Out-of-school arts and cultural education
Multi-arts centres had offered art classes until 1991 and amateur arts ensembles among working collectives and schools of all levels were common. Since the 2000’s new cultural, multi-disciplinary centres emerged and some parents were able to pay for private lessons for their children, often in music, painting or dance.
Most of the cultural centres are located in Tirana. Also in Tirana, The Italian Institute of Culture, the British Council, the Alliance Française, the Goethe Institute and USIS have opened reading rooms.
Folk groups are active in all Albanian towns and several music associations have been established. The Ministry of Culture finances a nation-wide folk festival in Gjirokastra, in which minority groups can also participate.
In 2016, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Sport to promote cultural awareness, expression, creativity and diversity, particularly to the young generation for a comprehensive and sustainable cultural education in Albania. As part of “Education Through Culture”174, the National Art Gallery inaugurated the “Children’s Education Atelier” project, the National Experimental Theatre delivered artistic events for children each weekend and other public institutions of culture looked to play an educational role for youth. The Ministry of Culture also organised a reading campaign in 2016, including various literary activities with cooperation from the Ministry of Education and Sport, Tirana Municipality, other cultural institutions, the foreign embassies, as well as University of Tirana’s Department of Literature.
The European Heritage Days programme is annually held in September, connecting Albanian students and citizens with heritage, nature, education, inclusion and more through diverse themes and activities about heritage each year.
Other opportunities are created through the funding of civil society organizations’ projects that often include non-formal educational components such as workshops and training sessions.
Cultural Heritage without Borders project “DON’T GET MAD” is a collection of games adapted to the education of the local cultural heritage for the cities of Albania and is ongoing.
Comments are closed.