The 2009 Teachers' Academy is over now. We are keeping this site open for your information. You can find the papers from the presentations and keynotes here >>
The conference has also been covered on ELIAblog >>
You can also find pictures of the event here >>
After the ELIA Teachers’ Academies in Barcelona (2003), in Rotterdam (2005) and in Brighton (2007), we are now looking back on a very succesful event in Sofia, Bulgaria, where the 4th ELIA Teachers’ Academy was held on 1–4 July 2009.
For four days, we have participated in workshops, attended presentations and masterclasses, watched films, engaged in storytelling, and learned from each other; closed off with a visit to the impressive Rila Monastery.
Hosted by the Bulgarian National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA), the event was organised in the framework of artesnet Europe (the ERASMUS Network for Higher Arts Education), and supported by the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme.
artesnet is the successor to the thematic network inter}artes and serves as a point of reference for the ‘Tuning Educational Structures in Europe’ project. The network promotes partnership projects between creative enterprises and local communities and is a contributor to 2009: European Year of Creativity and Innovation.
The ELIA Teachers’ Academy aims to contribute to the professional development of professors, teachers and researchers in higher arts education by facilitating their participation in – and engagement with – challenging experiences and debates set in an international context. Teachers’ Academy participants will:
- engage with innovative teaching and research methods at both national and international level
- acquire new insights into, and new ways of thinking about, current issues in higher arts education such as knowledge transfer, employability, professional practice, and industry-facing and flexible learning
- return home revitalised with professional energy and new contacts with colleagues.
The overarching theme of the 2009 ELIA Teachers’ Academy is ‘Storytelling’. Storytelling is a way of thinking; it is a way of grasping and understanding the inner and outer world. It is a way of connecting the facts of life with the emotional and rational paradigms that evoke, in equal measure, both our everyday opinions and attitudes and our most profound moments of initiation and catharsis. As a means of teaching and learning, storytelling is as old as civilisation itself. For teachers and students in the arts, it offers a unique opportunity to form and re-form cultural identities, provides an emphatic way of conceptualising, communicating and developing ideas. In today’s digital world, storytelling permeates online networks and virtual realities. The 2009 ELIA Teachers' Academy will explore and celebrate the many ways in which artistic storytelling integrates creativity, innovation, education and culture.
All professors, lecturers, teachers or researchers at ELIA member institutions who are directly involved in teaching (theory and practice) and/or research at the higher arts education level are welcome.
For more information or any questions please contact
