logo_newsletter.gif news_pattern_green.gif news_pattern_blue.gif _ The ELIA newsletter is an information service for ELIA members and also available online at:
www.elia-artschools.org _
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 Dear ELIA Newsletter Reader,

Through this letter I would like to update you on the main developments at ELIA over the past weeks.

ELIA just received the wonderful news from the European Commission that we will have a project funded for three years (2008-2010).
This will give the organisation the possibility to focus on, among other things, research in and through the arts, a virtual residency for young graduates and to organise expert meetings, and round tables on relevant themes. Student projects will also be initiated through this grant.

We are heading towards the Biennial Conference and General Assembly meeting in Gothenburg at the end of October; this issue is devoted especially to the ins and outs of this event.

The Representative Board recently met in Amsterdam and discussed, among many other issues, the future of ELIA which will be presented in a four year development plan to the members in Gothenburg. Membership was also discussed and an important decision was taken regarding new member applicants. In the view of peer review processes (part of ELIA’s commitment) we would like to know more about our new members. It was decided that every new application for membership must be supported by two existing members of ELIA. This new procedure will also serve to ensure quality of membership. New members will be invited to present themselves to the representative board (in person or virtual). The increasingly important role of member institutions as advocates is intended to be strengthened by this decision.

Another decision in the light of ELIA's increasing contacts outside Europe is to organise a conference in Chicago (upon invitation of the Columbia College of the Arts) in April 2010; the working title is 'reclaiming creativity'.
And there is more on the agenda: My closing request to you is if you could look into the call for nominations for the next representative board that was emailed to you and can be found on our website at the above link. We ask you kindly to encourage enthusiastic people with ideas about the future of higher arts education to consider being nominated for the elections in Gothenburg.

I wish you a nice read and ask that you not hesitate to contact us with comments, ideas and proposals.

Warm regards,
Carla Delfos
Executive Director

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 Gothenburg, 29 October - 1 November 2008 The preparations for the Gothenburg conference are in full swing and online registration is opened. In this issue of the ELIA newsletter, we introduce some of the conference’s themes and features as the event materialises.

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 ELIA is proud to present as its keynote speaker for the opening plenary UCLA’s Professor of World Arts and Cultures, Peter Sellars .

Peter Sellars, dr. h.c., Erasmus Prize laureate, is one of the world's leading theatre directors, famous for his stagings of Mozart's Da Ponte operas and of 20th-21st century repertoire. In particular, he is renowned for his collaboration with composer John Adams in creating the politically engaged operas Nixon in China (1987), The Death of Klinghofer (1991), Doctor Atomic (2005), and A Flowering Tree (2006).
Sellars has been invited to the Salzburg and Glyndebourne Festivals, is a regular guest at the Holland Festival, and has been director to the Los Angeles Festival, Adelaide Festival of the Arts and the New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna, Austria. Both in his opera settings and in his work for theatre with the Boston Shakespeare Company and the American National Theater, he has earned acclaim as well as incited controversy by his radical updating of the classical repertoire.

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 At the core of the Biennial's programme, five simultaneous symposia focus on the main opportunities and challenges of globalisation that higher art education institutes meet today. The symposia are organised by representatives of some of Europe’s prominent art education institutes and they have been designed in order to help you develop the activities of your school, in dialogue with colleagues.
  1. Talking loud and saying something!
    Research in and through the arts has the promise of opening up new perspectives for artistic work, knowledge production and critical discourse. This symposium aims to develop a platform for open-minded discussion that opens such perspectives. It connects to the groundbreaking Talking loud and saying something! exhibition project at the Gothenburg Museum of Art, and has an extra session on artistic research in music.
  2. Standards not standardisation
    This symposium addresses quality from the point of view of artists and from the point of view of those who work with quality management at art institutes. How can we create frameworks for quality evaluation that satisfies artistic as well as managerial needs? Building upon the Qualification Frameworks developed by the inter}artes thematic network, this symposium will provide a detailed, practical working knowledge.
  3. Who is responsible?
    In debates on the future direction and agendas for the art school, questions arise on the relationship between subject disciplines and a wider range of social and cultural conditions which cross over arts discipline boundaries. With a transition from discipline-based to thematic approaches, artists are challenged to comment on the broader issues of our time.
  4. The arts as dialogue
    In an age of mass migration and globalization, art schools face new challenges. In this symposium, we will explore the notion of "intercultural dialogue" through the study and experience of what a "dialogue" is, exploring interactive experiments in performing arts and game design, and the dialogue between art theoreticians, artists, and the audience. It includes a viewing of the student film I See You on intercultural dialogue.
  5. What impact?
    More than ever economic growth and welfare depend on a society’s ability to attract creative talent. This symposium will take an in-depth look at the main consequences and implications of this situation for higher arts education. Special attention will be paid to Master’s and doctoral initiatives responding to these new needs, and the impact on artistic values.
Read more or visit www.eliabiennial.org

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 Make your institute visible at the Interactive Forum
The Interactive Forum is always a popular meeting point in any ELIA Biennial Conference. This time it will be located in a specially designed tent at the heart of the conference. The tent will be within walking distance of all the conference venues and right in the middle of Gothenburg’s main cultural square. There, delegates can meet, have a drink, and exchange ideas and information about their schools and any new projects.
Your institute can be part of this Interactive Forum! As an ELIA member you can rent a booth where you can present information about your school. Since the tent serves as a meeting point and a place where a lot of delegates pass every day, you will be sure of good exposure for your institute. A booth will cost EUR 100,- for three days, including a table, chairs, access to wireless internet and the possibility to display visual material behind the table. As limited space is available we advise you to register at your earliest convenience by means of online registration.

Present your project on one of our evenings in the tradition of Pecha Kucha!
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening between 22h00-23h00, you will have an opportunity to give a presentation in the tent, the place where delegates can meet and have a drink. These will be short presentations in the tradition of a Pecha Kucha Night www.pecha-kucha.org . Pecha Kucha is a Japanese term for ‘the sound of conversation’. These presentations are also an extension of one of the thoughts behind this conference: to use visual signifiers and let images speak.
Each presenter will receive the microphone and will talk through a Power Point presentation of 20 images, which will be shown for 20 seconds each – giving you 6 minutes 40 seconds before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the audience focussed and the interest level up. This concept will create a forum in which creative projects, ideas or work can be easily and informally shown. It is also a good opportunity to receive feedback on your project or idea from your peers and to create possible partnerships.
We invite you to propose such a presentation of a project or an idea. We will welcome any proposal that is innovative, creative and links with one of the themes discussed during the conference. We will be working on a first come, first served basis and will publish a time schedule at the beginning of the conference. Delegates can sign up by means of online registration.

Read more about the Interactive Forum

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 The organising committee would like to draw you attention to a research project conducted by Gothenburg University, of interest to all ELIA members.

Cecilia Gelin has been employed at the Fine, Applied and Performing Arts at the University of Gothenburg to map the possibility of creating a network in between doctoral programmes at institutes of the arts connected to ELIA. Cecilia Gelin is an arthistorian and studied international business. She has prior held the position as Director of NIFCA, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art ( www.nicfa.org ).

The investigation aims at collecting facts on doctoral programmes at institutes of the arts within ELIA, including the variety of art-disciplines, profiles and geographies. The study will compare and analyze the different examples of doctoral programmes, their strengths, weaknesses, and prospects. It will search to identify the most relevant issues where collaboration between doctoral programmes – on the level of coordinators, supervisors and doctoral students - could be of benefit to all members involved and how it can be organised and expanded.

Part of the ongoing study will be presented at the fringe session on the conference. Cecilia Gelin welcomes comments and ideas concerning a future network. Please contact her at:
Phone: +46 709 81 78 15
E-mail: cecilia.gelin@konst.gu.se

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 Simultaneous with ELIA’s Biennial Conference, the Gothenburg Museum of Art is staging a unique exhibition project.
The group exhibition Talkin’ Loud and Saying Something! focuses on the positively controversial and challenging theme of visual artist research. This event is the first comprehensive contemporary art show that deliberately and openly seeks to combine artistic expression with research means and methods, and which also aims at effecting a productive and thought-provoking collision. The exhibition consists of four artistic research projects in and through each particular practice. The participating artists represent a wide variety of artistic strategies and have also worked coherently and consistently with research aims and methods.

At the Gothenburg Centre for Contemporary Art (Konsthall), which is situated next to the Museum of Art, there will be another exhibition on artistic research produced as an independent curatorial project.

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 You can register online through our new secure server MyElia.
impotant note: Registrations received and paid for before 15 June still profit from the reduced early bird fee, while there are also special reduced fees for students and doctoral students.
The Swedish Institute has kindly offered a grant to cover expenses for participants from Asia and Africa. More details about the conditions under which you can apply for this grant will be made available on the Biennial’s website.
Read more>>

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 Arts Research: The State of Play 2008
Thursday 8 and 9 May 2008
Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar, Dublin, Ireland

The graduate school of creative arts and media (GradCAM) at the Dublin Institute of Technology is organising a two-day conference on the state of play in arts research on 8 and 9 May.

Much of the discussion of research and arts practices has tended toward a debate about essence and epistemology. But what are people actually doing?
Where are the excitement and engagement of artists, musicians, designers, architects, performers, curators being actualised and demonstrated? What is the state of play among arts researchers?

This conference seeks to review the state of play in arts research by looking at concrete examples of work-in-progress and work-completed. It seeks to examine the fit between actual practice and policy. It further seeks to establish the points at which the debate has moved forward in the last five years.

The conference will also provide an opportunity to respond to emergent guidelines in respect of doctoral research in and through the arts. The goal is to use concrete case-studies of arts research to inform a wider debate that can progress beyond the first hurdles of epistemic anxiety. The conference will thus seek to address a broad range of issues relevant to current researchers, doctoral supervisors, academic and institutional leaders, research funders and policy-makers.

For more information click here.

Beyond 2010: European Higher Education in the Next Decade.
Tallinn, 15-17 June 2008

ACA, the Academic Cooperation Association, announces its 2008 annual conference.

What does the next decade hold in store for European higher education? Which role will internationalisation and globalisation play, and will Europe continue to be a global magnet for students and scholars? Will the Bologna Process continue beyond 2010? Will the Lisbon Strategy remain the centerpiece of EU education, research and innovation policy? Or will new priorities emerge, and which? These are some of the questions which this year's ACA Annual Conference will address.

The conference Beyond 2010. European Higher Education in the Next Decade will take place in Tallinn, Estonia's vibrant capital. It will draw an audience of 250-plus participants - composed of policymakers and practitioners alike, from Europe and elsewhere in the world.
Keynotes include:
www.aca-secretariat.be

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 Designs on eLearning Conference
Penn State University, September 9 and 10, 2008
Call for presentations deadline: May 30, 2008

Penn State University's College of Arts and Architecture, in collaboration with University of the Arts London, is hosting the 4th Designs on eLearning Conference at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel on September 9 and 10, 2008.
Sustaining the momentum gained over the previous two Designs on e-Learning events, Designs on e-Learning 2008 invites the members of the arts and design disciplines to submit abstracts for consideration for presentations in the upcoming conference. The conference intends to build on the success of Designs on e-Learning 2005 and 2007 and on the subsequent online conference and symposium in disseminating and promoting good practice in the arts and design. Each presentation will last thirty minutes and aims to cast light on established practice in the field, on innovations in teaching and learning with technology, on the challenges and successes presented by the visual nature of our discipline, and on the benefits of online and blended learning.

This year's conference themes will include:
Proposals should be submitted online at designsonelearning.psu.edu , where you can also find more information about the conference. Registration for participation is still open until 2 September.

Questioning Qualities: an international working conference on fundamental problems of artistic research

The Bergen National Academy of the Arts invites practitioners from all art disciplines, including design and the performing arts, to submit requests for participation at the fifth Sensuous Knowledge Conference on 24-26 september 2008.

Under the heading “Questioning Qualities” this year’s Sensuous Knowledge conference will focus upon values within and criteria for an appraisal of quality in artistic research - including the overall question of whether these differ from values and criteria for quality within the arts themselves. As in the former conferences the general aim is a double one: to develop ways of talking about, analysing and evaluating examples of artistic research, and to consider the special character of cognition related to artistic creativity.

Please note that each year the number of people who apply for participation exceeds the total number of conference guests that can be accomodated. The deadline for applications is 9 June ; notifications will be sent out by 27 June.
Requests for participation should be submitted as an email to: sensuous.knowledge@khib.no
More information can be found on the conference website: www.sensuousknowledge.org

Festivals of Theater for Children and Youth Workshop
As part of the European Festival Research Project
Moscow, October 31 - November 1, 2008

Following the Urban Impact of Artistic Festivals workshop in Helsinki this month, EFRP invites researchers to submit proposals for 15 min oral presentations for their next intensive research workshop.
For both workshops, EFRP is looking for comparative and longitudinal research and exploration of specific issues and topics, not presentations of specific festivals as such. Presentations centered on one single festival will be considered only if they highlight some emblematic feature or practice of broader significance.

Interested researchers should submit a 100-150 word summary of their presentation to Dr Dragan Klaic (Leiden University), Chair of the EFRP by May 15: draganklaic@gmail.com .
More on www.efa-aef.eu

Shake your rights
Student contest for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

For the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), ART for the World Europe and the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano are sponsoring a worldwide contest for poster designs open to students enrolled in fine art colleges. With the patronage of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the contest promoters want to celebrate the Declaration through six main themes: Dignity and Justice, Gender, Participation, Development, Culture, and Environment. Young artists are invited to design posters that evoke these themes.
Winning posters will be printed in different languages and distributed by the OHCHR to all its offices and relative NGOs.
The Contest starts on 07/04/08, and ends on 14/09/08.

For more information, please visit www.shakeyourrights.org

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