Russia

Last update: February, 2013

There are two main forms of children and youth education in the arts in Russia. The formal one is the "aesthetic formation" within the general education system, which is regulated by state standards and programmes, relatively even and free of charge. The informal or additional education can be chosen according to the interests and ability of a student; it is mostly fee paying and varied as regards institutions and contents. The state informal educational settings, such as Children Arts, Ballet or Music Schools, function as both focal points of general artistic development and the first, compulsory phase of professionalisation in visual arts, music and ballet. The high esteem in which Russian arts education is held abroad is illustrated by the percentage (20%) of foreign students studying music. The access to initial education in music, fine arts, theatre and choreography was named within the political priorities, yet the issue of charging needs to be adjusted. Today, children's educational establishments are opening their doors to adults.

The multilevel arts educational system comes under the Culture Ministry (5 477 schools, 260 professional colleges and 68 higher schools of culture and the arts in 2009); the Ministry of Education and Science supervises about six hundred related institutions (see Table 15). After the governmental reform of 2004, responsibility for professional education institutions (and research ones) became a point of contention between those two ministries. The former has successfully lobbied for preservation of the higher school arts institutions within the cultural sector, stating that the unique national system of proficient artistic training, beginning from childhood to adulthood, and based on a selection of the most gifted youth, could be destroyed by introducing general higher education standards or joining the Bologna process.

The state educational settings are mostly funded by regional governments or by local administrations, while the latter often have very limited financial possibilities and cannot provide for their accredited functioning and equipment. The experts estimate depreciation of facilities and premises of the Children's Arts Schools as being no less than 80%. The Children of Russia Federal Target Programme presupposes support for education in the arts both for the talented and disabled people including acquisition of musical instruments, stipends, awards, grant giving, organisation of festivals, competitions, etc.

The Analytical Report on arts education in Russia was prepared recently within the joint UNESCO and Intergovernmental Foundation for Educational, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation (IFESCCO) project on Arts Education in the CIS Countries: Development of Creative Potential in the 21st Century (2010).

Last update: February, 2013

General arts education provides for the study of arts at all levels of the Russian education system including pre-school, general, secondary and higher professional institutions. It is compulsory and presupposes acquaintance with the basics of music, visual arts and dance in preschool institutions, then studying and mastering basic practices in visual arts, music and world artistic culture at school. Its principles follow the Concept of Arts Education in the Russian Federation (2001) and include:

• starting education from an early age;
• multicultural approach in arts curricula that provides for teaching a wide range of art styles and world art traditions while focusing on national culture;
• due regard to principle features of local and ethnic cultural backgrounds while elaborating arts curricula; and
• multifaceted approach to teaching arts disciplines based on interactions of various kinds of arts.

Within the general education system, the latest State Standard of General Education regulates teaching the arts at all levels; the Standard renewal resulted in a general shortening of arts courses. In primary schools (1–4th grades), arts are represented by literary reading, music, and fine arts. Pupils of secondary schools study literature (5–9th grades), music and drawing (5–7th grades), the arts (8–9th grades). Within the final stage of secondary education (10–11th grades), literature remains a compulsory subject, and World Artistic Culture is taught according to specialised curricula (in social sciences and liberal arts; philology; arts and aesthetics; universal or non-specified). Public opinion on general arts education remains unfavourable. The VCIOM sociological survey of 2011, of subjects that are obligatory within secondary education, revealed low support for studying literature (43 %) and no support for music and visual arts (0%).

Last update: February, 2013

The arts education system in Russia (and the Soviet Union) used to be academic in the best sense of the word. The network of state music, ballet and fine arts higher education institutions, conservatories and academies has been preserved despite a scarcity of budget resources and low salaries for educators. Actually, there is ageing and a partial "brain drain" due to high demand abroad, especially for music and ballet teachers. Yet in 2002, the number of graduates from state higher education institutions in culture and arts surpassed that of 1990 and the competition for those who would like to enter is higher than the average.

Table 14:  Number of graduates from public and private educational institutions in culture and arts

Source: Gosudarstvenny komitet RF po statistike: Rossijsky statistichesky yyezhegodnik, 2009. (State Committee of the RF for Statistics: Russian Statistical Yearbook, 2009, Moscow, 2010). Moskva, 2010, p. 244, 256.

New courses and specialisations are being introduced into professional training, e.g. to include mastering new media and audio-visual technologies, management and production. Private initiatives have made artistic education both diverse and accessible not only for the most talented students; however, this education is expensive.

The aims to develop various cognitive skills, raise personal self-assessment, achieve creative self-expression and unite individuals into communities are implemented in activities of the State Specialised Institute of Arts in Moscow, which is the unique higher educational institution established for professional training in the arts of physically disabled young people. There is a variety of arts disciplines at the Institute and its students and graduates participate in many internal and foreign festivals and events, in particular those organised within the international "Very special Arts" Programme.

As for the secondary and higher vocational education other than in the arts or humanities, general training in culture (a course in "Culturology") is compulsory and optional in the arts. Arts training can be introduced into curricula in the form of various voluntary courses e.g. Arts & Culture History or Contemporary Arts and Design, etc.

Last update: February, 2013

The informal arts education presupposes the involvement of children in artistic practices following personal choice. It is provided through a large network of educational institutions; their slight decrease in number is much less than for the younger generation, which reduced by 13 % since 2003.

Table 15:  Informal educational institutions: number of educational settings and students, 2000-2008

Source: Gosudarstvenny komitet RF po statistike: Rossijsky statistichesky yyezhegodnik, 2009. (State Committee of the RF for Statistics: Russian Statistical Yearbook, 2009, Moscow, 2010). Moskva, 2010, p. 234.

Among the diversified range of informal arts education settings, there are Houses (centres) for children and youth creativity, Clubs within the Houses of Culture, community centres, ethnic clubs, Centres for Aesthetic Formation in museums, educational centres in various cultural institutions, Sunday Schools, Studios and Circles in general schools and pre-school institutions, Leisure Centres for children and youth, and others.

Folk arts and crafts centres, arts workshops and other entities promoting early professional orientation are also very popular today. That type of training in the arts supports family traditions, contributes to long-standing consistency of folklore and folk arts, and inputs to the preservation of the cultures of the Russian people. E.g. the project on distant teaching of traditional crafts of the Russian North (see http://remeslodo.ru/) is developed by the Children's School of Folk Crafts in Archangel, in co-operation with the Lomonosov Pomorsky State University. The crafts are learned as a type of a hobby while the training is carried out through e-mailing educational materials, interactive communication, and sharing photos.

Educational activities for children and teenagers are also well established in museums, many of which work out targeted programmes for children and adult audiences, establish educational centres, organise exhibitions, shows for families and children, etc. The "Museon" Centre for Aesthetic Formation of Children and Youth of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow) is famous for its education programmes, as well as the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. The latter has a specialised Centre, Department for Museum Pedagogy, and a Gymnasium founded in 1989.

The main objectives of arts education for disabled children and teenagers are to acquaint them with cultural, ethical and spiritual values, as well as to ensure their harmonious development in the world of culture and the arts. Mastering the arts provides for developing various cognitive skills, raising personal self-assessment, achieving creative self-expression and uniting individuals into communities.

Last update: February, 2013

Professional training in the arts is based on the principles of discovering gifted children, continuous education, and early professionalisation. The Concept of Arts Education in the Russian Federation (2001) and that of Development of Arts Education in the Russian Federation in 2008–2015 (2008) are oriented towards preservation of the existing multilevel system of professional training, raising the status of learning the arts, and access and support for talented youth.