There are 165 schools and academies in Flanders and Brussels providing part-time education in the arts. Together, these offer over 1 450 locations where children (from the age of six), youngsters, and adults can follow courses in performing arts, wordcraft, music and/or (audio)visual arts as leisure-time activity. The majority of municipalities in Flanders and Brussels has a (Dutch-speaking) academy for part-time education in the arts. In the school year of 2017-2018, there were over 196 000 people enrolled in these academies.[1] Courses are bound to a framework of targets (‘einddoelen’), which nonetheless offer academies and teachers a great deal of freedom in how to organise their courses.[2] Part-time education in the arts resides under the competence of the Ministry of Education and Training. Next to this government-funded offer, there are courses by private players. Training in dance (ballet, clip dance, ballroom, folk dances, etc.) is provided by almost 1 600 sport clubs throughout Flanders and Brussels.
There are also many cultural organisations offering formal or informal (out-of-school) arts and cultural education (see also 6.4), such as organisations for socio-cultural work for adults, amateur arts organisations, participatory artistic initiatives, youth organisations, educational services of cultural heritage organisations, and circus schools[3]. These span different policy fields and receive support through different legal frameworks (see also 5.1). Experts from this heterogeneous field can meet each other through Vitamine C (hosted by publiq, see 6.1), a network of providers of cultural education as leisure pursuit (including Lasso, a Brussels network organisation, see 6.1).
In 2021, a new Decree on Out-of-School Childcare will come into effect. This decree grants local authorities in Flanders more freedom in organising out-of-school childcare, which might generate new opportunities for local collaboration between childcare organisations and others, including cultural (education) organisations.
Lastly, we should mention the adult education centres and the campuses of the SYNTRA network. These offer job-oriented courses for adults in — among other spheres of professional activity — branches of the creative industries, such as design, fashion, or multimedia.
[1] The Ministry of Education and Training provides detailed data on the number of pupils enrolled at academies for part-time education in the arts.
[2] This is especially the case since the new Decree on Part-Time Education in the Arts came into effect (see 4.1.9).
[3] Circuscentre provides an overview of circus schools (‘circusateliers’) in Flanders and Brussels.
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