The creative partnership network "artesnet Europe" acts as a Europe-wide ‘community of practice’, connecting practitioners from the creative/cultural sector, teaching staff from art schools, educators, and artistic researchers from almost all EU countries, Iceland, Norway, and Turkey.
The artesnet network is set up to:

• develop new approaches in learning, teaching and research in the arts in a rapidly changing European context of new employment opportunities for artists in the "Economy of Culture" , knowledge-based society and national / European qualifications networks.
• pilot and collect best practice of artistic and creative partnerships between art schools, non-formal education and local communities.
• support online infrastructures / services and sub-networks.

Over the last decade, Higher Arts Education Institutions have become increasingly influenced by the Bologna Process and far-reaching transformations in society. New creative roles are emerging in society for arts graduates. Art schools / universities are developing as centres for innovation and knowledge transfer in the creative sector. Although the pace of change varies, art schools are increasingly aware of their economic and social potential in a competitive national, European and global framework. This proposal identifies the urgent need to tap into the enormous potential of the art schools in a society where creative skills are becoming essential.

Art schools are developing partnerships with creative industries, cultural sector, enterprise, and artistic projects in formal and informal education, intercultural dialogue, local development, and social inclusion. In order to realise this potential, and inspired by the 2006 European study Economy of Culture, the art schools in Europe have identified the need for collaboration, training, and sharing of best practice in a European context.

The artesnet partnership pilots, signals and shares new developments, and introduces collaborative online infrastructures in a European frame. It identifies, collects, tests and evaluates best practice and supports sub-networks, online services and working conferences.



Artesnet

1. Builds up the capacity of the sector in learning, teaching, quality enhancement and research in the arts, through training of teaching staff, sub-networks, panels of experts, transfer of expertise, and validation by professional bodies. Most of the capacity-building activities will be professionalized towards the end of the project period.
2. Incorporates views and knowledge of employers and practitioners in strategic choices at European level and seeks validation of descriptions subject-specific and general competences in a qualifications framework for the arts.
3. Demonstrates, informs and influences a European agenda in the fields of Bologna, Lisbon, lifelong learning, European Research Area, creativity, culture and (higher) arts education from the perspective of the arts institutions in Europe through identifying, documenting and exchanging best practice, projects and partnerships, integrating culture and education and discussing and agreeing on policy papers relevant for the partner institutions.
4. Researches and supports new strategies for art schools in Europe in light of the European Research Area and the knowledge-based society.
5. Intensifies collaboration and develops quality standards in joint curriculum development, artistic research and trans-national networks in art disciplines, in artistic research and in Masters’ programmes.
6. Acts as the European reference for Higher Arts Education, shaping a European qualifications framework for the arts, and for specific art disciplines and enhances the visibility of European Higher Arts Education to the rest of the world.