ELIA, Hogeschool Gent and the Flemish Artschools can look back on a great conference. The conference Art, Engagement and Education was hosted by the Hogeschool Gent from 25-28 October 2006.
Featured keynote speakers were Frank Vandenbroucke, Robyn Archer, Tariq Ali, Luciano Fabro, Milica Tomic. The round-table discussion during the Closing Plenary on the Friday was facilitated by Jean-Pierre Rondas. Our members were offered a varied programme of symposia, discipline sessions, workshops, performances and cultural events. The Interactive Forum was central to the conference, and offered an opportunity for academies, networks and other organisations to engage in dialogue and make presentations.
ELIA has chosen as the theme of the conference Art, Engagement & Education to reflect in a broad way key issues impacting on our disciplines, educationally and professionally, today. We now experience arts practices and arts education having to engage with societies and communities in different ways, contributing to and defending cultural diversity, social inclusion and participating in the contemporary realities of our communities. All this whilst exploring the boundaries of the local, the national, the European and the global. Through this gathering ELIA wishes participants to discuss and explore these issues and present outcomes of the major projects ELIA has been undertaking since our last conference in Luzern 2004, including re:search – in and through the arts, exploring and disseminating research practices across Europe and inter}artes – building on developments from the ‘Bologna’ Declaration 1999 looking at Quality Assessment & Enhancement, ‘Tuning’ & Qualification Frameworks, Innovation & Tradition and Professional Practice.
ELIA’s 9th Biennial Conference attracted a very wide range of participants from higher arts education including academics/professional practitioners from all arts disciplines, arts administrators, international officers, senior managers and representatives of the cultural sector; approxemately 500 participants from 38 countries were registered. It is the major international forum for debate and exchange of ideas and best practice in higher arts education. We hope that participants saw it as an opportunity to renew and develop new contacts and friends within a context of stimulating formal and informal presentations, symposia, workshops and cultural events. We also hope that good academic and social links with colleagues and students from the Flemish Art Schools were built.
