European Academy of Participation

Creative producers and the communities of tomorrow

A Strategic Partnership supported by the ERASMUS+ programme of the European Commission

Create is delighted to have been involved in The European Academy of Participation, an EU–funded project. The European Academy of Participation (EAP) brought together ten partners from all over Europe, including higher education institutions and arts and culture organisations. The project aimed to make a contribution to a more inclusive Europe, in which people live together in mutual respect of their differences. The EAP partners considered participatory practice in art and culture as a central tool to involve communities in a positive process of constructing a shared cultural space.

Participation is trending…

A key priority for funders, fostering social cohesion and exposing ethical questions around responsibility and authorship, participatory practice can provide compelling means to communicate through art and culture. It also embraces the dissolving of boundaries between academic and artistic disciplines and those between the policymaker, the artist, the curator and the audience. This increasing flexibility brings about a new practice profile: the creative producer.

EAP aimed to develop:

• A shared understanding of a graduate profile for practitioners working in participatory settings, based on the dialogue between higher education, lifelong learning and the creative field.
• A benchmark document that adopts the Tuning Educational Structures in Europe methodology that will be validated and published for the use of educators and practitioners. This includes a qualifications framework and acknowledges the already existing variety of participatory approaches in the humanities and the arts.
• An intensive 2 month, low-residency module/unit jointly offered by universities and cultural organisations. This post graduate lifelong learning education module/unit targets postgraduate students – from the arts, humanities and social sciences – as well as practitioners including artists, trainers, teachers, curators and others from third sector cultural organizations.

The ambition of EAP was to tap into the existing potential of higher education and the unique and hard won endeavours of creative projects and organizations scattered across Europe that are engaging the public as active agents in their work. Through interaction both sectors impact on the diversifying societies of Europe, valuing participatory practice in the arts.

EAP organised three public conferences

1. 2016, October, Dublin, Ireland: Towards a European Benchmark.
2. 2017, May, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Bringing education and practice together.
3. 2018, May, Lyon, France: New Communities, New Jobs, New Policies.

Partners

Goethe-Institut, Munich, Germany; Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; ACERT, Tondela, Portugal; Avrupa Kultur Dernegi, Istanbul, Turkey; National University of the Arts Bucharest, Romania; Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London, UK; University of Marseille, France; Universidad de la Iglesia de Deusto, Bilbao, Spain; ELIA The European League of Institutes of the Arts, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Create, Dublin, Ireland.