workshops, meetings and experimentation spaces, shows, At the time of its launch in the 1990s, the practice discussion forums and awareness-raising activities. of horizontal discussion groups among stakeholders Courses and workshops are currently laid on for was introduced with the creation of ‘Regional Forums’, inhabitants at twenty-two cultural centres spread across responsible for generating dialogue and promoting the nine administrative regions of Belo Horizonte. Every citizen engagement. These spaces for public debate have year, a total of 4,000 places provide citizens with access evolved, but they continue to be the basis of a working to quality arts training. Through the so-called pedagogical method that is an exercise in democratic engagement core and weekly meetings, the school sets out to improve where active listening is paramount. participation-based arts teaching methodology, taking For the school, the discussion groups reflect the into account the huge diversity of students and their horizontal collaborative relationships between all contributions to learning, as well as the contribution of stakeholders. Meanwhile, the name Arena is also a arts and culture to personal development. metaphor to designate this open space which showcases This public policy aims to guarantee the right to arts the diversity of thought, the confrontation of ideas and cultural training for all citizens, through its self-styled and the construction of the common good based on approach built on an ongoing dialogue with the city and differences. on permanent methodological and organisational updates This collaborative nature is complemented by the in order to adapt to the specific needs of each Belo ability of Arena da Cultura and its community to adapt to Horizonte neighbourhood. changes, mainly budgetary, which interfere with the public Dialogue and social engagement, as well as intersectoral agenda. Despite the adversities, the ELA-Arena is holding actions and the involvement of an intergenerational its ground, maintaining its principles and methodological audience, are the most outstanding features of the Arena proposals based on a process that reaffirms the guarantee da Cultura project, from its roll-out in 1998 to the creation of cultural rights. 90 MONOGRAPH CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 2020 Dance © Ricardo Laf Music © LAVA Beyond the daily operation of the school and as a way The Integrarte project and the actions resulting from of opening up to the general public, seminars, forums and the partnership between the Departments of Culture and meetings are regularly held. Meanwhile, the ELA-Arena has Education culminated with the signing of a joint scheme also been included in other forums for engagement, such in July 2019 which, in addition to guaranteeing the as the Municipal Council of Cultural Policy of Belo Horizonte continuity of the project, lays down four other strategic and the so-called Municipal Cultural Conferences. policies related to the areas of literature, audiovisual arts, event organisation and cultural heritage. Intersectoral Action The Integrarte project is a major intersectoral line of Exchange of experiences action and resizes the perspectives of the school thanks The school sets out to promote access for the entire to the cross-cutting nature of the initiative. In short, it population of Belo Horizonte to cultural goods, products places the seven arts disciplines around a common goal: and services. It’s aimed at a wide audience, of very varied to establish relationships between ways of doing and ages, with diverse interests and circumstances, as well thinking about art and education through teacher training as very different experiences in the field of the arts. linked to the Municipal Department of Education. This inclusive approach facilitates an intergenerational Launched in 2016, the Integrarte project fosters arts and encounter, and, consequently, the exchange and cultural training courses aimed at teachers at municipal enhancement of knowledge. state schools in order to bolster everyday pedagogical In this sense, the ‘Game and Toy Fairs’, linked to the actions carried out with students. Each year, 250 area of Cultural Heritage, mobilise audiences of all ages. educators directly take part in the programme, as do more The huge demand for these activities at all cultural than 10,000 students indirectly. centres, as well as at the Laguna de Nado Centre for the The Integrarte initiative brings the teaching staff of the Revival of Popular and Traditional Culture, underlines the Free School of Arts closer to the reality of state school importance of actions focused on children’s culture that teachers and the everyday challenges in classrooms. From also engage adults and seniors. a methodological perspective, the programme sets out to The democratisation of access to the culture process trigger reflections and generate knowledge in the fields also involves reaching out to the socially and economically of art and culture, relating them to different educational more vulnerable layers of the population that have been contexts, while enabling and acknowledging the multiplier deprived of their cultural rights due to historically adverse role of teachers in the state education system. conditions. Recognising the individual differences and Integrarte provides participants with artistic, cultural fighting against individualism, the arts teaching at the and educational elements and is structured into eight Arena da Cultura Free School of Arts urges students integrated and cross-cutting modules related to the seven to value differences as a key resource for promoting arts disciplines covered at the ELA-Arena. Theoretical and subjectivity, but without losing sight of the cooperative practical contents are pursued throughout the course, aspect. with a total length of 180 hours for the development and/ or execution of individual or group projects. Designed Achievements and advances under the supervision of teaching staff from the course, The increase in 2018 of the ELA-Arena budget and its the projects must be related to in-school contexts of the maintenance for 2019 and 2020 has made it possible to participants, with a view to involving the entire school get back on track with the existing investment from 2014, community. before the budget was cut. The range of decentralised 2020 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION MONOGRAPH 91 Popular design, ELA-Arena 2019 © LAVA Visual arts activities has increased with the roll-out of new actions This hub provides audiovisual training workshops on at the Centres for the Revival of Popular and Traditional film analysis and criticism, scriptwriting, photography, Culture and also in the central region. It’s important to training of film actors, post-production, editing, etc. point out that the school, due to it being decentralised The workshops are carried out in partnership with the and closely linked to the network of municipal cultural ELA-Arena, which is a major step towards training in the divisions, is not just present in all regions of the territory, audiovisual field throughout the city. but also forms part of them. The students from the training cycles taught by the In 2019, the Arena de Cultura Free School of Arts school in the seven areas of action have underlined the achieved major advances related to its history and need to link their learning to the cultural market. This memory, undertaking actions for the incorporation of two demand, reiterated in the 2018 Focus Training Seminar, new artistic areas and training programmes to meet the was satisfied in 2019 with workshops to introduce people demands of citizens identified through the engagement and artistic/cultural groups to the world of cultural stages. management and production and other behind-the-scene The Political-Artistic-Educational Programme of the aspects such as set design, costumes, sound, exhibition ELA-Arena, which will be published this year, includes the techniques, art curatorship, lighting, and image and sound guidelines, historical context, organisational structure techniques. Materials and equipment have been bought and methodological plan of the school. What’s more, a for these workshops to be used in the nine municipal documentary on the twenty-year history of the Arena regions. da Cultura Project is currently in production. By means With all its actions, the ELA-Arena boosts the concept of images, interviews, testimonials and documents from of culture as a public good and an unrestricted right, these two decades, the documentary will showcase the championing the fact that education and culture take on school’s goals, challenges and advances. a deeper meaning when they come together. Providing The creation of the Library of the Free School of Arts is the necessary conditions to secure widespread access to included within the actions in the field of literature. The arts training, decentralising actions and ways of thinking library will feature a bibliographic collection specialised and acting in the world, recognising the right to the in various artistic disciplines. Another important existence of diversity and valuing symbolic and identity demand raised by the citizens of Belo Horizonte was the expressions are the principles that have been inspiring organisation of ongoing actions in the field of audiovisual and accompanying the everyday activities of the Arena communication. On this note, in 2019 the school took da Cultura Free School of Arts for more than twenty years the first steps towards rolling out the so-called Digital now. Production Hub. International Association of © Published by: Layout: Educating Cities (IAEC) IAEC Cristina Vidal, Image and C/Avinyó 15, 4th floor Editorial Productions, 08002 Barcelona (Spain) © Interviews and articles: Barcelona City Council The authors Coordination: Date of publication: Jordi Pascual and Jordi © Photographs: June 2020 Baltà, Committee on Culture Specified at each image of United Cities and Local Copyright deposit: Governments Front cover photograph: B-18.019-2009 Marina Canals and Mª Ángeles Katowice City Council Cabeza, IAEC Secretariat ISSN: Inside front cover and back 2013-4053 Translations: cover: Gunsan City Council Ita Roberts Kevin Connor Deborah Bonner Corrections and style revision: Anthony Nicholson Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives www.edcities.org Monograph collection City, Living Together City, Social Inclusion and Education and Education Nº6 Nº5 City, Environment and City, Youth and Education Education Nº4 Nº3 City, Sport and City, Urban Planning Education and Education Nº2 Nº1 MONOGRAP H TING CITIES OF EDUCA 2020 TION NAL ASSOCIA INTERNATIO ble without its ever be sustaina d operational. city will n explicit an “A nto de being nsformed i cultural si y needs to be tra tecting ure urgentl licies, pro ban po diversity Cult of ur ring a key dimension vity, foste o all.” supporting creati le t is accessib heritage, that knowledge ring a Vaz Pinto, and ensu Catarin l City Counci ulture at Lisbon C Councillor for CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION 7 CITY, CULTURE AND EDUCATION · 2020