Several UNESCO Chairs have been working on some of the most cutting-edge issues in the field of culture and arts education for many years. The UNITWIN Programme, which consists of some 1000 UNESCO Chairs and 50 UNITWIN Networks of research institutes, puts researchers and practitioners in contact with counterparts around the world, strengthening the reflection and practices in key and emerging areas of sustainable development.
“In the current global landscape, cultural diversity and the arts play a pivotal role in fostering understanding, empathy, and creativity”, says Professor Zhongwen Chen. “With the challenges we face, the need for a nuanced and comprehensive approach to education is more critical than ever.” As the Coordinator of the UNITWIN Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts (China), whose passion is performing arts as Deputy Director of the International Theatre Institute, Prof Chen is one of the many UNESCO Chairs from UNESCO’s university cooperation programme, UNITWIN who contributed to developing the new UNESCO Framework for Culture and Arts Education, recently adopted at the World Conference on Culture and Arts Education (13-15 February 2024).
Chairholder for the UNESCO Chair on Arts, Education and Culture of Peace (Colombia), Prof Gloria Patricia Zapata Restrepo, brought into the international dialogue for the WCCAE her experiences studying the rich cultural expressions and artistic education, particularly for social cohesion in a country that has been ravaged by internal conflict. For her, it is an important step that the new framework brings together arts and culture education, unlike its predecessors (particularly the Road Map for Arts Education, adopted in Lisbon in 2006, and the Seoul Agenda: Goals for the Development of Arts Education, in 2010.) “For us arts and culture are so important,” she says, “specifically when we are thinking about cultural diversity and identity, and how people express themselves through their own traditions – you have to think about culture and arts.”
Whilst Professor Jorissen, current Coordinator for the UNITWIN Arts Education Research for Cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development, praises the Seoul Agenda for creating international communities and international networks, particularly between the Global South and the Global North, he sees the WCCAE as an opportunity to expand the concept beyond a western-centric style of education that focuses mainly on the individual, often in ways that disconnect them from communities and societies. He argues that in Germany, incorporating traditional instruments from Turkey in artistic education reflecting the large Turkish migrant population, would be a good idea for fostering social cohesion in the country. He is part of a national advisory board on the use of intangible cultural heritage in culture and arts education for the German government.
Peacebuilding through culture and arts education is the central focus for Prof Zapata, whose research brought her into contact with artists from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerilla group before the Peace Agreement of 2016. “It was a bit shocking, because when you think about somebody that has been in the mountains, fighting for years, you think about them as soldiers and somebody who is really, really dangerous,” she says. “But when you see them as an artist, you find common ground.” Through the UNITWIN programme, she feels that the Colombian experience of using culture and arts education as a conduit to social cohesion has contributed to the international dialogue.
Intangible cultural heritage is a key question for Professor Chen and the UNITWIN Network “as it is precious and a key question for our members is how we make it live, as it does not belong in the past or in a museum – it is relevant to life now.” Some partners look to learn from classical western theatre training, whilst increasingly, partners in the west are looking to draw upon their intangible cultural heritage as dynamic forms of expression, in the same way that for example, Chinese qigong physical techniques or Indian traditional drums.
