ECA (European Council of Artists) held its Annual Conference in Floriana, Malta. Experiencing the Arts | artists’ contribution to creative thinking and European innovation ran from the 30th of October to the 1st November. The importance of arts at all levels in education was discussed by an impressive line-up of speakers, see enclosed initial report.
At its Annual General Assembly, which followed the conference, delegates were informed by Danish member, The Council of Danish Artists, of a decision by the Danish Government to discontinue its Artists-in-Schools Programme, that includes children in kindergarten through secondary education.
The European Council of Artists - an umbrella for interdisciplinary artists' councils and professional artists' associations from 26 countries across Europe and representing an estimated 200,000 professional artists – while recognising the impact of the current financial situation – deplores the short-sighted nature of this ill-advised decision. The Danish Artists-in-Schools Programme (Huskunstnerordningen) which had run for the past 5 years has been both cost-effective and an outstanding success, bringing children of all ages into contact with art and artists of many disciplines. This decision, which flies in the face of educational and social research, which supports such interventions, is all the more regrettable coming as it does during the European year of Innovation and Creativity and shows scant regard for the promotion of artistic and cultural education as an asset for European society of the future.
The European Council of Artists on behalf of its members gathered for its Annual General Assembly, formally calls on the Danish government to reverse its decision to terminate or reduce funding for its Artists-in-Schools Programme.
Floriana, Malta, 2 November 2009
Michael Burke,
president
A political agreement to maintain the programme for another 4 years was reached on 12 November.