A Must Or A-Muse: Arts and Culture in Education: Policy and Practice in Europe - Conference Reader and Conference Results

This is the report of the conference ,i>A Must or A-Muse, which took place in The Netherlands in September 2001. The conference and the report were produced by the Boekman Foundation, Cultuurnetwerk Nederland and Erasmus University, Rotterdam. The initiative came from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, who wanted an international comparative study of the content and position of the arts and culture in European secondary education.

The report is in two parts. Part one describes the background and preparation of the conference. Part two follows the actual conference order, and includes the conference paper, introductory papers, and chapters following the four themes of the conference. These four themes are: Education policy and in-school cultural education in Europe; Cultural Policy and in-school cultural education in Europe; the Practice of in-school cultural education in Europe; and Research into the evaluation of cultural education policy and practice.

The conference results give valuable examples of arts and education practices in secondary schools in Europe; and makes a useful contribution to the complex field that will be of interest to policy makers, practitioners and researchers alike.

An interesting aspect of this report is that it reveals how education and arts are intrinsically related to the wider context of community and social development. Issues that have to do with personal or social development naturally arise whenever different ethnic groups share the same school, and discussions related to community development, health or law and order are an inherent dimension to discussions concerning education systems. In this way, it is seen how there is a fluidity that develops between formal and informal settings of education when culture and arts are linked to learning.

Reader: 2001, Culturnetwerk Nederland et al, The Netherlands, 126pp ISBN 90 6650 072 7
Conference Report: 2002, Culturnetwerk Nederlannd
www.cultuurnetwerk.org/english

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