Austria/ 8.3 Arts and cultural education  

8.3.1 Institutional overview

The Austrian school system is essentially uniformly nationally regulated. In relation to the organisation (establishment, maintenance, school hours, number of students per class) of the public compulsory schools, legislation on the fundamentals is the responsibility of the federal government, the passing of implementing legislation and its execution is the task of the individual provinces. The curricula are formulated nationally in the Federal Law Gazette and include objectives for musical education and artistic education for each school grade.

KulturKontakt Austria (KKA, see chapter 7.1) has for many years been commissioned by the Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture to develop projects for cultural education in teaching and art and cultural education programmes in the schools. Since 2008 there has been the cultural education programme "p[ART] – partnership between schools and cultural institutions": one school and one cultural institution each work continually together in the form of a multi-year partnership. In 2010 the programme was evaluated and improved. The Robert Bosch Stiftung was taken on as a partner for 2011/12 and aspects of the sustainability of p[ART] will be explored together with them. A conference on the issue is planned for December 2012.

Since 2007, under the "Kunst macht Schule" (Art meets School) initiative developed together with the KKA, the Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture has realised 20 000 projects in ten programmes with schools, artists and cultural institutions: one initiative is free admission to all federal museums up to the age of 19; "Macht/Schule/Theater" (Power/School/Theatre) brings schools and theatre professionals together; the aim of "Culture Connected" is to support cultural cooperation projects with schools, which can receive co-funding to a maximum of EUR 1 500 per project; the initiative "School Culture Budget" supports joint projects by schools with artists and culture educators; the "Stimmbogen"-programme brings school students closer to music in its many facets; the initiative "Interculturality and Multilingualism – A Chance!" supports pupils and teachers in a productive exploration of linguistic and cultural diversity; "projekteuropa" is a competition for school students on an artistic analysis of Europe: "The Art of Reading" promotes reading skills; students' media skills are promoted with the projects "Student radio", "media literacy award" and the "film education-programme" and "Wien Aktion / Europa Aktion" make it possible for students from all over Austria and Europe to get to know the capital, Vienna.

The aim of he collaborative Weblog "medienpaedagogik.at/blog" (http://medienpaedagogik.kaywa.com/) on media, teaching and life-long learning with the emphasis on Austria is a networking of institutions, projects and individuals in the field of learning with the new media.

"Bikum", the Society for Education, Culture and Media (http://bikum.mixxt.at/) is an on-line platform for people and organisations from the field of media education. It promotes the exchange between science, pedagogic practice, art and the media. In November 2010, Bikum organised the "Educamp", "Film education in Austria: questions of continuity and sustainability" in Vienna.

Your Comments on this Chapter?