Goals and Topics

Since the end of 2010, the Initiative Group for the Federal Congress of Art Education BuKo12 has organized various conferences focusing on different topics. This established the basis of the congress “Art Education Participation” which will be held in Dresden from October 19–21, 2012.

Concept

The initiative’s concept is both regional and trans-regional in its approach, subject-specific and interdisciplinary, targeted towards specific audiences as well as the general public, institutionally based and trans-institutional. Eight conferences, the so-called “Parts”, which took place at different venues nationwide between November 2010 and April 2012 and which were led by the Initiative Group BuKo12, focused on current issues in the field of art education. The topics discussed lead up to the three-day Federal Congress of Art Education in autumn 2012. The event aims at bringing together, discussing and communicating the results, addressing different target groups, such as experts working institutions of higher education, pedagogues and pedagogues-in-training, teachers and arts communicators working in schools, in museums, in the field of non-formal education for children, young people and adults, or in art communication programs of other institutions.

The Structure of the Congress

Five dimensions mirror the underlying structure of the congress: art education and cultural education, educational policy, internationality, contemporary art as well as areas of activity in formal/non-formal education. A great variety of different formats – from exhibitions and forums to Open Space events and media interventions up to lecture situations – enable the visitors of the congress to interactively participate in various ways. The discursive process initiated in the run-up to the congress will be documented and visualized in order to delineate it for the visitors in a stimulating manner.

In the framework of workshops, lectures and discussions, national and international guest speakers from different academic cultures as well as participants of the previous conferences will comment on the discourse initiated so far and present it in an extended context employing an interdisciplinary and international perspective. Furthermore, a jury selected submissions from the “Call for Participation – Call for Square”, which identify and fill gaps in the initiative’s work to date. Participation will play a major role with regard to both format and content of the congress.

Venue

111 years after the First Congress of Art Education, the city of Dresden will again be the venue of a comprehensive expert conference. The event will be held at the Deutschen Hygiene-Museums Dresden, a place of interdisciplinary theory and praxis at the intersections of cultural education and science.

Independent of the Dresden congress, but in the same context with regard to place and time, the BDK Research Meeting discussing the questions “What is to be researched in art education?” and “How is research carried out?” as well as the First Federal Congress of Art Education Students entitled “kunst | denken | lernen” [“art |  thinking | learning”] will take place.

Topics

Through the concept of participation, the congress “Art Education Participation” aims at pointing out the outstanding importance of art education for the young generation in a world characterized by cultural globalization and at increasing public awareness of this issue. The congress will be shaped by three key questions summing up the current conditions of art education:

• Tradition – How can art education contribute to participating in cultural heritage and cultural communication?
• Action – How can art education qualify for interaction with a (global) society characterized by heterogeneity and a high degree of mediatization?
• Vision – How can art education prepare for the participation in a future society, a society that doesn’t exist yet?

The topics will be elaborated on in the context of lectures and discussions with prominent panelists: national and international scientists, educators and artists from the fields of art education, cultural education and neighboring disciplines, including intercultural education, art theory and political education, will present their positions and experiences and put them up for discussion.

The starting points for these discussions stem from the theoretical and practical work and its discussion during the previous conferences: the relationship between contemporary art and art education, the communication of practical knowledge in the context of collegial discourse, participatory art education, the cooperation of institutions of formal and of non-formal education, current media culture, and intercultural art education.