Belgium

Last update: November, 2020

Both culture and education are competences of the Flemish Community, but each resides under a different policy area and government department. Compulsory education (see 5.2), higher arts education (see 5.3), and part-time education in the arts (see 5.4) are subsumed under the Ministry of Education and Training. Support for independent cultural organisations that offer (both formal and informal) arts and culture education is part of the policy field of Culture. These include the organisations for socio-cultural work for adults, amateur arts organisations, participatory artistic initiatives (see 6.4), educational services of cultural heritage organisations, and local circus schools. Next to Culture and Education, cultural education also spans the Flemish policy fields of Youth (through which youth organisations and projects for cultural education are supported; see 6.4), and Media (through which Mediawijs, an expertise centre on media and digital literacy, is supported) (see also 2.5.3).

The relationship between culture and education has received quite some attention in policy statements and studies (ordered by the government) in the past decade.^[1] In 2016 and 2018, the (now former) ministers of Culture and Education launched joint action plans, with the aim of enhancing the role of culture in education programmes in Flanders.^[2] The action plans resulted in the creation and revision of a number of policy instruments — some of them devised to stimulate collaboration between schools, cultural organisations and artists (see 5.2). As initiatives on cultural education cross different policy fields, networks have been set up, involving people and organisations in culture and education and government departments. There are teams dedicated to the topic of cultural education in the Ministry of Education and Training (CANON Cultural Unit) and in the Department of Culture, Youth and Media.

^[1] For an overview, see Kunstenpunt, ed. 2019. Landschapstekening Kunsten: Ontwikkelingsperspectieven voor de kunsten anno 2019. Brussel: Kunstenpunt, 117-119.

^[2] Crevits, Hilde, and Sven Gatz. 2016. ‘Cultuur en onderwijs – Samen voor meer en beter’; —. 2018. ‘Cultuur en onderwijs: samen voor nog meer en beter II - Integreren en verankeren’.

Last update: November, 2020

Compulsory education in Flanders is subject to attainment targets, which constitute a binding framework on what to teach. These attainment targets contain artistic and cultural competences, which is also true of some of the development goals in nursery school. Nonetheless, these targets and goals still offer schools a large degree of freedom in organising and implementing the curriculum. As a result, the range and quality of artistic and cultural education within the curriculum can vary among schools. Moreover, teachers and cultural organisations have shown concern about the current reform of the attainment targets and other goals in secondary education.^[1] Although artistic and cultural competences feature prominently in the designs of the new goals (see 4.1.9), there are worries that their prominence is strongly reduced in the final, approved versions and in the effective adoption of the goals by Catholic Education Flanders (the largest network of schools in Flanders).

In secondary school (beginning in the third year), pupils can choose a course of study within secondary education in the arts (‘kunstsecundair onderwijs’ or KSO), which combines a broad general education with an active practice of art.

The Flemish government aims to stimulate the relation between culture and education in schools through a set of initiatives. Most of these are managed by CANON Cultural Unit, which is part of the Ministry of Education and Training. These initiatives include:

• Cultuurkuur.be, an online platform which offers information on how to organise cultural education and provides an overview of cultural education activities that can be booked by schools in Flanders and Brussels (see also 6.1)
• funding schemes, such as DynamoPROJECT (for creative projects at school, involving a cultural partner) and Kunstkuur (for collaborations between schools and academies for part-time education in the arts)
• Expert training courses on cultural education for teachers and other people working at schools

^[1] See, for example, this petition launched by teachers or this open letter, which was signed by a number of representatives of the artistic sector.

Last update: November, 2020

Higher arts education (and higher education in general) in Flanders has a bachelor-master structure. Bachelor (both professional and academic) and master courses are available in two different fields of study: ‘Music and Performing Arts’ and ‘Audiovisual and Visual Art’ (which also includes courses in product design).^[1] These courses are held at Schools of Arts, which form separate (and largely autonomous) structures within university colleges.^[2] Schools of Arts collaborate with universities for PhD-programmes and research in the Arts.^[3]

Beside the Schools of Arts, there are five Higher Institutions for Fine Arts, which offer specialised (mostly postgraduate) courses in the arts. These are A.PASS (performing arts and scenography), HISK (visual arts), International Opera Academy (opera), Orpheus Instituut (music), and P.A.R.T.S. (contemporary dance).

Other study programmes for higher cultural education include (interior) architecture, urban planning, conservation and restoration studies, archival studies, product development, digital arts and entertainment, and social-agogic work^[4]. These are offered as bachelor, master, or graduate^[5] courses at university colleges and universities. These institutions also offer study programmes in the humanities (archaeology, art history, musicology, literary studies, etc.) and teacher training courses in the arts and humanities. Obtaining a degree in the latter is a prerequisite for teaching arts or humanities courses in compulsory education (see 5.2) and part-time education in the arts (see 5.4).^[6]

^[1] The number of enrolled students in each field of study and at each institution for higher education can be consulted online. Since 2020, these statistics also include the number of diplomas awarded. For a discussion of the relation between higher arts education and the professional arts sector, see Kunstenpunt, ed. 2019. Landschapstekening Kunsten: Ontwikkelingsperspectieven voor de kunsten anno 2019. Brussel: Kunstenpunt, 155-156.

^[2] Beside their Schools of Arts, these university colleges also organise non-artistic study programmes. The sole exception is LUCA School of Arts, which is a university college that comprises different Schools of Arts and therefore only offers arts education.

^[3] It should be noted that there are no study programmes specialised in circus in Dutch-speaking higher education.

^[4] Professionals in socio-cultural and youth work often follow courses in social-agogical work.

^[5] Graduate courses (‘graduaatsopleidingen’) have been introduced in 2019 as a new category of higher education in Flanders (replacing the older ‘HBO5’ training programmes). These offer more hands-on training than bachelor courses.

^[6] Lecturing in higher (arts) education requires a bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD degree (depending on the type of job), but not necessarily a degree of teacher. Many job offers at School of Arts, however, stipulate a teacher training qualification.

Last update: November, 2020

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.

Last update: November, 2020

Vocational training for professions in arts and culture is mainly provided by the institutions for higher education described in 5.3. Several arts organisations provide masterclasses or guidance for young artists in the making, sometimes in collaboration with Schools of Arts. Continuing education — such as workshops or informal learning trajectories — is offered by a range of private and public organisations. Examples of the latter are the centres of expertise (see 7.2.1) and the funds for subsistence security (see 7.2.2).